Alex Golesh spent the first couple of months of his job at Auburn hitting the transfer portal as he tries to find the right mix of talent and experience to get the Tigers back to their winning ways.
While the new staff saw some massive talent leave the Plains, including Cam Coleman, Deuce Knight, Malcolm Simmons and Eric Singleton Jr., Golesh did a fine job of bringing in players he is familiar with from USF, especially quarterback Byrum Brown and a plethora of wide receivers, to fill the holes left by those who sought greener pastures elsewhere.
ESPN's Bill Connelly doesn't think much of Auburn's transfer portal haul
ESPN’s Bill Connelly isn’t as impressed with the job Golesh and his staff did in the portal, ranking Auburn’s transfer portal arrivals as the No. 18 class of the season, behind fellow SEC teams LSU, Kentucky and Texas.
“Former South Florida coach Alex Golesh predictably brought quite a few former Bulls with him to the Plains -- Brown, Singleton (and many other WRs), RB Nykahi Davenport, C Cole Best, S Fred Gaskin and many others -- but he didn't stop there. And he seemed to seek known production over the pure SEC experience that a lot of other league teams seemed to overvalue. (He did still grab four SEC linemen.) Sigler and Saint Farrior(Appalachian State) are disruptive 300-pounders, and CB Andre Jordan Jr. (UCLA) will immediately be one of the most aggressive cover guys in the conference.”
For the amount of time that Golesh had to put together a plan and convince talented players to come to Auburn, the class he put together should have Auburn fans more excited than what Connelly thinks about the Tigers’ roster for this upcoming season, most notably, at quarterback play, where the Tigers have struggled for several years with different guys getting a shot at the starting position.