Auburn's Tennessee Captains Include 2 First-Time Selections

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The Auburn Tigers are preparing for their toughest battle yet of the 2026 college football season. 

The team will hit the road for the first time in the Alex Golesh era as they will face the Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium on Saturday. The Auburn Tigers will look for their second straight win in what is slated to be a very tough October for the squad. 

As Alex Golesh has done every Friday before a game this season, he has announced the captains for the week. The list of five players includes a few familiar names and two newcomers for the first time this season. 

Byrum Brown, quarterback. 

For the fifth straight week, the Tigers' quarterback has been named a captain, and it will be paramount that he is firing on all cylinders on Saturday. The team must start off fast and strong against the 17th-ranked Volunteers if they look to upset Alex Golesh's former team on the road. 

So far this season, Byrum Brown is 82 for 126 for 896 yards with 6 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. He has a 65.1% completion percentage. He also has 237 yards rushing and 3 rushing touchdowns. 

Elijah Melendez, linebacker. 

Melendez also gets the nod for the fifth straight week and continues to be considered the "quarterback of the defense." 

He continues to have a solid season and so far this year has recorded 34 tackles and two sacks. 

Cole Best, Center. 

After plenty of movement this past week on the offensive line, mainstay leader Cole Best gets the nod for captain for the third week in the young Auburn Tigers season. Best has done a good job with offensive line alignments and managing the adjustments given to him by the coaching staff, with a new right guard in Kevin McManus and rotating left tackles Jacob Strand and Jo Simmons. 

Omar Mabson, running back. 

After one of the most important plays last week against the Vanderbilt Commodores, Omar Mabson is rewarded with the captaincy after his big game last Saturday. Mabson blocked a punt that resulted in a Cade Carlson scoop-and-score. That was the deciding factor for the Tigers' first SEC win since 2024. 

He also showed progress in the limited carries he had in the backfield. It will certainly be interesting to see if Mabson gets a heavier workload as a running back this Saturday and the rest of the season for the Auburn Tigers. So far this year, he has 23 carries for 151 yards and one touchdown. He's currently averaging 6.6 yards per carry. 

Dallas Walker, defensive lineman. 

It was a good game last week for the entire Auburn defensive line, including some of the younger players like Darrion Smith and Jourdin Crawford. However, Dallas Walker gets the nod for captain as he continues to be one of the most consistent players on the defensive front. 

The Auburn defensive line has a tough task against Tennessee's offense on Saturday, but they could expose something that began to shed light on it in last Saturday's game. The Texas Longhorns sacked Tennessee 10 times. In Week 4, Auburn has the chance to put pressure on Tennessee's quarterback. 

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