Nine days stand between the Auburn Tigers and the 2026 college football season, with still a lot of preparation to do before the opening kick is booted into the air in Atlanta on Sept. 5.
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The Tigers are looking for their first winning season since 2020, the final year of the Gus Malzahn era, but will need some key defined leaders to take them to the promise land.
The Impacting Auburn series by the Auburn Undercover staff has reached its top 10 players that the staff believes will be key names in the long run of this year.
As a disclaimer, the poll was tabulated by rankings sent in from four people on the Auburn Undercover staff—Tyler Raley, Ryan Bartow, Caleb Jones and Jay Douglas. The rankings each person sent in were averaged, with the lowest score going at the top of the list.
Having already revealed one offensive lineman in the list, the No. 10 spot holds another name in Stanton Ramil, who while he has fought back to be fully healthy in this preseason has stood out in his development and could be a key big body on the outside down the stretch.
General information:
Year: Junior
Position: Offensive lineman
Height: 6-foot-7
Weight: 313 pounds
Hometown: Binghamton, New York
Performance in 2025:
There is not much to report on all that Ramil did in his 2025 run, mainly because of the fact that he was injured for more than half of the season.
Ramil spent three total seasons at Michigan State before arriving on the Plains. However, he only got to play a total of five games in 2025 due to several injury complications that limited his time in East Lansing. It was not the first time that he had been injured with the Spartans, having suffered a season-ending knee injury as a freshman in 2023.
In all five of the games he played in, he was a starter. He was able to play 163 snaps as a result in those outings.
According to Pro Football Focus, Ramil was given a grade of 74.3, a 20.2-point increase from his 2024 report card. His run blocking received a 79.1, while his pass blocking received a 75.4.
Preseason camp intel:
The depth of the offensive line as a whole has been a big question mark ever since Golesh announced that Tai Buster would be out for at least the first half of the season with injury.
At the time of the announcement, it was an unclear gauge of where Ramil was in the process of recovering to full health from his injuries in East Lansing, but the common theme was that he was progressing.
As preseason camp moved forward, Ramil became a full participant in drills and was largely in the primary rotation of guys on drills with offensive line coach Tyler Hudanick.
The staff has tried to manage him wisely, but the positive note is that in both of the team’s scrimmages at Jordan-Hare Stadium, Ramil played the full time, a light for Golesh when he was speaking to the media afterwards.
Sources close to the program have indicated that he still has some knee issues that need to get worked out, but he is continuing to work day by day and his workload is being managed accordingly.
In terms of his position, Ramil has been seen at right tackle, with the rest of the primary group consisting of Jo Simmons, Jacob Strand, Cole Skinner and Cole Best. That has not officially been named a starting group, but they have been the corps that have been getting the most reps with the first team offense.
The key now is ensuring that he stays healthy and he can maintain a steady track throughout the season, not experiencing any major setbacks early on once the month of September gets going.
Impacting Auburn ranking
No. 10 - Stanton Ramil
No. 11 - Jeremiah Koger
No. 12 - Da’Shawn Womack
No. 13 - Rayshawn Pleasant
No. 14 - Alex McPherson
No. 15 - Cole Best
No. 16 - Eric Winters
No. 17 - AnQuon Fegans
No. 18 - Omar Mabson II
No. 19 - Jake Johnson
No. 20 - Sylvester Smith-Reed
What do you say? Leave your thoughts on our board below.
Auburn Undercover is an independent Auburn sports media company covering Auburn athletics, recruiting and insider news.
