The question caught Jovon Robinson off guard.

“This is kind of the beginning of the end for you,” a reporter began, “so what are you going to do this summer in preparation for this season?”

“It’s definitely not the beginning of the end for me, I can tell you that,” Robinson shot back in video interview posted by AL.com.

Robinson, now a senior, went on to explain how much better Auburn will be in 2016, how great it was to be a Tiger.

“Our stock is going up,” he told the site. “… Every year Auburn has a championship caliber team. It’s just seizing the opportunity.”

Robinson will have a large say in whether those expectations become reality in 2016.

He’s been through this before, of course.

Robinson arrived last fall as the top junior college running back in the country, the next in Auburn’s seemingly endless line of 1,000-yard rushers.

It didn’t happen. An early season ankle injury didn’t help, and then Peyton Barber and Roc Thomas quickly passed him on the depth chart. He had just four carries for 20 yards through the first seven games.

Barber’s injury created an opening against Ole Miss, and Robinson ran through it — for 91 yards on 18 carries.

Whatever the issues were — AL.com reported he also was late to meetings — disappeared on that Halloween day, and Robinson finished the season as Auburn’s best back.

He ripped off games of 159 yards, 93 and 99 yards. Alabama held him to 51, but then he torched Memphis for 126 yards, a touchdown and the Birmingham Bowl MVP trophy.

Little wonder that Robinson opened spring game talking about becoming Auburn’s next 1,000-yard rusher.

“I have high goals, high expectations for myself,” Robinson told AL.com. “I’m coming in, I want to be the next 1,000-yard rusher. I would like that title. …

“I feel like last year I was ready for the moment, but this year I’m more prepared. … This year is really about me producing.”

Robinson’s confidence is unmistakable. It comes through in his speech, his mannerisms, the way he answered the question about his last go-around at Auburn.

An off year, in which he ran for just 639 yards and three touchdowns, wasn’t going to slow him down any more than an undersized corner.

“One thing about Jovon, he does not lack for confidence,” Auburn running backs coach Tim Horton told AL.com. “He thinks very highly of his abilities.”

Robinson, for his part, is tired of talking about what went wrong, or didn’t go as well as hoped, in 2015.

He’s moving on.

“I’m definitely looking forward to starting off the season right, playing Clemson, starting off the season on a high note,” he told the Montgomery Advertiser. “After this first game, we’ll definitely see what we’ve got to work with.”

He said the bowl game gave him momentum, which he carried into the spring, which he continued in the spring game.

Not that’s he done. Far from it. He’s just getting started.