Tray Matthews spent last season in an exile of his own making, an entire redshirt season spent working on Auburn's scout team instead of roaming the secondary across the SEC.
A year of pent-up energy with little outlet.
Now that he's eligible again, Matthews is channeling all of that extra energy into learning Will Muschamp's defense, a wild card with star potential making a bid to start at safety.
"He's had that eagerness to learn and eager to get out there with the rest of us and play defense," Tigers cornerback Jonathan Jones said.
Matthews had a lot to prove off the field after his dismissal from Georgia last summer. Two months after Matthews was arrested, along with three other Bulldogs, and charged with theft by deception for cashing scholarship checks twice, a classroom incident forced Mark Richt to cut him loose.
Muschamp is aware of that history.
"A guy that obviously has made some mistakes, learned from his mistake and moved on from those," Muschamp said. "But I've been pleased with his maturity level."
Matthews has earned Muschamp's respect by his dedication to picking up the new scheme. Even before the Tigers started spring practice, Matthews had carved out a constant presence in Auburn's football building.
"Football's important to him," Muschamp said. "He's constantly in the building watching film, asking questions. Works hard on the practice field."
On the field, Matthews instantly brings the kind of physical nature Auburn's safeties have been missing in recent seasons. Matthews is listed at 6-foot-1, 192, but early indications are that the former Georgia safety has put on some muscle during his transfer season.
And he knows how to use it. Matthews has the makeup to be a hitter in Auburn's defense.
"Tray's a very physical player, I saw that in bowl practice, enjoys contact," Muschamp said. "An instinctive player that's played a lot of football."
Matthews, a highly-rated four-star safety out of Newnan High, started six games as a freshman for Georgia and made 36 tackles, including a 12-tackle performance against the Tigers in 2013.
By pairing Matthews with Johnathan "Rudy" Ford, who led the Tigers with 93 tackles last season, Auburn can put an experienced duo in the back end of Muschamp's defense.
So far, the duo have worked well together in spring practices.
"Tray has been great, very physical in contact," Ford said. "He's going to be a great player playing alongside of him. He's going to help us out a whole lot."