How Marlon Davidson got leaner, faster to dominate final year at Auburn

HOOVER | Marlon Davidson said he's never played a football game without some sort of pain in his body.

Injuries have nagged Auburn's rising senior defensive end — who opted to return for his final year with the Tigers even after favorable grades for his NFL draft stock — since his high school days in Greenville, Ala., but the nicks and bruises have never deterred his effort.

"You're never gonna feel the best," Davidson said Thursday at the 2019 SEC Media Days of playing with injury. "But it's giving 110 percent, and playing hard for the man beside you. Cause like I was saying earlier man, they're my brothers. I give anything for my brothers, anything or a 'W.' I'd give anything for Auburn."

So, Davidson figures if he can't always control his health when it comes to on-field injuries, he'll take charge of the parts of his health he can control.

Davidson is tackling a strict diet this offseason. And the results have blown him away.

"My weight now is 278," said Davidson, who pushed 300 pounds earlier in his career. "I’m lean. I’m benching now, squatting. Doing everything. ... Man, you can pull up a picture from last year and look at a picture now of me, with my shirt off, you’d be like, ‘Man that’s crazy,’ how much of my body has changed by me just doing the little things.

"My body fat now, I came down 5 percent. I gained 5 percent muscle. ... My body fat now is 16 percent body fat. And I mean, I feel way more better now. I really do."

The undertaking has admittedly been one of the toughest of his career. Davidson's had to cut down on trips to his fast-food favorites of Zaxby's and Burger King to confront one of his oldest foes: Vegetables.

"Yeah, I had to give up a lot of fried foods, man," Davidson said. "I’m just taking it way more serious now. You know, I used to hate greens. Like, I didn’t like greens at all. I couldn’t eat salads. I couldn’t eat those types of things. And I’m from the country so I mean like that’s the only thing you really had."

His master plan allows for cheat days, though. Thursday was one of those days, as a shiny Three Musketeers candy bar nested in his jacket pocket. But make no mistake: Davidson has seen the light, and he's serious about changing his body.

"Now I’m starting to do that more often and it’s starting to fuel my body more," Davidson said. "It’s starting to like — how can I say this? Like bringing all my joints together, to be honest. My body feels way better now than it did when I wasn’t eating it.

"I feel like I’m at my all-time high right now. I feel like if I played today — I don’t know, I’d probably have a historic game. That’s how good I feel about eating greens and taking my nutrition serious and just being great."

Davidson is pairing the improved diet with an "chest-busting" workout plan, devised by Auburn strength and conditioning coach Ryan Russell.

Davidson pops out of bed at 6 a.m. sharp each morning, occasionally hitting his sleeping roommate — All-SEC defensive tackle Derrick Brown — on the arm before heading out the door: "He ain't got to do nothing. It's just to make him mad."

The workouts with Russell have made Davidson's first step off the snap quicker, he said. That's been a big goal for the defensive end since last season, when he was constantly frustrated with his inability to get home on sacks.

"I mean, I've been tackling a dummy every day," Davidson said. "... Just trying to just wrap up on the quarterback. I'm missed as least two other sacks last year. I mean it's just, I would say it was heartbreaking, but you know just got to go and bounce back and be like, 'Man, it's a better opportunity this year. Just finish this year. Leave your legacy now. Leave it like you were supposed to.'"

Davidson's fellow media days representatives — left tackle Prince Tega Wanogho Jr. and Brown — both agreed that the slimmed down Davidson is one of the most athletically intimidating defenders they've played across from and beside, respectively.

But Brown knows his job is still to keep his best friend and roommate humble.

"He's leaner," Brown admitted. "I'm still gonna say he's fat."