Alex Golesh suspends star linebacker Xavier Atkins for Auburn-Georgia game
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Alex Golesh suspended Auburn star linebacker Xavier Atkins for this Saturday’s SEC showdown at No. 1 Georgia.
When the Tigers head to Athens for the Week 7 matchup that kicks off at 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN, they won’t have one of their best defensive players. Golesh announced during his press conference on Monday that Atkins would not play against the Bulldogs, which means the junior that already has 26 solo tackles among his 37 total tackles to go with 3 sacks won’t be available against the high-powered Georgia offense.
Atkins, who also has an interception as well as 7.5 tackles-for-loss this season, has been an issue off the field for Auburn this season, according to a report by Justin Hokanson, who covers the Tigers for On3.
“Internal discipline issues persist with Atkins,” reported Hokanson on Monday.
Hokanson also reported on Friday that Atkins “remained on the team,” but Golesh announced 3 days later that he was suspending his first-team All-SEC linebcker who is in his second season with the program after spending the 2024 season with LSU.
“We will be without Xavier Atkins this week. We’ll revisit it next week when we meet again on Monday in here. Keep it in house in terms of anything beyond that, and that’ll be the only piece of it that I’ll be addressing,” Alex Golesh told reporters on Monday. “He won’t be with us this week for the game on Saturday. We’ll revisit early next week when we meet again here.”
With Auburn missing one of its top players this Saturday in Athens, the challenge against the top-ranked team in the country will be that much greater. Here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about the Tigers’ chances to pull the shocker against Georgia in Week 7:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
