What exactly happens behind the scenes, well, that remains a bit of a dance. There are worries about tampering rules, or hurt feelings. So if it was a coach working it out with the quarterback, or an agent working it out, nobody will say for public consumption.
What the people on the Auburn defense know is they had a shock to their system the first day of this year’s spring practice. For three years, they’d been used to dominating their offensive counterparts in practices and scrimmages. Yes, they knew their new head coach, Alex Golesh, was an offensive guy who had brought his quarterback, Byrum Brown, with him from South Florida, and yes, they knew they might hit the ground running at Auburn.
They just didn’t realize how much until that first practice.
“The first couple days were bad for us,” defensive back Rayshawn Pleasant said, shaking his head. “You could tell they’ve been with each other for a while.”
Auburn’s defense was the latest to see up close an increasing trend in the transfer portal era: the coach-quarterback package.
It’s been happening for several years, though in more isolated cases: Caleb Williams following Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma to USC. Bo Nix following offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham when Oregon hired him away from Auburn. Deion Sanders bringing his son, Shedeur, with him from Jackson State to Colorado. Vanderbilt jump-starting its program when it hired New Mexico State OC Tim Beck, who brought with him Diego Pavia.
But this offseason the trend ratcheted up:
• Penn State head coach Matt Campbell brought Rocco Becht, who had been his starter the previous three seasons at Iowa State.
• In turn, Ethan Grunkemeyer, who started seven games for Penn State last season, re-joined James Franklin at Virginia Tech.
• Oklahoma State head coach Eric Morris was followed by Drew Mestemaker, who as a freshman led the nation in passing yards (4,379) at North Texas.
• Iowa State’s new head coach, Jimmy Rogers, pulled in his own package, bringing quarterback Jalen Raynor and quarterbacks coach Keith Heckendorf from Arkansas State.
• Florida head coach Jon Sumrall, who came from Tulane, did the same by hiring Georgia Tech offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner. Expected Yellow Jackets starter Aaron Philo followed Faulkner to Gainesville.
• Arkansas head coach Ryan Silverfield, hired from Memphis, brought quarterback AJ Hill, who played two games as a true freshman last season.
And there’s Auburn, where Golesh brought Brown, his starter for most of his three seasons at South Florida. Auburn didn’t hire Golesh just because he could bring Brown (and 11 other players). But it certainly didn’t hurt for a program that wants to win again — and where quarterback has been an issue for years.
Agents for coaches will ask an athletic director what their resources will look like for the roster, from revenue sharing to third-party name, image and likeness payments. So it’s only natural that athletic directors would also look at the potential for a coach to bring players, especially a quarterback.
And if you’re a quarterback, it makes sense to follow your coach if you’ve had success. That was the case for Brown, who passed for 28 touchdowns and rushed for 14 while leading USF to nine wins last season.
Still, not all package deals are alike.
A good quarterback putting his name in the portal, or making it known he might do so, could draw better offers. Mestemaker, for instance, created quite a potential market for himself with his freshman season. He did have conversations with other schools, and wanted to see what else was out there.
But given the faith Morris showed in him out of high school, giving him a walk-on spot when there were few other opportunities, it was hard for Mestemaker to go anywhere else.
“I told him before (he left), wherever he goes is going to be a spot I want to go,” Mestemaker said.
That was a similar story for Philo and Faulkner, who have known each other since the 10th grade. Philo started three times over the past two years at Georgia Tech, which was planning to have him replace Haynes King as the full-time starter this season.
But then Florida swooped in to get Faulkner, and within a week Philo had cleaned out his Georgia Tech locker. Georgia Tech sources said they tried to keep both, but once Faulkner took the Gators job, it doesn’t appear there was much to be done to keep Philo.
“He was really the first person that I felt like kind of believed in me out of high school,” Philo told reporters at Florida this spring. “I just feel like he’s believed in me from the start.”
Golesh and Brown’s backstory was different. Brown was already at USF when Golesh was hired there after the 2022 season. Golesh had been an assistant at Tennessee, which had not recruited Brown, a three-star recruit. And when Golesh arrived, he expected to start a more veteran quarterback.
But Brown impressed Golesh with his mobility, maturity and toughness. It reminded him of Hendon Hooker, who Golesh had coached at Tennessee during an 11-win season in 2022. So he gave Brown the job, and he ran with it: Last year, he became only the 12th FBS player to pass for 3,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards.
When Golesh got the Auburn job in early December, he inherited a recent five-star recruit in Deuce Knight, who appeared in two games last season. Golesh was interested in bringing Knight back and grooming him to be the eventual starter. But in Brown, he could bring in a fifth-year senior who knew his system. For Brown, it was a no-brainer chance to move up to the SEC, rather than learn a new system under new USF coach Brian Hartline.
“You get tons of calls when you enter the portal,” Brown said. “But just having that comfortability, that confidence in (Golesh), knowing that he’s going to come in here and do exactly what he said he was going to do, that he did that there. And I wanted to be a part of it here and help bring Auburn back to to where it should be. I mean, it was my first visit and I didn’t leave after I came here.
“I wanted to stay with the guy who’s been with me.”
— Sam Khan Jr. contributed to this story.
