Zach Clayton calls it “pre-hab.”

Don’t bother looking it up. It’s not a word.

It’s just what Clayton hopes will prevent all the injuries that have stymied his progress over his first four years with the Tigers.

“I feel like I’ve come a long way,” Clayton said. “Just from the injury, everybody knows about that. Just staying healthy and doing the right things to try and prevent the injuries.”

Clayton, in his typical stone-faced demeanor, certainly didn’t appear to be caught off guard by the news that he’d be starting at defensive tackle Saturday against Arkansas State.

He was one of eight seniors named to Auburn’s first-team defense Tuesday, and just one of two players on the unit who did not start a game last season.
Clayton has started once in his entire career.

“One of the best first months” by anyone on Auburn’s team got him to this point, coach Gene Chizik said.

Now it’s all a matter of getting him to the end of the season without the aid of crutches or walking boots.

“We all got our fingers crossed,” defensive line coach Tracy Rocker said earlier in the month. “We put rabbit foots in his roster, chicken legs, all that stuff.”
All the trinkets in the world couldn’t have kept Clayton healthy last season.

He was seemingly snake-bit from the start of the season. He missed the season opener before making appearances in the next three games, but wasn’t at 100 percent after missing parts of camp with a high ankle sprain. He sat out most of October before returning against LSU, only to re-injure the ankle on his first series back. Two missed games later, Clayton was back with the team, but his role was limited.

He simply missed too much time and was too much of a health liability to see regular playing time.

“The injury last year, it was nagging and it was frustrating at times,” Clayton said. “But this season I’ve just got to overcome it and this season hopefully will be injury-free.”

Pre-habbing, whatever it is, might just be his ticket to the finish line.

“It’s not technically rehab because I’m not injured,” he said. “It’s doing things off the field like ankle exercises, just keeping up with that kind of stuff so the injuries don’t sneak up and catch you off guard.”

He picked the perfect time to step up his game and stay healthy. Competition hasn’t been this fierce at defensive tackle in years.

The odd man out to start was senior Mike Blanc, who is listed as Nick Fairley’s backup, though he’s expected to see the field regularly. Behind the veteran trio are freshmen Jeffrey Whitaker and Kenneth Carter, both of whom are expected to make an immediate impact.

If anything, they pushed Clayton harder on the field and harder in the pre-hab room, wherever it may or may not be.

“They’ve come along real quickly, which is what we needed to do,” Clayton said. “They’re learning new things every day.”

Every time Rocker has talked about Clayton this season, a broad smile has crossed his face while he knocks on the arm of the chair. Yes, the pre-hab certainly appears to have helped for now, but everyone needs a little luck to get through a college football season unscathed.

Clayton, especially.

“It might be the first time since I’ve been here that for one whole month he hasn’t been dinged up or banged up,” Chizik said. “I think that plays a huge part in how productive he has been, but right now he is healthy and he’s playing really well. So it’s good to see him at that point.”

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