Owen Pappoe has one vital piece of advice he’d pass down to his younger self, if time travel was possible.

“Be ready for change, man, because you never know what could happen,” Pappoe said.

Pappoe and his former Auburn teammates who joined him in Indianapolis this week for the NFL Combine are no strangers to change. They endured their fair share of it during their time on the Plains — two head coaching changes, three defensive coordinators and multiple positions coaches over a challenging four-season stretch.

Read more Auburn football: Timing of finding out about Hugh Freeze’s interest in Auburn job “kind of hurt,” former Liberty wide receiver says

Has Georgia surpassed Alabama for college football supremacy? NFL Draft prospects weigh in

Former Auburn kicker chimes in on NCAA’s proposed change to “icing” rule

Pappoe and his fellow defensive draft prospects signed with Auburn when Gus Malzahn was head coach. They saw Malzahn get fired after the 2020 season, with Kevin Steele named interim coach before Bryan Harsin was tabbed as his replacement. Then they watched as Harsin’s tenure was cut short after less than two seasons and an overall losing record, with Cadillac Williams named interim head coach for the rest of their final season on the Plains. Add in the revolving door at defensive coordinator: Steele in 2019 and 2020, Derek Mason in 2021 and Jeff Schmedding last season, as well as a slew of positions coaching changes. The linebacker corps was coached by Travis Williams in 2019 and 2020, Schmedding in 2021 and Christian Robinson last season. The defensive line went from Rodney Garner to (briefly) Tracy Rocker, then Nick Eason in 2021 and Jimmy Brumbaugh. On the edge, they went from Bert Watts in 2021 to Roc Bellantoni in 2022.

While the extent of those changes was challenging in real time for Auburn’s players, who didn’t get much year-to-year continuity during their careers, Pappoe and fellow former Auburn standout Derick Hall found a silver lining in the uncertainty of it all.

“What’s good about that… it’s going to be able to show teams I can adapt quickly,” Pappoe said “Even in the league, it’s a revolving door all the time, so even throughout this, I learned that all defenses are very similar; the languages are just different.”

RELATED: Owen Pappoe out to prove at NFL Combine why he’s nicknamed “The Freak”

Pappoe added that even in high school, change was a constant for him, as he played for three different head coaches. At Auburn, the changes in coaches and schemes meant varying roles for him, even at linebacker, where he was a Day 1 starter as a freshman in 2019. That year, under Steele and Williams, Auburn’s Mike and Will linebackers alternated sides of the field. Under Schmedding last season, the linebackers were more stagnant in their alignment, with Auburn shifting its safeties around more often.

“It’s going to be able to show teams I can adapt quickly,” said Pappoe, who impressed at the NFL Combine with a 4.39 in the 40 and 29 reps on the bench press, both of which were tops among linebackers.

For Hall, a projected late-first round pick, the multiple coaching changes helped him become a more versatile player off the edge. Along with developing into Auburn’s top pass-rusher the last couple of seasons, and one of the top players at his position in the SEC, Hall got to work on his coverage skills more under both Mason and Schmedding.

That experience, he believes, will help boost his NFL Draft stock as he tries to become Auburn’s highest-selected player since Derrick Brown went seventh overall in 2020.

“When you’re a guy who’s very versatile and have an opportunity to do a lot of different things, it’s really put on you,” Hall said. “So, really trying to — I feel like that suits me well in learning a defense, being able to do a lot of different job and move around to a lot of different positions… It’s a lot of good things there.”

RELATED: Derick Hall on his best NFL trait: “They pay the guys to get (quarterbacks) on the ground”

Colby Wooden can attest to the value of versatility. Wooden started out as a 6-foot-4, 239-pound Buck/edge rusher when he signed with the Tigers. After redshirting in 2019, Wooden put on more than 40 pounds over the next three seasons while moving around on Auburn’s defensive line, where he saw time at defensive end and defensive tackle and even provided some depth off the edge last fall.

“Being recruited as a defensive end, I thought that was my initial home, then when they asked me to bump inside, I had to learn that one,” Wooden said. “So, rushing outside was more natural to me, but being more inside and spending more time getting more reps inside, it allowed me to work on the inside and being able to pass rush from the outside and the inside.”

Now as he prepares for the NFL Draft, that ability to play multiple roles within a defensive scheme should come in handy for Wooden, who projects as either a three-technique on the interior or as a traditional defensive end at 6-foot-4 and 274 pounds.

“I feel like what I’ll probably be doing is rotating between the two,” Wooden said. “I know whoever drafts me, they’ll get a player who can do both — and I’m happy to do both.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.