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Auburn defensive back Khari Harding (22) warms up before the LSU game Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013, at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)

Backup Auburn linebacker Khari Harding has decided to transfer to Tulsa, according to both Harding and the Golden Hurricane.

Harding, a former safety who played sparingly in each of his two seasons at Auburn, is originally from Edmond, Oklahoma, which is roughly an hour and a half from his new school.

A member of Gus Malzahn's first signing class at Auburn in 2013, Harding issued a statement thanking the Tigers for the opportunity through his Twitter account on Wednesday.

"Wanna thank Coach Malzahn, other coaches, teammates and all my friends for making Auburn a great experience for my first 2 years in college," Harding said in the statement. "I've gained so much from all y'all, but I had to come closer to home for family reasons. We always (going to be) family."

Harding, a 6-foot-1, 225-pound linebacker, had trouble cracking the playing rotation in his first two seasons at Auburn.

Brought in as a safety in the 2013 class, Harding was initially installed at boundary safety, where he played in two games and made one tackle as a freshman in 2013, in addition to playing time on special teams.

A big hitter, Harding was moved to linebacker last spring, and he had trouble cracking the lineup on defense. Despite making three tackles in three games this season, Harding played just seven snaps on defense in mop-up action against San Jose State, Louisiana Tech and Samford.

Harding will two seasons of eligibility remaining under first-year coach Philip Montgomery.

"We want to thank Khari for his time at Auburn and wish him nothing but the best," Malzahn said in a release.