Auburn football: Tigers lose yet another player to the transfer portal

Auburn suffered yet another loss to their 2020 roster on Tuesday.

In the past year, nine former Auburn players have decided to take their talents to other schools via the NCAA transfer portal. On Tuesday, that number moved to 10 when redshirt freshman offensive lineman Justin Osborne announced his intentions to enter his name into the transfer portal and effectively move on from the Auburn program.

Osborne, who came to Auburn as a three-star offensive tackle prospect, did not see any game action last season for the Tigers and took a redshirt year.

Osborne played the majority of his high school career at Marcus high school in Flower Mound, Texas, spent his senior season at IMG Academy in Florida. According to the 247Sports Composite rankings, Osborne was the No. 512 prospect in the class of 2019 and the 65th-ranked player in the state of Florida.

Auburn has to replace four starters on the offensive line this offseason and Osborne would have definitely been in the race for playing time. However, the 6-foot-4, 280-pound tackle would have had to battle against more veteran offensive linemen on the roster.

Out of high school, Osborne held offers from programs such as Texas A&M, Michigan and Oklahoma and was commited to TCU earlier in his recruiting process.

While the majority of Auburn’s returning O-linemen have little to none starting experience, offensive tackles like Austin Troxell and Brodarious Hamm were more highly touted coming out of high school and as redshirt juniors, have more experience in the program.

However, the Auburn staff has been high on Osborne due to his ability to play either tackle or guard and his fellow teammates have also given the second-year player praise.

"“He has the talent, and if he can stay focused, he’ll be a great ballplayer, too,” Auburn starting center Nick Brahms said per Chris Hummer of 247Sports. “I want that from him. He’s got a lot of talent, and I don’t think he knows it. Him and Keiondre Jones as well. I’m looking forward to them. They’ve definitely shown themselves and proved how well they can do.”"

Also battling for playing time on the O-line this offseason are players like RS sophomore Jalil Irvin, Alec Jackson, Tashawn Manning, Kameron Stutts, Keiondre Jones, Prince Michael Sammons and Kamaar Bell as well as true freshmen Avery Jernigan, Tate Johnson and Jeremiah Wright.

Auburn has also brought in two JUCO transfers to the mix with tackles Kilian Zierer and Brenden Coffey while grad transfer tackle Brandin Council will be eligible immediately for the Tigers after starting 24 consecutive games for the Akron Zips.

As for Osborne, the second-year player is far from the only former Tiger to enter his name in the transfer portal in the last year.

Osborne joins quarterbacks Joey Gatewood and Wil Appleton, starting running back JaTarvious Whitlow, wide receivers Zach Farrar, Marquis McClain and Jashawn Sheffield, defensive end Charles Moore and linebackers Michael Harris and Sawyer Hennis. Along with the nine other players transferring, the Tigers also lost veteran running back Malik Miller who decided to leave the team in July.

Additionally, it’s important to know that just because a player enters his name into the transfer portal, that doesn’t mean that they will necesarily leave. A player can remove his name from the portal at any time but the university is not required to keep a player on scholarship if they decide to return.