Auburn's defense closed spring on a high note by outshining the offense on A-Day and has brought the same level of intensity to fall camp.

Kevin Steele, the program's third defensive coordinator in four years and fourth in the last five years, has been pleased with what he's seen from his players at the start of fall camp.

"All in all, we got a good start," Steele said, "but we got a long way to go. A long way to go."

As is the case in spring, the first stage of fall camp is about installation, acclimation of new players and serves as a bit of a refresher for veterans.

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Senior defensive back Rudy Ford, who has led Auburn in tackles the past two years, said the defense is all "on the same page" at this point.

"Everybody knows our defense now and (there's) not a lot of confusion going on," Ford said. "So everyone's doing more keying in on their jobs and we got a lot more playmakers coming along."

In many ways, Auburn's defense has only one way to go. Even with a stronger finish than start to last season, the Tigers ranked in the bottom four of the SEC in nearly every statistical category.

Obviously the hope is to avoid a repeat performance.

"(The goal is) just being better than last year, for real," junior linebacker Tre' Williams said. "Everybody's got to get to the ball, everybody's got to make plays. We're going to make it more about the defense than individuals because if we all do good the individual things will come. So if we'll accomplish everything as a whole defense, we'll be very successful."

A key to improvement will be consistency, which doesn't come during the first week of fall camp when new players are learning the system and returning players are getting a bit of a refresher before two-a-days and scrimmages begin.

Steele likes what he's seen at the onset.

"I think the guys came back in very good shape with a very good attitude," he said. "They've got a lot of want-to, but we're trying to make things hard on them, really hard on them, and make sure that through the course of the process they develop mental toughness and physical toughness, all in getting extreme knowledge of the game. So there's a lot on them right now in that regard.

"We make progress in certain areas and then other areas we've got to keep improving. And then the next day it will flip back the other direction where we focus we seem to get improvement, and if you let something slide you got to readjust it."

For as difficult a stretch as the past 19 games has been for the Auburn defense, there are plenty of older players who were part of the 2013 SEC Championship team who know what success looks like and what it takes to attain it. It's up to those seniors to help the Tigers get back to being a defensive force in the SEC.

"If you haven't really (done) it, it's kind of hard," senior defensive tackle Montravius Adams said. "But being on a team that, when I came in my freshman year and we did it, I think it's easier for the players to understand and be able to listen to, because you've been there and you already did that. ...

"If you listen to the coaches and follow your leaders, the sky is the limit. We can do whatever we want to do."