Could this South Florida transfer be the key to Auburn football's offense?

AUBURN — When Cole Best mulled potentially following his former head coach Alex Golesh from South Florida to Auburn football this offseason, the pitch was pretty simple.

“‘We need you to come do the same thing that you did at the last spot,'” Best said Tuesday, March 17. “‘Come in, be a leader.'”

Best, a senior, had been the Bulls‘ starting center for the better part of the past two seasons. A former all-conference offensive lineman, he eventually decided to come to the Plains, joining a dozen other former Bulls in making the move.

The bulk of those transfers — 11 in total — will be part of the Tigers’ offense this fall. There’s a hint of star power among them, most notably quarterback Byrum Brown, but it’s difficult to understate how vital Best will be to the success of the unit.

“I think having him, from the camaraderie he has with the other guys who came from the last place, and more importantly, the camaraderie he has with the quarterback, with Byrum,” offensive line coach Tyler Hudanick said of Best in February. “I think that gives Byrum more confidence that he’s got his guy at center there, the guy he’s been catching the snap the past two years from.”

Best is a leader, Hudanick said, “as alpha as they come,” and he’s already gotten to work forging bonds with his position group on the Plains.

“When I got here, I knew the first thing I had to do was get around as many guys as I could and build authentic relationships and make those guys feel like they can trust me,” Best said. “Once I built that side of it, then I started kind of showing the true leadership, in terms of the football aspect and the accountability aspect as well.

“That’s gone really good. It’s definitely a little different. It’s the first time I’ve been at a different school, but it’s been great. I know I got the full support of these coaches; got a lot of really good dudes in the building that I’ve played with before who got my back, and it’s gone really well.”

Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at acole@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter.To support Adam’s work, please subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Why this USF transfer could be the key to Auburn football’s offense