In press conferences this week with both players and head coach Bryan Harsin, Ladarius Tennison received praise for his role as starting safety against Texas A&M. Tennison started for the Tigers in the absence of sophomore Zion Puckett, who was out due to injury.
“I knew he had it in him the whole time. He just needed an opportunity to go out and show what he can do,” said senior safety Smoke Monday. “He went out and showed that he’s capable of doing the job and capable of coming in and helping the defense in a big way.”
Tennison recorded six solo tackles and assisted in two more, a season high of eight total tackles that helped Auburn hold the Aggies offense without a touchdown.
“I feel like he really maximized his opportunity this week and I feel like you’ll see a lot more of him coming up,” Monday said. “I feel like he will continue to make an impact on this defense.”
Hall said a major factor in the Auburn defense will be building depth in practice, coming off of a successful shutout of the Texas A&M offense and facing Mississippi State’s air raid approach from quarterback Will Rogers.
“At the end of the day, I feel like we’ve got a lot of guys on the team who can help us,” Monday said. “We’ve just got to put them in the right position to go out and make plays.”
Harsin spoke previously about the importance of players filling in due to injury when Killian Zierer filled in for an injured Austin Troxell. Tennison put up the numbers of a starter and Derick Hall said that his drive and effort came as no surprise to his teammates.
“Since day one, [Tennison] came in, he’s a smaller guy but he’s really rocked up," Hall said. "He’s a really good player. A smart guy. Works really, really hard in his technique and fundamentals. That was nothing new for us. He does prepare like a starter, like a pro. He does everything the right way.”
Despite a penalty on kickoff that Harsin said a starter likely would not have picked up, the head coach was impressed by his safety’s effort when asked to step up.
“He showed that he can play physical. He showed that he can play fast. He showed that he’s going to go out there and be a guy that gives great effort,” Harsin said. “We clean up a couple decisions that he had, but when you’re playing hard like that, sometimes things happen.
“I’ll take the relentless effort out there from a guy playing fast and he did a good job stepping up.”
Puckett’s status for Auburn’s game against Mississippi State is unknown, so Tennison may have a second opportunity to make a difference in the Tiger secondary.
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Callie Stanford is from Springville, Alabama and is currently a sophomore at Auburn. She has been with The Plainsman since January 2021.
Twitter: @Stanford1Callie
