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Matthews takes pride in being team leader

AUBURN | Tray Matthews has come a long way in three years.

Matthews was dismissed from Georgia in the summer of 2014 after playing in the secondary as a true freshman the previous fall. Now, he enters his senior season as one of Auburn’s most important team leaders.

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“Tray is our defensive leader. He's probably our team leader. I'm very proud of him,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. “He's a transfer that came over. He had to earn everybody's respect — teammates' respect, coaches, really my respect — and he did that and then some.

“To have a chance to win championships you've got to have great leaders. Right now, I would say our leadership is as good as it's been since I've been here and he's a big part of that.”

Matthews gives Auburn's defense an enforcer on the backend.
Matthews gives Auburn's defense an enforcer on the backend. (Robin Conn/AuburnSports.com)
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Malzahn selected Matthews as one of the three players to represent Auburn at SEC Media Days two weeks ago.

“It means a lot. It's a very humbling experience,” Matthews said. “It just shows how God works in mysterious ways because I ended up here. It changed my whole life around. I'm able to be around great coaches like (Malzahn) and Coach (Kevin) Steele, who has changed my game tremendously. I'm very fortunate.”

Matthews was involved in at least one off the field incident at Georgia after being charged with theft by deception in March of 2014 for cashing University stipend checks twice.

After transferring to Auburn, he had to sit out the 2014 season. He started every game as a junior and led the team with 76 tackles.

“It was a process but I trusted the process and kept my faith in God. I knew everything was going to workout for itself. I knew I was going to get everything back on track,” he said.

“I'm the type of guy that never gives up,” he added. “If I fall down a million times, I'm going to get back up.”

Matthews, who has graduated and is working on his master’s in education, also feels like he’s made a lot of progress on the field.

“I take pride in everything I do,” Matthews said. “I've put in a lot of work, a lot of late nights, a lot of hard times, and everything is just finally showing up. I'm very proud of myself and I'm going to continue to try and get better just for the team.”

Auburn's preseason practice begins Monday with the season opener against Georgia Southern Sept. 2 set for 6:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network. Matthews has just one goal for his final season of college football.

"I want a championship," he said. "That's what it all comes down to, the ring."

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