This week, AL.com is releasing a five-part series on Auburn's running backs. Read Part 1 on Kerryon Johnson and Part 2 on Kamryn Pettway below.



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Back on March 3, 2013, Gus Malzahn made a key recruiting trip to Prattville, the home of Kamryn Pettway.

By the time the visit was over, Auburn's new head coach had convinced the running back to flip his commitment from Florida State to the Tigers. Pettway's reasoning was simple -- he wanted to attend college a little closer to home and believed he was a good fit for Malzahn's system after rushing for 1,126 yards and 12 touchdowns as a junior.

That fall, Pettway put together an impressive senior campaign with even better stats, bulldozing his way to 1,402 yards and 17 scores on Friday nights. On Saturdays, he watched Auburn become the nation's top rushing offense behind Tre Mason.

The Tigers advanced to the BCS National Championship Game, and Mason declared for the draft three days after Auburn fell to FSU. Pettway signed with the Tigers the following month in February 2014 and envisioned himself fighting for a spot in the new rotation.

"I'll be playing running back," Pettway said right after inking with Auburn. "There's going to be competition. There's going to be somebody to push me and make me work harder."

However, with Cameron Artis-Payne, Corey Grant and Peyton Barber already on the Plains and five-star prospect Roc Thomas on the way, moving the larger Pettway into a blocking role at H-back began making more and more sense. Even to Pettway's former coach Jamey Dubose.

"At the time he wanted to play running back and I told him when he got there, 'Man you're fixing to be the H-back, I'm telling you right now,'" Dubose said. "We would joke about it, and then when I went over (to Auburn) and saw him I said, 'I told you so.'"

Pettway ended up redshirting as a freshman and later moved to H-back, where he split time with Chandler Cox last season. It may not have been his position of choice, but he accepted the move with the realization that it was the quickest way he was going to see the field. He didn't record a single carry in 2015 and only touched the ball twice -- on an 8-yard kickoff return at LSU and a 12-yard reception at Arkansas.

Pettway was expected to remain at H-back this fall before back-to-back-to-back departures left the Tigers with little depth at running back. Barber, the team's leading rusher, declared for the NFL Draft. Thomas transferred to Jacksonville State. On the first day of fall camp, Malzahn dismissed presumed starter Jovon Robinson.

And just like that, Pettway shifted back to running back.

"I guess at the end of the day he got one up on me," Dubose said.

During spring practices when Robinson and Thomas were still on the roster, Pettway spent roughly 25 percent of his time practicing with the running backs in an effort to fill the power running void left by Barber. He flashed his ability in April's A-Day Game, in which he had seven carries for 77 yards, including a 40-yard scamper to open the second half.

Auburn assistant coach Scott Fountain believes Pettway is in "hog heaven" now that he's spending 100 percent of his time in his original spot.

"It feels great," Pettway said after Auburn's first scrimmage of fall camp earlier this month. "The thing I miss most is just touching the ball. Last year I played fullback and helped the team out, but now I'm going back to my natural position. It feels good... I think about it every day. I think about all the things I want to do at running back."

At 6 feet, 240 pounds, Pettway gives Auburn a powerful option who can make plays between the tackles and is tough to bring down. He describes himself as a "big, physical back" who likes to "run through" his opponents.

Dubose said every time he attends Auburn's practices, coaches rave about Pettway's work ethic. Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn recently compared him to Peyton Hillis, the former NFL bruiser he coached at Arkansas.

"I think he'll have great success," Dubose said. "When you have a big back like that you can throw in there too and has some speed, I think he's going to be a huge asset. He's a good fit for Auburn and now he's going to be energized and happier because he's going to be able to tote it a little bit more."

Pettway's biggest competition for the starting running back job is sophomore Kerryon Johnson, who played the position as well as Wildcat quarterback last year. Offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee noted Pettway is "way behind" Johnson in terms of reps, but he's been pleased with what he's seen from Pettway this fall.

"He's instinctive," Lashlee said. "He's natural. I mean, he's a load. He goes North and South as good as any back I've ever seen. It's just a matter of him continuing to get more and more comfortable with all the runs we run and the reads that are within it."

Auburn running backs coach Tim Horton has also been impressed with Pettway's physicality.

"He enjoys the contact part of it," Horton said. "He runs with a good pad level. There's not going to be a whole lot of juking, he's going to go one direction. At the same time he's got a great skill set in terms of catching the football and has been a good pass blocker to this point."

Barber extended Auburn's SEC record of having at least one 1,000-yard rusher to seven consecutive seasons last year. Pettway has made it a personal goal to extend the streak to eight, even if Auburn takes a running-back-by-committee approach this year.

At the end of the day, he's just happy to have the ball in his hands again and is confident he can be a star in the spot Malzahn originally recruited him to play.

"Everybody's shooting for the No. 1 spot, but yeah, I would like to be the 20-carry back," he said. "We know the standards and expectations of (the running backs) so we know we have to step up and help our team. We're coming out each day and competing and getting after it, but we're also helping each other learn and get better."