The Auburn Tigers reeled in one of the top players in the transfer portal when Byrum Brown signed on the dotted line to reunite with Alex Golesh and Joel Gordon and become their first quarterback on the Plains.
College Football HQ On SI's Ryan Young deemed Brown one of the top transfer portal gets of January's first week, along with the South Carolina Gamecocks' OT Jacarrius Peak (via the NC State Wolfpack), the Ole Miss Rebels' OT Carius Curne (via the LSU Tigers), the Alabama Crimson Tide's RB Hollywood Smothers (via via NC State), and the Texas Longhorns' RB Raleek Brown (via the Arizona State Sun Devils).
Young also shared a bold, but not unfounded, prediction on Brown being the best quarterback Auburn has had since Bo Nix transferred out of the program in 2021 to join Dan Lanning and become a Heisman candidate with the Oregon Ducks.
"Brown and coach Alex Golesh formed a good pairing at South Florida, leading the Bulls to 9 wins this past season and a prolific offense that ranked third in the FBS at 488.7 yards per game and fifth in scoring at 40.5 points per game," Young prefaced before saying, "With Golesh taking the Auburn job, he's hoping the continuity of bringing Brown with him can jumpstart his rebuild of the Tigers' program.
"It's no surprise that Brown chose to follow his head coach to The Plains, but he would have been highly coveted by many other programs without that connection.
"More than anything, meager quarterback play has held Auburn back in recent years. Brown should be the best quarterback the Tigers have had since Bo Nix in 2021."
Where does Auburn's transfer portal class rank so far?
Through Saturday, January 10, AU has the No. 16-ranked class in the country. Golesh's recruiting started slowly, but he quickly gained his top skill-position players from the USF Bulls, and he's finding trench talent from the SEC and Big 12.
The Oklahoma State Cowboys lead the country, bringing on much of Eric Morris' North Texas Mean Green roster, while Matt Campbell's Iowa State Cyclones-heavy Penn State Nittany class is No. 2, Cody Campbell's annual talent conglomeration Texas Tech Red Raiders class is No. 3, and Lane Kiffin's great LSU Tigers talent heist is No. 4. The Arizona State Sun Devils round out the top five, Ole Miss is No. 6, Texas is No. 14, South Carolina is No. 19, and Kalen DeBoer's Alabama Crimson Tide round out the top 25.