Keionte Scott dishes with Auburn Live: Culture shift, life-changing moments, preparing for a 'big year' and more

AUBURN — Keionte Scott has a unique perspective on what happened with Auburn football this past fall. There’s an added level of respect for the man in the arena, and Scott, one of the Tigers’ better defensive players this past season, is most certainly that.

From the outside, it was hard to describe at times what we all were witnessing this season.

An Auburn team that fought hard and came close many times in Bryan Harsin’s first season had devolved into a program furiously headed in the wrong direction. Blowout home losses, head-scratching in-game decisions, poor recruiting efforts, the list goes on and on.

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Auburn Live spoke with Scott recently about a wide range of topics. During the offseason conversation, Scott was refreshingly introspective and honest. Given that, one of the questions posed to Scott was, what exactly happened this season? What went wrong?

He certainly had an answer.

“I feel like a lot of the guys felt like there was something wrong,” Scott told Auburn Live. “Throughout the season, I don’t know how it looked on the outside, but on the inside, we were a good team. We, for some reason, couldn’t achieve and get to the point of how good we were. Something was weighing us down. I still don’t understand what it was.”

Scott admitted Harsin “lost the locker room,” saying “it was in plain sight.” Scott talked about a “toxic” culture at times, saying the players knew that it was only a matter of time before Harsin was relieved of his duties. “A lot of guys were just waiting for that moment,” he said.

Following Harsin’s dismissal on October 31, Scott witnessed an almost immediate shift in culture, attitude and enthusiasm around the program he was growing to love. According to Scott, transparency and openness from the coaches increased. Credit interim head coach Carnell Williams for a lot of that. His playing past and connection to Auburn immediately garnered him immense respect.

The way Scott described what came next over the last month of the season was truly eye opening.

“As soon as Coach ‘Lac’ got the job, it was like the parachute got cut off. You felt it. He made us want to play. He made us feel the love for Auburn, and he introduced that Auburn spirit to us,” Scott said. “Before, we were at Auburn, but we weren’t at Auburn. When Coach ‘Lac’ got the job, we were Auburn University football players. This is how this has been and it’s not going to keep going the way it was going.

“He introduced us to the tradition and the way Auburn’s been for years. Before, we weren’t playing for the Auburn family. When the transition happened, it was visible. We wanted to play for Auburn. We were playing for Auburn. There was a lot of playing for the name on the back before Coach ‘Lac,’ but we were playing for the name on the front with Coach ‘Lac.’”

And now starts the Hugh Freeze era. The former Ole Miss and Liberty head coach met with the Auburn team the morning after he showed up on campus after accepting the job. Everyone knows Freeze’s past, it’s no secret. Unlike some critics of Freeze, Scott is entering the relationship with an open mind.

“Knowing his past, that’s something I want to get to know,” Scott said. “Seeing how he went about the situation he was put in and how he managed it. That’s something everyone can learn on. That’s big.”

Scott sees Freeze as “the right fit” for the program, and had some interesting takeaways from Freeze’s first encounter with the team.

“The first time he stepped into the room, he definitely got the respect from the guys,” Scott said. “Seeing how he controlled the room. He’s a man of God. He doesn’t force it upon us, but he lets it be known. I like that. He told us he’s going to work every day to earn our trust. I can respect that. You shouldn’t automatically want respect. He let us know he’ll earn it and we have to earn his also. It’s a two-way thing for him. That’s good to know.

“He’s going to turn things around.”

Keionte Scott’s ‘If you love Auburn, it’ll love you back’ moment

Hailing from San Diego, Calif. and playing junior college football in Utah, Keionte Scott’s knowledge of Auburn was extremely limited when he arrived in August. Listening to Scott speak about his new home, the university, the city, the fans, and the football program he plays for, was enlightening.

“How Auburn has opened up to me, it teaches you so much. I don’t even know how to put it into words,” Scott said.

There’s one specific moment that will forever be engrained in Scott’s memory.

“The Texas A&M game will be with me the rest of my life,” he said.

