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Auburn safety Derrick Moncrief (24) runs by quarterback Jonathan Wallace (12) during a special teams drill in the Tigers' spring practice. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)

--

Derrick Moncrief

is the prototype for the type of defensive back

Ellis Johnson

wants roaming around Auburn's secondary.

Under the Tigers' previous coaching staff, the secondary was populated with speed merchants who had to make up for a lack of size, either in height or weight.

Moncrief's size, on the other hand, instantly makes an impression. Big and rangy at 6-foot-2, 218 pounds, Moncrief fits the physical profile of a weak-side linebacker in the 4-3 defenses the Tigers ran under

Gene Chizik

, but the junior college transfer has begun his Auburn career at boundary safety, part of Johnson's effort to build a bigger secondary.

"He's rotating in there with the first group," Auburn coach

Gus Malzahn s

aid. "He's a long, athletic guy. I've been impressed with his attitude. He's wanting to be coached and he's wanting to play with effort."

Moncrief is trying to make the transition that

Brandon King

couldn't make last season. King was expected to provide instant impact as a junior college safety last season, opened his career at boundary safety, but he struggled to fit there, eventually moved to the Star position and saw most of his action on special teams.

Now Moncrief is getting a chance to carve out his own role on the boundary.

With returning starter

Josh Holsey

held out of contact drills as he recovers from a torn ACL suffered last October, Moncrief has been thrown into the starting lineup next to starting field safety

Jermaine Whitehead

through the first four days of practice.

Moncrief, a Prattville product, built a reputation as a big hitter at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, and he has lived up to the billing early on in practice.

"He’s high energy, flew around to the ball a lot," Whitehead said after the first day of practice. "He’s a big dude. He’s going to help us a lot."

But his physical gifts have never been in question. What will determine Moncrief's playing time will be his ability to pick up Johnson's 4-2-5 scheme, a complicated role for safeties.

In Auburn's defense, the safeties are responsible for providing much of the flexibility in formation from snap to snap, rolling up to the line of scrimmage on one play, dropping into coverage the next, and they're both responsible for making all of the pre-snap calls in the secondary.

Holsey and Whitehead, two of the team's smartest players, emerged as the starters at safety early last season because of their ability to pick up the scheme quickly and run the defense.

Moncrief has attacked the playbook with relish.

"He's learning faster than any other player who has played that position for the first couple of reps he's been taking," hybrid

Robenson Therezie

said. "He's a guy we can count on to replace some of the veterans we had last season."

With Holsey out of full-contact drills this spring, Moncrief is going to get every chance to establish himself this spring.

If Moncrief can emerge as a possible starter at boundary safety or a key rotational player -- similar to the role provided by

Ryan Smith

last season before Holsey's injury -- he would give Johnson a lot of options in the secondary.

Holsey, who started six games at cornerback as a freshman, could move back to the outside to shore up a cornerback group thin on experience behind returning starter

Jonathon Mincy

, allowing Johnson to put a bigger, more physical secondary on the field.

Four practices into his Auburn career, Moncrief is off to a fast start.

"The intensity level is there," Auburn linebacker

Kris Frost

said. "He's attentive in meetings and always willing to learn and willing to get after it every day. I love playing alongside that guy."