Maybe there’s somebody else out there that I’m slighting, but Auburn’s A.J. Greene has to be the runaway winner in the SEC as the player nobody even had on the radar to be a starter who’s going to start this season.

The 6-5, 291-pound junior is a great story. He was named Thursday as Auburn’s starter at right offensive tackle. He joins four other seniors who have a combined 108 starts in the offensive line.

According to Auburn’s official web site, Greene has only played in two games during his career, last season against Mississippi State and Furman.

Don’t expect to find much information on Greene in Auburn’s media guide, either. He doesn’t even have his own full-page bio like most of the veteran players.

Greene came to Auburn as a defensive lineman and redshirted his first year.

But with the right tackle job open, he emerged from the shadows this preseason to shoot past junior college newcomers Brandon Mosley and Roszell Gaydon and sophomore John Sullen and will be making his first career start next Saturday against Arkansas State.

“I don’t think there’s any question that he’s one of the most improved on our team,” Auburn coach Gene Chizik said of Greene. “He’s learned a lot of things in the last year. It just appears to me that it meant a lot to him to win that job, and he did.”

Also, Chizik announced Thursday that sophomore Barrett Trotter would be Cameron Newton’s backup at quarterback. Trotter missed last season after tearing his ACL in the spring.