Like it or not, the Auburn Tigers will be one of the closely watched teams in the Southeastern Conference this season.
For only the third time since 1953, the Tigers will be trying to bounce back after a season in which they won three games or less. The 2012 Auburn team won only three games. That cost Gene Chizik his job in favor of former offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, who took over this time as the team’s head coach. With Malzahn came the expectation of a full-time, full-throttle offense that has Auburn fans excited.
“It was completely different as soon as Coach Malzahn came. It was a new attitude. He started a fire in everyone; it’s really exciting,” senior fullback Jay Prosch said.
“Bringing in the new staff brings in a new attitude for all the players. It has really sparked us. The guys came out with fire and intensity to work hard in practice; it went viral.”
No team was more in need of an attitude readjustment than the Tigers after a 0-8 SEC record a year ago. And perhaps no player will benefit more from Auburn’s change in offensive attack than Prosch, a 6-foot, 247-pounder from Mobile’s UMS-Wright High School who transferred to Auburn after playing for two years at Illinois.
The NCAA allowed Prosch to transfer to Auburn in January of 2012 without having to sit out a year because of family considerations as his mother Iris was battling brain cancer. She passed away the day after the Clemson season-opener.
“Transferring in, I wasn’t really close to any particular guys,” Prosch said. “I was only close to them through football. Then when that happened — when they say ‘AU family’ they mean it — everyone had my back supporting me, and it created a bond I didn’t have before. I really feel like those are my brothers out there.”
Prosch, who was a special teams demon and big-time fullback at Illinois, contributed right away in primarily in a fullback role a year ago. Known for his strength and bruising blocking skills, Prosch finished his junior season with 38 yards on 12 carries and scored two touchdowns. He also caught five passes for 19 yards.
But Prosch never really found his rhythm with the Tigers a year ago. And entering this season, he will share playing time with junior C. J. Uzomah and Brandon Fulse at H-back/fullback/tight end in Malzahn’s offense.
In the spring, Prosch gave an indication that better days were ahead when he was named MVP for the spring.
“It means a lot. It really defines me as a player and everything that I work for, and everything I do is to get an honor like that and for the Coach to say something like that about you,” Prosch said.
Most of the talk about Auburn’s new-look offense centers around the uncertainty at the quarterback position, and Prosch knows that will be a key element for the Tigers’ hopes to improve from last season.
“It’s kinda hard for receivers with timing with different players, but the four guys we’re looking at now, we support them and work with them now,” he said.
Prosch also mentioned the importance of a dual threat at QB in Auburn’s new-look offense.
“It’s extremely critical; you have to have a double threat. You can’t just have a run game. You can’t just have a pass game. You have to have both.”
The Tigers are going to have both this year and one thing you can count on is that Prosch will be ready to do whatever he can — catching passes, running the football or clearing the way for others — to help the Tigers once again be a factor in the SEC West race.