AUBURN, Ala. – Fifth-year senior Mike Horton is one of the veteran leaders on the 2019 Auburn football squad. He's enjoyed a productive career on the Plains that has featured plenty of signature victories, but he's not looking at the past. He's laser-focused on the goal for his final season.
"I want to win a championship," Horton said. "That's all I'm focused on. I've been here five years, and that's my ultimate goal right now. I'm putting myself aside and putting the team ahead of myself."
Horton isn't the only one with this mindset either. He says that the entire team has embraced this dream, and it ties in with there motto for this year: Ride for the Brand.
That brand of Auburn football is what Horton and his teammates have been working toward for years, and he believes this group is more focused on success than any team that he's been a part of before.
"Everybody is committed to our goal, putting the team's needs before our personal needs," Horton said. "We have guys with huge accolades and potential honors, but they're not even focused on that -- everybody is focused on making the team better and achieving our goal of reaching a championship."
Horton wasn't always the senior leader that he is today. He's had to overcome various obstacles in his career that have made him mentally stronger. In 2017, after finally earning a starting spot, his season was all but lost due to a high-ankle sprain he suffered at the midway point.
"Two years ago was my first start," Horton said. "During the Ole Miss game, I got hurt. I started one game after that, and then I never started again because of my injury."
Though the injury limited him for the majority of his sophomore season, Horton came back with a fervor last year, starting all 13 games at right guard and playing on an offensive line that steadily improved throughout the year.
"I still wasn't 100% (for 2018) but learning how to play through it and learning how to trust yourself was the biggest thing for me," Horton said. "It wasn't a major injury, but mentally, it messed me up a little bit. I started to doubt myself. So coming back that next year and starting the whole year and playing every game, it gave me my confidence back."
It was during that 2017 season that the Tigers mounted a late-season comeback that featured victories against two No. 1 teams, Georgia and Alabama, and a trip to the SEC Championship game. But during the first half of the season when Auburn lost two of its first seven games, the goals of a championship seemed out of reach. Horton and his teammates started asking themselves, "Now what are we playing for?"
"We had to push through that and win as many games as we could and get a good bowl game," he said. "Going through that made me a better leader because I know what to do now when we're down. I know how to elevate my teammates and keep their spirits up."
As he embarks on his final season at Auburn, Horton's advice to the underclassmen is simple.
"Don't let everything overwhelm you. Just take it one day at a time."
Horton, who has earned spots on the SEC Academic Honor Roll along with Auburn's list of Academic Top Tigers, plans to graduate next May with a degree in industrial and systems engineering. But should the NFL call his name after this season, he'll be ready.
"It would be a huge honor and blessing to play in the NFL and be able to provide for the people I love," he said.