Gus Malzahn Focused on 'Fresh Start' as Auburn Begins Crucial 2016 Spring

AUBURN, Ala. — When Gus Malzahn landed in Auburn as its new head football coach in December 2012, he proclaimed that it was "a new day" for the program.

Now, a little more than three years after that introductory press conference on the Plains, Malzahn is preaching a similar message.

"It's a new year," Malzahn said Tuesday. "From a coaching standpoint, especially a head coach's standpoint, you evaluate the things from last year that you need to improve on, and we know what they are and we are going to go out there and redeem ourselves."

Coaches often like to remind their teams that the beginning of a new season is a fresh start. But when Malzahn tells his Tigers just that as they open a pivotal 2016 spring camp, it carries more weight than his standard brand of coachspeak.

He means it. He wants it. Most importantly, he needs it.

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Malzahn and Auburn have gone 15-11 since playing for the final BCS National Championship as SEC champions at the end of his first season in charge. His patented no-huddle offense ranked 94th nationally in yards per game last year, as the defense didn't live up to high expectations.

The word "new" was repeated quite often in Malzahn's annual pre-spring-practice press conference. It's quite fitting for a team that will have a new defensive coordinator, four new position coaches and up to 11 new starters—not counting a possible new starter at quarterback.

That all-important quarterback job is the one position at which the Tigers need the hard reset the most. The heavily hyped Jeremy Johnson struggled in a huge way at the beginning of 2015, and replacement Sean White finished the season with worse passing numbers.

But it's a new year.

"Both of those guys are looking forward to a fresh start during spring," Malzahn said. "Both of them are looking to compete. ... Jeremy's done a good job of putting last year, and even when he was successful the previous two, behind him. He is laser-focused moving forward.

"I think there is some freshness with that. And he's got that look. Sean has got that look, too."

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As Johnson and White look to redeem themselves from the inconsistencies of 2015, they'll face their biggest competition in JUCO transfer John Franklin III—the early favorite to win the starting job for 2016.

After all, Malzahn ushered in his successful "new day" for Auburn in 2013 with Nick Marshall, another JUCO quarterback with similar size and playing style.

It hasn't taken long for Franklin's new teammates to spot the comparisons between him and Marshall.

"He's really athletic and really fast," senior receiver Marcus Davis said Tuesday. "I think he'll do a great job with the zone read. ... [Arm strength] is something people overlook with Franklin, I'd say, because he's more of a runner. But he has a really big arm. He can make that big throw."

If Malzahn decides to go back to a run-first system based on zone reads—a staple that new offensive line coach Herb Hand introduced to him while they were assistants at Tulsa—Franklin could be the face of that much-needed fresh start on offense.

In order to get a clearer picture on the new-look quarterback situation, Malzahn said the staff could take a page from the camps before the 2013 SEC championship season by letting the signal-callers take hits in practice—something it didn't do last spring with Johnson.

"My experience is the longer spring goes on, you put the guys in different situations, and I’m not going to rule out the chance of going live in spring," Malzahn said. "We did that two weeks before our season in 2013, and it cleared up things in a hurry."

That sense of a clean slate at quarterback should ripple through the rest of the roster this spring.

Auburn's receivers, who are looking for a new leader after the departure of Ricardo Louis, took the field Tuesday for the first time under new position coach Kodi Burns. True freshman Kyle Davis impressed in the media viewing period with his size and smoothness for a newcomer.

"He looks great," Marcus Davis said. "Even before spring ball, going out and catching with him, you could tell he was really talented. I think he'll really be able to help early."

The offensive line, which will break in two new starting tackles this fall, went through its first practice under Hand. The now-eligible Texas transfer Darius James, who lined up in drills at first-team right tackle, drew high praise from fellow tackle Robert Leff.

"I think you'll be able to see him dominate some people this year," said Leff, who was the No. 1 left tackle during the media viewing window. "I've certainly seen it at practice. ... I could definitely see myself starting with him on the line."

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On defense, the Tigers bring back a good amount of experience everywhere except for linebacker, which took an added hit when veteran JaViere Mitchell decided to leave the team before the start of camp. But Auburn is looking at that as an opportunity for newcomers to shine under new defensive coordinator Kevin Steele.

"We feel good about these young guys, and there’s nothing better than getting reps in the spring, and all of those young guys are going to have an opportunity to show what they can do," Malzahn said.

Another new aspect of this Tigers team heading into a crucial 2016 season is expectation—or the lack of it, as senior defensive tackle Montravius Adams noted Tuesday evening after practice.

When it comes to respect after a mediocre 2015 season, these Tigers know they'll have to "Earn It"—the team's motto for 2016.

"We're not going to be ranked in the Top 25," Adams said. "It's just like when I came in here in 2013, before the 3-9 season. We've got to earn everything we want. We're the only ones who have expectations for us."

All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Justin Ferguson is a National College Football Analyst at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.