Auburn's secondary flashed a new, and peculiar, personnel grouping in practice this week -- and it's one that gives the Tigers some more flexibility in the defensive backfield.

The formation saw Auburn field its top four cornerbacks -- Carlton Davis, Javaris Davis, Jamel Dean and Jeremiah Dinson -- at the same time, according to defensive coordinator Kevin Steele.

"We have the ability to utilize multiple corners, more than one, at multiple positions, either at the Star (nickel) position or the safety position," Steele said Wednesday. "You'll see sometimes where you may see Dinson, Dean, Carlton and JD out there at the same time. It happened today in practice."

That formation likely had Carlton Davis and Jamel Dean at the two traditional corner spots, with Javaris Davis lining up at nickel and Jeremiah Dinson rotating in at strong safety, where he was listed on the second line with Nick Ruffin on Auburn's depth chart this week. Carlton Davis and Jamel Dean are only listed at cornerback on the depth chart, and while Javaris Davis only appears on the two-deep at boundary corner, he spent the preseason rotating between that spot and nickel.

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It's an interesting twist for Auburn's secondary, which enters the season with five corners, including sophomore John Broussard Jr., that it is comfortable with on the field. Freshman Traivon Leonard, who is listed as Carlton Davis' backup on the two-deep, is the next man up behind those five veterans, Steele said.

That versatile look is an interesting way that Auburn's coaches have handled the team's depth issue at safety. While the Tigers have three experienced seniors in Tray Matthews, Stephen Roberts and Ruffin at safety, there's a considerable drop-off in experience at the position after that following the departures of Markell Boston in the spring and Michael Sherwood in the offseason.

"You try to everybody reps when you can here or there," defensive backs coach Greg Brown said. "Maybe if a guy who is an established, maybe you've seen what he can do, you can let him take a few plays off here, step out for a little bit -- maybe one of the younger guys that we don't know as much about -- and have him step up and see what he can do."

Auburn will also lean on Daniel Thomas at both nickel and safety, and while the four-corners look certainly won't be the Tigers' go-to personnel grouping, it provides an intriguing option in which Steele and Brown can get some of their best athletes on the field at the same time and keep other players fresh throughout the game.

"The thing about safety is that if you can play more than one position, and we've got some guys with the ability to play some safety, some nickel, some dime, that's a big deal," Brown said. "That way, you can move parts around. The more you can do that, the better off the whole team is going to be. We've got some guys that can move around."