Film Room: What Auburn football is getting in USF QB Byrum Brown

The nation's leader in total offense is coming to the Plains, where he'll get to pick up where he left off with Alex Golesh and Joel Gordon.

AUBURN — The morning after Auburn hired Alex Golesh to be its next head football coach, there were already whispers that he was bringing his quarterback from USF.

Those whispers grew into murmurs a few hours later, when Auburn athletic director John Cohen mentioned — without saying his name, of course — that Byrum Brown was one of just a dozen FBS quarterbacks to throw for 3,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards in the same season.

(The rest of that list includes Vince Young, Colin Kaepernick, Johnny Manziel, Deshaun Watson, Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray, Jalen Hurts and Jayden Daniels.)

Those murmurs grew into significant chatter when it was announced that Brown wouldn’t play for USF in its bowl game and, later, when he declared that he would enter the transfer portal.

And, now, Auburn fans can just full-on shout about it: Brown is a Tiger.

Brown committed to Auburn on Tuesday during his official visit to campus. As widely projected, he will follow Golesh and offensive coordinator Joel Gordon from USF to Auburn, entering a fourth year under that highly successful partnership.

By comparison, Auburn hasn’t had the same starting quarterback and offensive coordinator combination in back-to-back years since Jarrett Stidham and Chip Lindsey worked together in the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

Auburn will now get to import the main pieces of one of the nation’s best offenses from the 2025 season, with more Bulls from the No. 5 unit in points per game and the No. 7 unit in yards per play expected to become Tigers in the coming weeks.

Brown was the on-field engine of that prolific offense. He led the nation in total yards per game (347.2). He was No. 5 in yards per pass attempt (9.3) and was No. 6 in quarterback rating (167.06). He also was No. 10 in passing touchdowns (10), despite the fact that he only played in 12 games this season.

The competition level between the SEC and the American is different, of course. But, in terms of pure numbers, the only Auburn quarterback in the history of the program who has ever put up stats like those in a single season is Cam Newton in 2010.

In fact, in his three years at USF, Brown went 110/191 passing for 1,195 yards (6.26 yards per attempt) and a quarterback rating of 116.19 against power-conference opponents. As a team, Auburn hasn’t hit those passing numbers against power conferences in three of its last four seasons.

Brown averaged 0.32 EPA per dropback in 2025, which was the 14th-best mark of any quarterback in the FBS. He also averaged 0.23 EPA per rush, which was the 23rd-best mark of all FBS players. No Auburn quarterback has posted comparable EPA numbers on the ground or through the air since Nick Marshall in 2014.

According to Pro Football Focus, Brown graded out as the No. 11 passer in college football, the No. 2 rusher among quarterbacks and the No. 4 overall quarterback. Anywhere you look, he was one of the most valuable players in the country in 2025.

The former 3-star from North Carolina has just one season left of college football, and he will help set the tone for the Golesh Era in 2026 by running the offense in which he put up extraordinary numbers in 2025.

For an Auburn program that has struggled to get consistent quality quarterback play for nearly a decade, Brown represents the opportunity to make big strides in Year 1.

Nothing is a guarantee — especially with the jump up in competition — but a plug-and-play starting quarterback under a head coach with a history of instant impact is as good as it could get for the Tigers as they look to rebuild under the new regime.

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But what should Auburn fans expect out of Brown, a 6-foot-3 human highlight reel of a quarterback with an unconventional style?

Let’s dive into his game in the Film Room, where each section will start with a supercut video. And, since this newsletter will already be a long one, we’ll pull out some individual plays from those videos to break down. There’s a lot to get to here.

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