On the second full day of preseason camp for the Auburn Tigers, Head Coach Alex Golesh spoke to the media with an encouraging mind on his team’s progress early on.
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Fast forward to Friday, Aug. 14, and the head coach harped on how much work the team still has to do in order to be confidently ready for its season opener against Baylor on Sept. 5.
Following a team scrimmage at Jordan-Hare Stadium, Golesh walked away with an overall evaluation that the performance was sloppy on both sides of the football. He did, in turn, find out a lot about his players and positional competition.
When Golesh spoke on Aug. 6 about the progression, he touched on his feelings of where the tight ends were, feeling “giddy” about all the things that could be done with the room.
Following the Friday scrimmage had more to say about the competition in the group, with one guy having stood out completely thus far—Jake Johnson.
The transfer from North Carolina played just six games for the Tar Heels in 2025, racking up 16 receptions for 144 yards and a singular touchdown.
“Jake Johnson has been uber impressive,” Golesh said. “That is one spot where that kid looks like a kid that’s played a ton of football, highly intelligent.”
While his intelligence is very important trait that he has though, that has not been what has caught Golesh’s eye the most.
Instead, it is him being willing to do whatever it takes to make a play for the team. When the ball is in his hands, he tries to make the most of his opportunity.
“What surprised me the most about him since we started camp really, knock on wood, he’s healthy, his ability to catch the ball, do something with it,” Golesh said. “He had some good catches today. But his toughness, like, he’s a gritty, gritty kid, and I’m guessing growing up in that family, you can’t be soft.”
Behind him, the former Florida tight end was in Gainesville for two seasons, catching 44 passes for 417 yards and six touchdowns.
The scrimmage was a big bout upwards for him according to Golesh, as he continues to become adjusted to the style of play that the Tigers are running.
“Arlis Boardingham took a bunch of reps with the ones today. He started off shaky I think just figuring it out. He missed the latter half of spring, and so for him, you’ve seen confidence growing… I would tell you today, the scrimmage for him was as big as anything, just operating in the system.”
Those two players have been pinned as the current top two in the rotation, but other guys are getting chances.
Golesh said Howard transfer Xavier Newsom has been taking reps with the first and second team at times, but still needs to take a giant step and is learning a lot. True freshman DJ Broughton out of Mary G. Montgomery is also continuing to figure it out.
Jonathan Echols and Hunter Herring were held out of Friday’s scrimmage, but are also still in need of solid development in the next few weeks.
Auburn Undercover is an independent Auburn sports media company covering Auburn athletics, recruiting and insider news.
