When a player leaves a program, Montravius Adams said, they leave a legacy. It can be good or bad, big or small, but there’s always something left behind.

Adams thought about cementing his legacy, whatever it was, at the end of last season. He thought about entering the NFL Draft, where he likely would have been a mid- to late-round pick. If he had, he might have been preparing to play for one of the league’s 32 teams on Sunday.

Instead, though, Adams committed to return for his senior season. The defensive tackle had already accomplished plenty in his Auburn career — 104 tackles, 6 ½ sacks and two forced fumbles over three seasons (two as a starter) while winning an SEC title and making a BCS Championship appearance as well as two more bowl berths — but he felt as if there was more left for him to do on the Plains.

All he’s done as a senior is have the best statistical season of his career while playing on the best defense the Tigers have had since he’s been here. And before he goes to the NFL, Adams and his teammates have a chance to do something no Auburn team has ever done before them:

Beat Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl.

“I know I’m done, so it’s all about leaving that lasting legacy, like something you can be remembered as,” Adams said. “Why not (have) the last game be in one of the greatest bowls ever?”

A victory in New Orleans on Jan. 2 would be a fitting end to the best season Adams has had in blue and orange. Starting all 12 games for a defense that finished the regular season ranked fifth nationally in scoring defense and 20th in yards allowed, the 6-foot-4, 309-pound defensive tackle set career-highs across the board with 8 ½ tackles for loss, 4 ½ sacks, two fumble recoveries and two blocked kicks to go along with 39 tackles.

He intercepted a pass on senior day against Alabama A&M, and returned one of those two fumble recoveries 13 yards for the first — and right now only — touchdown of his career on Oct. 8.

“He’s a different player this year. He was really good player before, but he’s really raised his level,” head coach Gus Malzahn said in November. “This year has been impressive to watch.”

Adams fully realized the potential this season that Auburn saw in him when it signed him as a five-star recruit out of Dooley County High School in Vienna, Ga., four years ago.

He flashed it throughout his first three seasons on the Plains — like when he sacked Washington State quarterback Connor Halliday on the first snap of his collegiate career in 2013 or nearly returned an interception for a touchdown in a 2014 victory over Louisiana Tech — but until this year, it wasn’t always consistent.

“I think Mon will tell you he needed to step up and make more plays and be more productive. I think he felt that way and I think he'd tell you that,” first-year defensive coordinator Kevin Steele said in October. “He's decided, 'OK, I've got all this talent. I'm going to be the best I can be.' He's applying the trade and improving his trade.

“Montravius is great, and I know firsthand because he’s right in front of me,” linebacker Tre’ Williams added on Thursday. “Just knowing that I haven’t been touched by any linemen this year, that gives a lot of credit to him because he takes on double teams and a lot of big men. So every tackle I make, I go up to Mon and say, ‘I appreciate it,’ because I know it’s really him that really helps me get that tackle.”

His success has not gone unnoticed. Adams was named Auburn’s team MVP at its end-of-season awards banquet and earned first-team honors on the AP All-SEC team. ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. has the senior projected as a second- or third-round draft pick, which would leave him not far behind teammate Carl Lawson should he leave school early.

But Adams hasn’t turned his attention to the professional ranks, though. At least not yet.

He still has a collegiate legacy to attend to.

“I’m going to go at it in this Sugar Bowl game and try to have an amazing game there,” Adams said. “Then move on to the next thing.”