John Davis inherited a team that went winless in 2015, but his punter insisted he was going to be a Division I player.

Aidan Marshall was set on going to Auburn, where his parents went to school and where his older brother, Nick, is a student.

"I'm taking over an 0-10 football team, there's no way we got a kid on this team that's going to be starting at Auburn in a year," Davis recalled thinking when he took over at John Handley High School in Winchester, Va. in 2016. "He was telling me 'I'm going to go to Auburn. I'm going to be the starting punter at Auburn. I'm going to walk on and I'm going to start as a freshman.' That was the first thing he told me when he met me."

Marshall had ample opportunity to punt during his senior season, when he averaged 44.5 yards and had 17 punts inside the 20-yard line, according to Davis. At the Virginia All-Star game, Marshall had a punt go 66 yards - 53 in the air, according to Davis - and was downed at the 1.

"The ball always boomed off his foot," Davis said. "There were many a time where he would outkick our coverage. ... We punted a ton. He definitely led the state in punt attempts."

The strong senior season and a good performance at a Chris Sailer Kicking camp in the summer of 2016 earned Aidan Marshall more interest.

Despite a scholarship offer from James Madison and interest from Michigan State, West Virginia, Ole Miss and Liberty, Marshall had his mind set. When former Auburn special teams coach Scott Fountain offered him a chance to be a preferred walk-on after Marshall won a punting camp at Auburn with a 68-yarder during the summer of 2015, according to his father Tim, Aidan's mind was made up.

"This was against my advice," Davis said. "Obviously as a coach I'm telling him, 'Let's hear what everybody has to say.' Every coach that came in and wanted to talk to him it was, 'No, I'm going to Auburn,' and he never wavered."

Marshall stuck to his plan and was so intent on competing for the starting job this season he headed to the Plains within an hour of graduating high school.

"Coach (Gus) Malzahn asked if he could start (practicing) during the summer," Tim Marshall said. "He hadn't graduated about a half an hour and we headed down Interstate 81 and they had a meeting on Sunday."

Marshall competed for the starting job during fall camp and after redshirt-sophomore Ian Shannon struggled with consistency through the first four games, took over in last week's win over Mississippi State with three punts averaging 36.3 yards with two inside the 20. He's likely going to remain in the role for No. 12 Auburn against Ole Miss on Saturday.

"He's been in the competition but as of late, he's been very consistent," Malzahn said. "I thought he did a very good job (against MSU). I didn't think the moment was too big and I thought he did a solid job."

James Crepea is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @JamesCrepea.