Alex Golesh made a bold decision to bring Byrum Brown with him to Auburn. On Tuesday, the first-year Auburn coach made an even more striking comment on where his quarterback ranks in the college football hierarchy.
“Byrum Brown is one of the best quarterbacks in the country, and he's shown that over the years,” Golesh said at SEC media days. “What has to happen for Byrum is he's just got to continue to be him every single day.”
Those are certainly big words on a player who is making the jump from the American Conference, where he starred for USF last season, to the SEC, arguably the nation’s deepest and most talented conference. But Golesh has made no qualms about what Brown will be able to do in his first (and only) year in an Auburn uniform, and putting him in charge of the offense as soon as he set foot on campus has helped ease the transition.
Is Byrum Brown finally the answer at quarterback?
But Auburn fans have seen this before: a transfer quarterback who was supposedly the answer for an offense that has lacked power over the last several seasons. Following Bo Nix’s transfer to Oregon after Bryan Harsin’s first season in charge of the Tigers, a woeful combination of Robby Ashford and T.J. Finley was behind center in 2022.
When Hugh Freeze arrived, he brought in Payton Thorne, who, for two seasons, was mediocre at best. Freeze’s last chance at fixing Auburn’s offense came with the addition of Jackson Arnold prior to the 2025 season, but that failed just as quickly.
Now, all the pressure is on the shoulders of Brown, who is in charge of leading an Auburn offense that has only one starter returning from last season. For Golesh, who coached Brown for three seasons with the Bulls, the confidence is there that he will get the job done.
“Byrum just has just got to be him,” the coach said. “The confidence that he is going to be the best version of him every single day should give confidence to everybody around him, players, coaches, support staff. And ultimately, if he's the best version of him every single day, we'll get to where we got to get to on the field.”
Brown definitely has the stats to back it up, throwing for 3,158 yards and 28 touchdowns while rushing for 1,008 yards and 14 scores last season, but those numbers were put up against defenses of the likes of Rice, Navy and Memphis. Now, the Raleigh, N.C., native will see more physical and faster defenses in his new conference.
For Golesh’s sake, the move better work out. If Brown lives up to expectations, a special first year could very well be in store on the Plains.
Add us as a preferred source on Google