LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — With his unmistakeable southern drawl and lumbering 300-pound frame, Reese Dismukes is difficult to miss, even in a crowded room of star college football players.

His brawn shields a quiet demeanor often reserved for lesser-known players rather than award-winning four-year starters from the SEC.

“It was a crazy ride,” Auburn’s senior center said in an exclusive interview with Saturday Down South on Dec. 10 at the College Football Awards Show. “Four years obviously you turn back and look at the film from your freshman year and (I’m) totally different. You get beat up a lot then. It’s been a rocky road and a heck of a run.”

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On the Plains, the Tigers knew what to expect from Dismukes shortly after he arrived on campus as the nation’s top offensive lineman in 2011. He started all 13 games under then-coach Gene Chizik as a rookie and dominated in the trenches for an eight-win team.

Dislikes trudged through a winless SEC season as a sophomore before blossoming into all-league first-teamer status last fall, helping conference champion Auburn reach the national title game with the nation’s top rushing attack.

Practice sessions, film study and game preparation has gotten much easier with time, and the offseason? Rather typical for a guy raised in Spanish Fort, a coastal suburb of Mobile, Alabama.

“Obviously when I came in I was young and dumb and had a lot of growing up to do,” Dismukes said. “Now I like to play golf, I like to fish and, you know, hang out with friends, just kind of relax. This past semester I got a little more time, but obviously in the offseason, it’s either on the water, in the woods or on the golf course.”

With the awards circuit behind him and bowl practice underway, the consensus All-American will make his 50th career start against Wisconsin on Jan. 1, seeking to book-end his career with his second postseason victory.

“Anytime you’re playing another opponent no matter what conference they’re in, you want to win the game,” Dismukes said. “There’s some pride there being from the SEC, too.”