Mailbag 237: Which Auburn transfers are flying under the radar?

This week: SP+, 2026 odds, roster-building, Auburn-to-NFL coaches, bubble math, Tahaad Pettiford, Filip Jović and gas station food

(Auburn Football/Instagram)

AUBURN — Welcome back to the mailbag.

It’s been another busy week at The Observer, with a trip to Oxford in the books and a trip to Gainesville coming up next. That’s a whole lot of travel, but it’s worth it.

While we’ve been all over the place covering Auburn basketball, Auburn football has continued its transfer portal rebuild by bringing in even more players for the start of a new era. You asked about the ones to watch from that group, along with how a team builds a roster in a sport that is constantly changing.

We’ll talk about that, along with Tahaad Pettiford’s sophomore season and what Auburn needs to do in SEC play to make it back to the NCAA Tournament. And, with travel being on our minds, we’ve got some questions about gas station food — not convenience store snacks, but actual meal-worthy grub.

Thanks again for making this all possible. We’ll have a full preview of Auburn’s tough trip to Florida out tomorrow morning. Let’s go.

Now that the dust has settled on the transfer portal, who is an incoming Auburn transfer that you don't think enough people are talking about and could end up having a big impact?

Hunter

There’s been a ton of incoming movement in the transfer portal for an Auburn football team that is basically having to reset its roster for a new era.

I think fans are obviously excited about adding a high-level quarterback like Byrum Brown and the majority of his top receivers from this past season. They can also see a lot of obvious potential in a former 5-star edge rusher like Da’Shawn Womack or a highly rated Big Ten corner like Andre Jordan Jr.

But I’ll give you a name that I don’t think people are hyping up enough: Cole Best.

When AUNerd wrote his first transfer portal big board, he noted this about Group of Five offensive linemen stepping up to the power-conference level:

“Over the past two seasons, 31 G5 offensive linemen who graded as above-average at their level of competition (PFF grade 70+) transferred up to a P4 program the following year. Of that group, 75% went on to produce at least Power Four-average levels (PFF grade 60+), and 33% graded out as above average at their new level.”

Best fits this description, having a 72.3 PFF grade this past season as USF’s starting center. As a pass protector, he allowed just 10 pressures and zero sacks in more than 400 snaps. (Almost half of those pressures came against Miami’s all-world pass rush.) He had seven different games with zero pressures allowed, including USF’s road win at Florida. He was near a 70 grade as a run-blocker, too.

A veteran of this offense, Best has had that starting center role for each of the last two seasons, so he knows this offensive scheme inside and out — and already has a connection with Brown at quarterback. That part is huge. USF’s offense is blistering fast, and there’s a lot that the center has to do in terms of communication and reads.

So, in Best, Auburn is getting the “second quarterback” of a high-caliber USF offense. This is one of the most valuable types of plug-and-play pieces you can have on your offense, and he should be able to literally hit the ground running with some of his former teammates and former coaches on the Plains.

Auburn has had to flood the board with offensive line transfers this season because of the numbers game. Getting a former blue-chipper with considerable power-conference starting experience at tackle like Stanton Ramil or a left tackle from a playoff team like Jo Simmons is obviously big. Best isn’t the only USF starter — or the only Cole — coming over on the line, either. And picking up several power-conference transfers with multiple years of eligibility to develop for the future makes it so the Tigers shouldn’t have to hit the complete reset button up front after 2026.

But Best, because of his positional value and his grades from this past season, is definitely the type of transfer that Auburn fans should be more excited about this offseason. He should turn out to be a major piece of the Tigers’ offensive rebuild.

(Austin Perryman/Auburn Tigers)

What are your thoughts on Auburn being No. 29 in the final SP+ poll of the year and USF being No. 30?

BBD