As soon-to-be senior fullback Jay Prosch said Wednesday, "Offseasons are always hard."
Nobody would know better than him.
Two years ago, Prosch was on an Illinois team that ran the spread offense. Wanting to be closer to his mother in Alabama and move to a system that better suited his abilities, Prosch made the decision to transfer to Auburn.
After possibly the worst season in Auburn's history, Prosch and the rest of the team are facing even more changes.
However, Gus Malzahn and the rest of the new coaches are working hard to ensure last season doesn't happen again.
That doesn't mean they're talking about it though.
"We're ready to get back on the field, but what I think we're doing this year is really taking it one day at a time," said defensive tackle Jeff Whitaker Wednesday, March 20 at the Auburn Athletic Complex. "We're not saying, 'Hey man we're just so ready for the season to start!' No, we're not ready now. We'll be ready when it gets here. Right now we're just chopping wood."
New strength and conditioning coach Ryan Russell is at the head of the team's offseason workouts and the players sounded thrilled with the workout regimen so far.
"Workouts have been good," said tight end C.J. Uzomah. "They're cranking it up on us, which is good. It's just different (from last year), and that's a good thing."
Prosch, one of the team's premiere "workout warriors," agreed with Uzomah and said he's excited about the teams workouts under Russell.
"It was really exciting when Coach Russell came in, because it was a change as far as how we were going to be working out," Prosch said. "And guys were excited about it. We came out ready to get after it."
Defensive tackle Gabe Wright, offensive tackle Greg Robinson, defensive lineman Dee Ford, Whitaker, Uzomah and Prosch were all on hand Wednesday.
In separate interviews, each player said approximately the same thing: change is a good thing and the team has a positive vibe missing from a year ago.
One of the reason for that may come from the new coaching staff's attention to the team.
Malzahn and his crew have organized numerous team activities, acoording to Uzomah, and are keen on keeping the players both motivated and content.
"We've had a lot of team activities to get to know them more just because it's a new staff, and I think that's helped a lot as far as the interaction between the players and the coaches," Uzomah said.
According to Uzomah, the coaches organized events such as bowling to help the players gel and meetings in which the players are allowed to talk about anything to their newfound mentors.
In addition, Russell's workouts have a merit system in which players strive to earn green jerseys for perfect workouts.
According to Prosch, a green jersey is the highest honor and means that a player showed good effort, finished drills well, presented a positive attitude, and remained alert at all times.
Prosch, Ford and Wright were the first three to win the jersey, but Whitaker said the rest of the team caught on quickly enough.
"If you look at it now, everybody's got the green (jerseys)," Whitaker said.
Uzomah said the team has a "positive morale" and that unison among players is something the 2012 team seemed to lack.
For now, however, Malzahn and his Tigers are only concerned with spring training.
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