K.J. Britt “relentless” in win over Texas A&M

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K.J. Britt “relentless” in win over Texas A&M

Posted Sep 22, 2019

3 minutes

On the occasions a Texas A&M rusher made it past Auburn’s defensive line, they were often met by K.J. Britt.

The veteran linebacker showed his relentlessness and his instincts in No. 8 Auburn’s 28-20 win over No. 17 Texas A&M.

He totaled seven tackles, including four solo tackles and one tackle for loss, leading the linebackers on both sides of the ball.

“He’s relentless,” safety Javaris Davis said. “He’s always relentless. Physical. That’s just him. And I feel like that’s just our whole team mindset, and K.J.’s just a prime example of that.”

As a leader on the defense, Britt has helped the Auburn unit average just 89 rushing yards allowed per game, with the 56 rushing yards given up to the Aggies being the best performance of the season.

“It’s just awesome and something that we’ve been practicing and looking forward to — stopping the run,” Britt said.

Britt attributed a lot of the success to the defensive line, which has been dominating games, but Davis said Britt’s example has also inspired them this season.

Over the past four game, Britt has had 21 tackles with 3.5 tackles for loss, half a sack and a quarterback hurry. He has been by far the most dominant linebacker, and, behind Jeremiah Dinson who has 30, he leads the team in tackles.

“He’s like a leader,” Davis said. “He keeps everybody on board. We just feed off him, feed off one another and play for one another.”

Chandler Wooten, who splits snaps at the Mike with Britt, said Britt also brings energy to the defense. It’s a nice complement to the way he himself contributes as a more laidback voice, Wooten said. The two of them talk football all the time and teach each other because they each do things well that the other doesn’t.

“We really complement each other well,” Wooten said. “That’s why I feel like we’re a good one-two punch.”

He said they’ve been having fun, which is something Britt confirmed after the game.

“I think we did awesome, man,” Britt said. “It was just fun to play football out there today... We just made sure that we played fast and played physical and played Auburn defense.”

As great as they’ve done, Britt thinks they can get even better. They’re “not even close” to their ceiling. There are still mental errors, and they can build upon what they’ve done so far.

“We’re going to eventually hit it, though,” Britt said. “When we hit it, everybody will be like, ‘Ooh.’ But right now, we’ve just got to go back and make sure all the mental errors that we made today, we’ll fix that.”