If you’re a fan of the Auburn Tigers, the start of the 2014 season feels eerily similar to the start of Gus Malzahn’s first year on the Plains.

Yes, Auburn entered as a preseason top-five team and remains at its No. 5 spot in both the Coaches Poll and Associated Press Top 25 after three weeks of the season. But the Tigers are the only team in the top six yet to receive a first-place vote and are the second, sometimes third team brought up when discussing the SEC West race.

The Tigers almost seem to want it that way.

“Nobody talked about us last year; it’s fine with me,” Malzahn said on Monday. “Our goal is that they’re talking about us at the end and that’s really the only thing on our mind. We don’t get caught up in predictions and this and all that. Our goal is to get better each week and our goal is to try to repeat as SEC champs, so all that other stuff we don’t get too caught up in one way or another.”

Malzahn’s team travels to Manhattan, Kan. on Thursday night to face No. 20 Kansas State in a nationally-televised game on ESPN’s Thursday Night Football. He feels it will be a good measuring stick for this year’s team.

“We’ve got a big test on the road this week, playing a top-20 team,” Malzahn said. “It’ll be a good measuring stick to see where we are as a team this year.”

The Tigers return a bulk of its 2013 SEC Championship team that lost in the final seconds to Florida State in national championship game. Many circled this game when it appeared on the schedule last year, but Malzahn feels good that a lot of guys have played in tough road games before.

“I think it’s very important [having experienced veterans on the road],” Malzahn said. “A lot of our guys played in road games that were hostile last year and we’re hoping that will help.”

A bye week has helped the Tigers stay in its game week routine for the Thursday night kickoff. The Tigers are viewing today as Thursday of a normal week. The team will practice in shells today and travel on Wednesday. Malzahn said they’ll do a stadium walk-through on Wednesday to ease his team into the environment.

“We would like for them not to see it for the first time on game day,” Malzahn said. “It will be the first time for all the guys who will be playing a game there. We want them to be familiar with where the 25-second clocks are and all.”

Still, there’s plenty for which coaches need to plan.

“We’ve got some new guys with us who will be experiencing a road game for the first time,” Malzahn said. “From a coaching standpoint, you worry about the noise and environment, but the good news is we have our center back and our quarterback back. That’ll definitely help. It’ll be a good test of going on the road. That’s one of the tougher places in college football to play so we’ll see what happens.”