Daquan Newkirk enrolled early with the intention of hitting the ground running at Auburn.
But the recent JUCO defensive tackle signee suffered an unfortunate setback on Wednesday.
Gus Malzahn announced on Thursday that Newkirk tore his Achilles heel in practice. He’s expected to be back for fall camp.
“He was off to such a great start. He was doing great in our mat drills,” Malzahn said. “But we expect him to be back in our fall camp and we expect him to be ready to go.”
Newkirk was the No. 14 overall JUCO recruit and the No. 6 JUCO defensive tackle recruit in the 2018 class. The 6-3, 282-pound sophomore was a longtime Auburn pledge at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.
While the injury to Newkirk certainly wasn’t an ideal way to kick off the spring, Malzahn was optimistic about the overall health of his group.
“This is probably the healthiest we’ve been going into the spring,” Malzahn said.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
