The Auburn Tigers landed former Florida Gators and Bowling Green Falcons tight end Arlis Boardingham because Alex Golesh offered a "once in a lifetime" opportunity with one of his most experienced hires for his first staff.
That'd be former Howard Bison head coach Larry Scott, who went from being a head coach in the MEAC from 2020-2025 to the Plains to serve as Golesh's tight ends coach. Scott is a 25-year veteran with experience in the same role at Florida, the Tennessee Volunteers, and the Miami Hurricanes.
Per Boardingham, “(Alex Golesh) and I had a great conversation when I came here,. Definitely talking about the tight ends and just the opportunity that the tight end room had here was also just something I couldn’t pass up. And Coach (Larry) Scott being someone who had ties back to the couple schools that I had went to back before, it just was an opportunity that seemed once in a lifetime. Coach Scott is a big reason why I came here. I felt like our conversation was very genuine, very great. He’s a coach that’s going to harp on the details, the technique. He’s going to make sure that you really get down to know what you’re doing and he’s a big part of why I came here.”
Boardingham had 44 catches for 417 yards and six touchdowns during the 2023 and 2024 campaigns in Gainesville. He sat out the 2025 season with Bowling Green due to a sports hernia.
Alex Golesh's focus on tight ends will endear him to Auburn fans
Bringing in a guy like Scott and signing multiple tight ends who were once highly recruited commodities is a stroke of genius from Golesh. There's no quicker way into the hearts of the Auburn family than to address an offensive skill-position group that was an offensively glaring weakness a season ago.
North Carolina Tar Heels transfer Jake Johnson figures to be TE1, but with a fast-paced, explosive offense that Golesh and Joel Gordon imported over from the USF Bulls, complete with quarterback Byrum Brown, there could be many well-fed mouths in the offense.
Particularly, though, tight end success would bring joy to Tiger fans and make Golesh look like a man who listens to his fanbase, even if having a strong TE room is an SEC prerequisite that Hugh Freeze somehow didn't get the memo for once Rivaldo Fairweather ran out of eligibility. Having not a single 100-yard tight end for the entire 2025 season is a memory that must be buried.
Golesh appears to have brought the shovels.