Ike Hilliard has no time for appeasement.

He doesn’t know how to do it. He doesn’t want to learn.

Auburn’s new receivers coach, in his first college job after 23 seasons playing and working in the NFL, is a pensive individual who thinks calmly, speaks calmly, disciplines calmly and values rationality. He wanted coaches to be straightforward with him as a player — and now he’s the guy with a whistle around his neck trying to be that guy for his own players.

“I’m unapologetically who I am,” Hilliard said recently. “I can’t be anybody other than me. Now, how I communicate what I need to get across may be a little bit different (in college) … but what I’m teaching and who I am does not change.”

Hilliard’s serenity might be the Tigers’ saving grace considering the mess he inherited. Auburn’s receivers were considered one of the team’s weakest groups last season after struggling with drops, a lack of confidence and a lack of big plays. Then the top returning receiver, Kobe Hudson, hit the transfer portal after a falling out with head coach Bryan Harsin that spilled onto social media.

Hudson now plays for Gus Malzahn at Central Florida.

The mood inside the receivers’ meeting room upon Hilliard’s arrival in February was gloomy at best. Hilliard’s first step in changing the group’s mindset? He encouraged players to simplify how they approached their jobs. Complexity can be the enemy.

“The idea that needs to be adopted here is that they need to change the narrative from what happened last year and years before,” Hilliard said. “We have to get open. We have to catch the ball. In the overall fashion, we have to play better. Those kids — their games are plenty good enough. If they don’t believe that, shame on them. We have to find a way to make sure that … they believe (in themselves).”

Hilliard said he’s been satisfied with the physical improvements Auburn’s receivers have shown during the offseason. Yet he knows there is much work ahead in terms of mental sharpness, which lapsed again during practice Tuesday with a string of drops in some basic skeleton drills.

Receivers weren’t working against a defense. Air was the only impediment.

“These kids don’t understand how to find and narrow their focus on the point of the football. There’s a lot of stuff that needs to be talked through,” Hilliard said. “We’re trying to get to an end goal … we’re working through the process of how to find the ball. We’re going to do it better than we did last year. That’s what I’m going to stand on.”

Coaching ball and seeing his players improve, Hilliard said, is the most rewarding part of his job. It’s good that he finds value there because the job requires much more. Unlike the NFL, which is all about player-coach relationships, college coaches also must help recruit new players to the program and communicate with the families of current players.

Those conversations can be tense, which puts Hilliard in a weird spot.

He doesn’t exactly know how to handle it.

“I come from a place where it is bottom line and that’s all — there is no gray,” Hilliard said. “I’m still trying to find my way in it. Just about every parent thinks their kid is the next greatest athlete in the world. And I get it … (but) some of these conversations are with people that have expectations that are probably unfair for the kids. Because I don’t blow smoke up people’s asses and I have those conversations, it’s been kind of a unique challenge in that regard.”

MORE FROM HILLIARD:

• On LSU transfer Koy Moore: “I’m still working on learning the movement patterns … that he possesses — whether he's a twitch guy in slot or an outside receiver. I can tell you now, the kid’s tough. He's got grit. He understands football, and I love that about him. It's going to be less teaching there in terms of concepts and you know, more spacing, timing with him.”

• On freshman Camden Brown: “He's cut from a kind of an older school work ethic process that, you know, this setup is not foreign to him. He adapted a little bit better and earlier than the rest of the guys. Now, it's just the details with the routes and the concepts and that sort of thing. Strong young human, I can tell you that now. Big body, big frame. Very, very mature for his age.”

• On freshman Omari Kelly: “He can run, he can drop his weight, he can transition. He is an easy mover. I'm working on learning more about the kid because he's also an outstanding baseball player. So, I probably talked to him the least in the process because of his schedule coming through. Really, really talented.”

• On sophomore Tar’Varish “Chick” Dawson: “I see a kid, man, that has an immense amount of talent. He's just stuck in a smaller human's frame. I wasn't a real big receiver in terms of size myself. When I got to college, I was 171 pounds. I left 184 pounds. It's extremely difficult to play the game of football that way. He’s wired to run; he's a lot faster than I thought he was. And it doesn't look like he's moving because he has a slightly different running style than I'm used to.”

• On sophomore Landen King, who moved to wideout from tight end: “It's a different world for him … learning how to bend your knees and understanding that I'm a coach (and) I want to teach transition within two yards, you know, and running your feet and how's your body position relative with the route. We have a learning curve to attack that has very little to do with talent or potential. But the ceiling is high.”

• On junior Ze’Vian Capers: “Zay has a bigger frame than most of the guys in the room. Zay has unique ball skills that are different from most — and we need to get more out of him. It's about day after day after day making more (plays) than you don't.”