With the Auburn Tigers' recent coaching change, there has been a lot of attention paid to changes on the roster. While new head coach Alex Golesh and his staff brought in a lot of strong additions through the transfer portal, including quarteback Byrum Brown, there were also quite a few quality players that elected to leave the Plains.
One of the most talented players who chose to enter the transfer portal was wide receiver Cam Coleman, who was one of the Tigers' most highly-ranked wide receiver recruits in program history. Several other wide receivers left Auburn, too, and they were mostly replaced by receivers who previously played for Golesh and with Brown at USF.
Naturally, many have wondered if Auburn's wide receiver group will take a step down in quality this season despite the fact that they weren't necessarily an extremely successful position group last season. According to wide receivers coach and former Auburn Tiger himself Kodi Burns, concerns that the wide receivers can't kick it in the SEC are being made into something more.
"If you do look at the schedule from our team last year, we did play SEC teams and it worked out pretty good," Burns said, per Yahoo Sports. "So, those guys do have experience from that standpoint."
Burns is, of course, referring to the Bulls' 18-16 victory over Florida last season. Florida did go on to fire their coach halfway through the season, but a win over an SEC team is a win over an SEC team. The Bulls logged 263 passing yards in that matchup, and Keshaun Singleton, a USF transfer who now plays for Auburn, led the Bulls in receiving yards in that game with 75.
Burns has also pointed to Chas Nimrod, another USF transfer, as a standout receiver throughout the offseason. Nimrod also adds a bit of SEC experience, having begun his collegiate career at Tennessee before transferring to USF.
"These guys have experience, and at the end of the day man, go out there and play ball," Burns said. "We ain't scared of nobody. We're about to roll up and play ball."
At the end of the day, the Auburn offense that Golesh and offensive coordinator Joel Gordon want to run on the Plains doesn't require a superstar wide receiver corps. They are focused on running the ball, and they have a stellar group of running backs alongside a mobile quarterback to execute that plan. If the wide receivers can prove themselves capable enough to catch the ball at critical moments, that should be enough to quiet the talks about the move up to the SEC.
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