Following Bryan Harsin’s dismissal, Auburn went on the road and lost to Mississippi State in overtime, as interim head Carnell Williams took over the program. The Tigers came back from 24-6 halftime deficit to actually take the lead 33-30 with a minute left in the game. The effort and new energy displayed by the team, and by Williams, led to a scene the next Saturday inside Jordan-Hare Stadium that nobody that was there will soon forget.

Auburn was 3-6 and losers of five straight football games. Yet, the stadium was sold out. The pregame Tiger Walk mirrored walks that would normally precede top-ten matchups. The energy inside the stadium made it feel like a SEC West showdown with title implications, not two teams with 3-6 records trying to end losing streaks.

Just read how Scott described that atmosphere, and the lasting impact he will have on him. Read it and soak in what that environment and support meant to a kid from California who was experiencing Auburn in its purest form.

“Getting off the bus for Tiger Walk, seeing the fan support, seeing them come behind us and support us the way they did — I was already in love with the program, but that put the cherry on top,” Scott said. “That’s something I’ll never forget for the rest of my life. That was the greatest football moment of my life.”

Scott continued.

“I fed off the energy from them. Everyone did,” he said. “There was never a moment where we thought we’d lose that game. I still gets chills thinking about that game. Tiger Walk was crazy The streets were filled. Student section filled two hours before. It was different. I feel like that’s when it really switched. ‘You love Auburn and it’ll love you back’. That statement was said all year, but that was the moment. If ‘you love Auburn and it’ll love you back’ was a moment, it was that moment.”

‘Big year’ ahead for Keionte Scott

Keionte Scott’s first fall at Auburn was a whirlwind. The top-rated JUCO cornerback arrived at Auburn on August 3. The next day, fall camp began. Scott called it an “odd” situation.

“I was trying to get into the standard of things and how things were going,” Scott said. “I was able to get into that. As the year picked up, it was showing on the field. For me, I was just trying to get into the groove of things.”

To into the “groove” of things, Scott spent as much time possible around veteran coach Zac Etheridge, off-the-field coach Jeremiah Wilson, plus returning experienced players like Nehemiah Pritchett and others. Scott didn’t arrive expecting to be an All-American out of the gate. He knew he’d have to learn the ropes, and that’s exactly what he did.

“I never wanted to be a liability,” said Scott.

By the end of the season, among players that played significant snaps, Scott finished as the Tigers’ fifth-highest rated defensive player according to Pro Football Focus. And while Scott’s personal expectations might have been reserved for his first season at Auburn, that won’t be the case entering Year Two.

“This year coming up is going to be big for me,” Scott said. “I know what’s it’s going to take, I’ve been in the conference, I’ve been in the stadiums, I’ve seen the receivers. It’s just working on my technique and rising to the occasion. I want to get that full year in the program and I’ll be excited for the season.”

The addition of defensive coordinator Ron Roberts and cornerbacks coach Wesley McGriff will be a new variable on Scott’s development. They join Etheridge, who will return as safeties coach. Scott hasn’t met Roberts yet, or dove into his defensive schemes, but that will happen soon enough.

Scott played 629 total snaps last season, with 447 of those coming in the slot, and another 155 coming in the box. He described “in the box” to mean playing in dime packages and moving into the box when there “isn’t a threat” or when there’s “trips to the boundary.”

He hopes to continue his evolution in that slot position heading into his junior season.

“I fell in love with nickel,” Scott said. “I enjoy being able to help in the run and the pass. Most teams we’ve played, the guy in the slot was the guy. It pushes me to be challenged. As a corner, you have the sideline. You’re only going to get certain routes. In the slot, it’s an open book of what you’re going to get. I fell in love with it. I love being in the urn game, set the edge, blitz, the versatility of it. I’m a player that wants to be involved.”

But in the end, Scott is all about what’s best for Auburn.

“I’m a team player,” he said. “If it’s corner, it’s corner. If it’s nickel, it’s nickel. I want to bring Auburn back to its dominance. Wherever I fit into that, I want to be into that. I provide value at both.”