Auburn veteran safety and team captain Jerrin Thompson knows what a rebuild looks like.

He saw the good and bad at Texas, going from a 5-7 sophomore season under first year head coach Steve Sarkisian to a playoff berth two years later.

Now in his fifth college season, he’s back witnessing the early stages of a rebuild at Auburn. When asked about the rebuild by a reporter on Tuesday, it reminded Thompson of his previous stop.

“This season reminds me a lot of my sophomore year,” Thompson said.

That 5-7 season was highlighted by an overtime loss at home to Kansas, a setback that came during a six-game losing streak.

“Someone has to win, and someone has to lose. At the end of the day, you just keep trying to grind and get better and be the one not to lose,” Thompson said.

Auburn is currently working through a similar skid.

The Tigers have lost four in a row and have yet to win a Power 4 game this season. Many of those games were close too, with three of Auburn’s five losses being by one possession.

Now in his final year of eligibility, Thompson won‘t be on the team for any future success after this season, but remains an advocate for the program’s future success.

“I tell the guys, if you want to go to a place where people really care about you and care about football, don’t let the record or anything like that fool you,” Thompson said. “This is a really good football team. We just haven’t found ways to win.”

Auburn‘s next opportunity to break its losing skid comes in a road matchup against Kentucky on Saturday. Kickoff for Saturday’s matchup is scheduled for 6:45 p.m.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m