88 thoughts on 88 Auburn football players ahead of spring practice

The Tigers will hit the field to unofficially start a new era next Tuesday. Here's a player-by-player look at a reloaded roster.

Note: Thanks to everyone who reached out with their condolences yesterday. My grandfather’s funeral is likely happening closer to the weekend, so I will be in Nashville for (at least) Auburn basketball’s first-round game vs. Mississippi State. We have an open practice there this afternoon, so look for a preview of that matchup out tomorrow morning. Until then, here’s some football.

AUBURN — Ready or not, Auburn football is back in one week.

And you might not be ready quite yet, Auburn fan, because you might not remember (or know) who all is back and who all is new on the first roster for Alex Golesh.

Because of basketball, it’s been a while since we’ve written about football extensively here at The Observer. But there’s going to be real excitement next week when the Tigers get spring practices going, so let’s make up for some lost time, shall we?

What follows is nearly 6,000 words on every single player that would have been considered a “scholarship” guy under the old roster rules. These will be the vast majority of the main players taking the field for Auburn over the next month.

We’ve divided them into position groups and sorted them into a rough order from oldest to youngest. Here’s the Observer take on everybody heading into spring practices, starting with the new star quarterback on the Plains.

Quarterback

Byrum Brown: Auburn has gone all-in on Brown, and it’s not exactly hiding that fact. The big question for Brown will be if he can succeed consistently in the SEC. Until he can prove that in the fall, though, expect a lot of talk about how Brown has elevated a new-look offense in a short amount of time. There will be plenty of deserved spotlight.

Tristan Ti’a: If anything happens to Brown, Auburn at least has a quarterback who has played some at the FBS level. Ti’a got to play out the string at Oregon State as a true freshman last season and had some impressive high school numbers in terms of accuracy (77%) and scoring (45 total touchdowns). He makes sense for this scheme and will be an interesting one to watch develop behind Brown this season.

Locklan Hewlett: A solid 3-star in high school, the 6-foot-1 Hewlett wanted to play in this particular system and jumped on a chance to go to the SEC after taking a redshirt at USF last year. We’ll see if he has a real chance at contending for playing time at this level in time. Right now, he’s depth that has a head start in this offense.

Rhys Brush: Like Hewlett, it’ll be interesting to see if Brush has a chance to stick in an SEC quarterback room over time. He doesn’t have quite the same amount of stats or recruiting hype as the other two young quarterbacks in this room. This will surely be a redshirt and reassess situation in his freshman year of college ball.

Running Back

Jeremiah Cobb: Cobb showed he can lead the charge for a rushing attack, growing from a big-play runner-receiver type to a true No. 1 last year. He committed to Auburn two head coaches ago and has remaining loyal to the program, which is rare in this day and age. Cobb will get the chance to be the top back again in 2026, and he should be able to stay fresher with the sheer volume of rushers around him.

Tae Meadows: One of the best stories on this team, Meadows went from walk-on to No. 1 running back at Troy, and he put up nearly 700 yards and six touchdowns last year. He graded out as an excellent pass protector and runs with plenty of power. Meadows is getting to finish his career in the SEC, and I expect to see him carve out a nice dirty-work role in this running back room.