AUBURN, Ala. – When Auburn opens the season against Oregon on Saturday, the Tigers will be breaking in not one but two new starting quarterbacks.
Sure, there's Bo Nix, the true freshman who won the starting job in fall camp and will lead the offense out on the field. But there's also K.J. Britt, the quarterback of the defense, who is expected to make his first start at the middle linebacker position.
"That middle linebacker has to be a guy that communicates," Auburn linebackers coach Travis Williams said. "He has to be a guy that if the defensive lineman is not in his gap, you have to get down there and slide him in his gap. I think it's the most important position on the field defensively because you've got to quarterback."
Fans have grown accustomed to seeing Deshaun Davis as that quarterback on defense. They've see him patrolling the defense, directing teammates where to go and always having a knack for being in the right place at the right time to make a tackle. As a three-year starter, he finished with 266 career tackles, the fourth-most at Auburn since 2000.
But Davis is gone. As much as fans wish No. 52 was suiting up for Saturday's game, Davis is hoping to be playing on Sundays this fall with the Cincinnati Bengals.
As good as Davis was, Britt doesn't want to be Deshaun Davis. He doesn't wake up in the morning and say, "Well Deshaun did this, so I have to do this."
"I'm different," Britt said. "Deshaun was his own player, and I'm my own player. I just like to play my game. I believe that I've always been a leader – it's just my time now. Deshaun had a lot of great leadership, and I believe that I was born with a leadership mentality. I really, truly believe that. I think God gave me that gift. I try to make sure that it's seen."
"Both are natural-born leaders," added Williams. "Last year, for example, we voted captains and Deshaun was unanimous. And then K.J. walked through the door as a leader."
It's true. Britt has always been a leader. He was that way in high school, in middle school, even in elementary school, and now those same traits have carried over into college where he's about to lead one of the top defenses in college football this season.
Just don't mention that to senior defensive lineman Marlon Davidson.
"I still try to tell him, 'Hey, this is my team,'" Davidson joked during fall camp. "I still throw that in there, that this is my team and you are not going to run my team. But K.J., man, he's an alpha. Every day, he's going to try to be the alpha."
For Britt, leadership is so much more than just being that alpha on the football field. It's more than what happens on Saturdays or in practice. It's being there for your teammates on and off the field. It's giving them a ride home after practice. He started bringing T.D. Moultry to church with him, and Moultry has since been baptized at that church. According to Williams, he taught defensive lineman Tyrone Truesdell how to drive.
"The kid is special," Williams said. "But his parents are special. They're just good people. He's a kid that when he leaves as an Auburn man, he's going to be one where you say, 'Okay, I remember K.J. Britt. He was a great player, but this K.J. Britt was a great person.' And it's important to him, very important."
On Saturday, when everybody is talking about Nix making his first start, it will be easy to forget about the other starting quarterback on the defense. But this is not something that Britt is taking lightly. He knows just how special it is to start at linebacker for Auburn.
"That's big," Britt said. "That's the reason I came to Auburn. I didn't come to Auburn just to practice. I came to Auburn to play. This is my dream. This was my dream when I was getting recruited. This was my dream when I was in high school. And my dream isn't going to stop here. I have to fulfill my dream and try to be successful at the job."