The Auburn Tigers have been the presumed top landing spot for USF Bulls quarterback transfer Byrum Brown since he announced his intentions to enter the portal in a week. Saturday Blitz's Frank Sciarroni believes Jon Sumrall's Florida Gators and Bill Belichick's North Carolina Tar Heels are also potential options.
Sciarroni likes the fit of Brown with the Gators' new offensive coordinator, Buster Faulkner, who made the most of Haynes King, another dual-threat option. Ditto for new Tar Heels play-caller Bobby Petrino's offense and how Taylen Green looked on the Arkansas Razorbacks the past two years. Even Lane Kiffin may pursue Brown for the LSU Tigers, though Ole Miss Rebels QB1 Trinidad Chambliss is his preferred option if he is granted an extra year of eligibility from the NCAA.
Ultimately, though, there's one main pull that makes Auburn the favorite.
Brown just played in Alex Golesh and Joel Gordon's offense in Tampa. It's a proven entity. Then again, that was in the American Conference, against defensive trenches that weren't swarming with the highest-rated defensive athletes in the country.
Golesh has a lot of work to do during the January portal window.
Auburn must rebuild OL to entice Byrum Brown
AU is likely losing several key offensive trench contributors to the NFL in Connor Lew, Jeremiah Wright, Dillon Wade, and Xavier Chaplin. Golesh might need to find a new starter at every position, though, with Izavion Miller also out of eligibility.
That's a tough sell to a transfer quarterback with one year of eligibility left and NFL dreams to play behind a line that's not played together long. Most of his options will probably be in the same boat, luckily.
Obviously, there's the chance that Golesh imports several linemen from USF. The narrative would be that they'd be in over their heads against SEC defenses, but let's not pretend the Bulls didn't play Florida last year and were not out of place at all.
Golesh has work to do, but it's not work that can't be done with a competent staff. AU seems to have competency on its coaching staff right now.