Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze had a positive update on the status of defensive back Keionte Scott. He is expected to play in the upcoming game against Vanderbilt on Saturday.

Scott was limited to punt return duties in the Tigers 24-10 win over Kentucky due to tweaking his ankle in practice during the week, per Freeze.

While he showed progress throughout the week, Scott did not participate on defense as a precaution.

“And just felt like, let’s try to get him healthy for the stretch run. That was it,” Freeze said.

The injury came at the start of Wednesday’s practice. It kept him out of action for that day and Thursday.

“They decided it was best to stay with the rotation we had. They only had to play 52 snaps of real football, so didn’t tax them too much.”

Scott returned two punts for a total of 17 yards in Auburn’s win over Kentucky.

Throughout the season so far, Scott has made 15 tackles. Since joining Auburn via the transfer portal prior to the 2022 season, Scott has recorded 112 tackles, six tackles for loss, one sack, 10 pass deflections and an interception.

Before arriving on the Plains, Scott played two seasons of Juco ball for Snow College in Ephraim, Utah. Scott has made a difference for Auburn since he arrived.

The defense managed to get by without Scott, putting on a solid performance overall. They picked off Kentucky quarterback Brock Vandagriff twice and held them to 224 yards of offense. Auburn’s defense fully shut down the running game, holding Kentucky to 70 yards from the ground.

However, with a tough opponent in Vanderbilt coming up, as strange as that can be to say, they’re going to need to be as healthy as they can be. This team gave some of the top teams in the SEC a hard time. With the tables turned Auburn now has to show they aren’t a guaranteed win.