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Auburn tight end Ricky Parks (46) is back after spending the 2013 season away from the team. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)

-- Auburn tight end

Ricky Parks

has returned to the team as a walk-on, according to Tigers head coach

Gus Malzahn

.

Parks, who was dismissed from the team last August for an undisclosed violation of team rules before his redshirt freshman season, had worked at H-back behind

Jay Prosch

during spring practice.

"He’s walking on," Malzahn said. "We’re going to give him an opportunity to prove himself.”

reported the news first.

Parks, a former quarterback at Callaway High School in Hogansville, Ga., is listed at 6-foot-4, 263 pounds in his Auburn profile, and he was expecting to see playing time for the Tigers in 2013 before his dismissal.

Asked if Malzahn laid down any parameters for Parks' return, the coach said the conversations about the tight end's return were brief.

"Really nothing other than we‘re going to give him the opportunity," Malzahn said.

Auburn returns both

C.J. Uzomah

and

Brandon Fulse

at tight end, but Prosch is a big loss at H-back. Walk-on

Gage Batten

served as Prosch's backup last season, and the Tigers do have two tight ends committed in

Chris Laye

, a more traditional tight end, and

Jakell Mitchell

, a player who projects as a good receiver at H-back.