Trovon Reed Has Finally Found His Home in Auburn's Improving Secondary

AUBURN, Ala. — In three full seasons as a wide receiver, former 5-star recruit Trovon Reed only recorded one career touchdown reception.

In three full games as a brand-new cornerback, Reed has recorded two interceptions.

"I can’t even express how I feel right now," Reed said after his first pick, a leaping grab that took away a potential fourth-quarter touchdown away from San Jose State. "I don't know what to say...I haven’t been this happy in a long time."

Reed's road from highly rated high school athlete to fifth-year college senior has been a long and bumpy one.

When Reed was a junior in high school, his mother Roszaina died of stomach cancer. Eight months later, on Roszaina's birthday, he committed to Auburn over home-state school LSU as Louisiana's top recruit—an ultra-athletic quarterback who was viewed as a future star wideout in then-offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn's hurry-up, no-huddle offense.

"I coached at LSU for three years," Dennis Lorio, Reed's high school coach, told Auburn Undercover's Philip Marshall in 2009. "Eddie Kennison was there. They have the same burst, the same vision, the same sideways movement. Trovon's hands are probably a little better than Eddie's, and Eddie played in the NFL for about 12 years."

After taking a redshirt in Auburn's 2010 National Championship season, Reed hit the field in 2011 as a major part of the Tigers' receiving rotation. But, even with two starts and 10 games of action, he finished with 164 yards and zero touchdowns.

In 2012, Reed scored his first collegiate points with a 40-yard touchdown grab against lowly New Mexico State, one of the only offensive highlights in Auburn's dreadful 3-9 season.

Even as an experienced junior in 2013 with experience in new head coach Malzahn's system, Reed's receiving yards fell for a third straight season. He had not recorded more than two matches in a single game since 2011.

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Reed didn't come close to living up to the hype he received in high school, but he was determined not to fade away as an underutilized senior in Auburn's senior.

Instead of focusing on making catches, Reed turned his attention to stopping them by voluntarily moving to Auburn's secondary as a cornerback, a position he played in high school All-American games.

"I played in the offense, now I had to make a decision for myself and what's best for the team also," Reed said in April. "I wanted to go out and help those guys in the cornerback room."

The Auburn coaching staff announced the surprise change at the beginning of spring practices, and the Louisiana native immediately went to work at breaking into the Tigers' two-deep depth chart. By the end of fall camp, he had locked down the second-string field cornerback spot behind Josh Holsey.

Three games later, Reed has a pair of interceptions, several pass breakups and a new wealth of playing time he did not see as a veteran wide receiver.

"He's made steady progress, and I think now it's to the point we can play him as much as those starters, and that's important," defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson said. "It's good to have depth there now...I think [cornerbacks coach Melvin Smith] has been pleased overall with his progress, and I think a pattern of big plays is going to help his confidence."

Reed was thrown into the fire against Kansas State by having to cover highly touted receiver Tyler Lockett several times throughout last Thursday night's matchup.

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"When I first got over [to the secondary], it was like, 'I can't get beat. I can't get beat,'" Reed told the team's official website after the Tigers' 20-14 victory. "They sat me down and said, 'Sometimes you're going to get beat. You've just got to go to the next play.' They just kept my head right. I always tell him, 'If you've got that much confidence in me, then I can't let you down.'"

Reed didn't let Auburn down—he played a big part in holding Lockett to only 45 receiving yards.

Head coach Gus Malzahn singled him out for praise in his postgame press conference in Manhattan, saying he was pleased with how Reed had transitioned his talents as a wide receiver, especially his speed and ball skills, into his play as a SEC-level cornerback.

"I am very proud of Trovon," Malzahn said. "You are talking about a guy that has not been playing defense since the spring. To go out there and play one of the better receivers in college, he played it pretty well. I was definitely impressed with him. He had the big interception in the fourth quarter that was huge for us."

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Not only has Reed improved his production by making the switch to cornerback, he has also improved the play of the Auburn secondary—the entire unit and individual players.

According to Holsey, Reed brings the mindset of an offensive player to the defensive back meeting room, which helps everyone's awareness and ability to diagnose plays even before the ball is snapped.

"We'll ask him for split rules," Holsey told the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer's Ryan Black. "He'll tell you if a receiver is this far, he's running this. If he's this far in, he's running that. That helps us a lot as a defense by asking him, because he knows sometimes just based off of splits what the wide receiver is going to run."

With all the additional snaps he is getting in a new position, Reed has left the dark days of his first few college seasons behind. He said he is "having fun again" playing football and finally feels comfortable with his role on the team.

Reed knows he doesn't have many more games left on the Plains, but he is focused on finishing his Auburn career on a high note.

"There's an ending to every story," Reed said. "And I'm trying to make this one a dream."

All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. All recruiting rankings and information courtesy of 247Sports. All stats courtesy of CFBStats.com.

Justin Ferguson is Bleacher Report's lead Auburn writer. Follow him on Twitter @JFergusonAU.