Auburn's Alex Golesh comments on college football transfer portal tampering: 'Operate how you feel is right'
First-year Auburn coach Alex Golesh explains how no guardrails in the transfer portal has led to chaos
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New Auburn football coach Alex Golesh said there are no differences in SEC recruiting compared to his previous Group of Five stop, South Florida, when you consider transfer portal tampering shenanigans.
"(Tampering's) been going on for a really long time, this portal era amplified it in every imaginable way," Golesh said. "There eventually needs to be guardrails on this thing. I think we all want to know the rules in which you can operate in ... the truth is, right now, there aren't any, so you operate ethically with what you feel like is right.
"Is it right to call a kid that's on somebody else's roster to go get them? It's not. I think in a lot of way, what goes around comes around. I'm a strong believer in the football gods finding you at some point. Generally, they'll find you at the end of a game or on fourth-and-1. You've got to do things the right way."
Auburn's transfer class ranks 13th nationally per 247Sports with 39 signees, including 13 of his former players from USF. Quarterback Byrum Brown is the biggest splash, rated as the ninth-best quarterback after throwing for 3,158 yards and 28 touchdowns along with 1,008 yards rushing and 14 scores.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney recently ripped the Band-Aid off by after exposing conversations Ole Miss and Rebels coach Pete Golding engaged in with LLuke Ferrelli.
Duke and former Blue Devils quarterback Darian Mensah reached a settlement in their saga, which included the university trying to block his intention of entering the portal en route to signing with Miami.
There was the Demond Williams situation, too, after the Washington quarterback signed with the Huskies for the 2026 season before attempting to get out of that executed agreement and land elsewhere.
Rules enforcement is supposed to be top priority for the NCAA.
"The pressure to win is great and people feel it in different ways," Golesh said. "I'm not here to judge anybody else's decisions on how they operate, but you'd love to have some guardrails within the system. I think maybe as I establish myself within this conference, I'l have more vocal opinions but I'm just the new guy on the block trying to build a program here at Auburn and do it the right way."
Auburn lost several of its top players to transfer, including wideouts Eric Singleton Jr. (Florida), Cam Coleman (Texas), Perry Thompson (Minnesota) and three quarterbacks.
In October, the NCAA altered its transfer rules after coaching changes within college football. The second alteration centered on transfer exceptions, shortening the decision window to 15 days after a coaching decision and beginning five days after a new coach is hired or announced.
Ex-Auburn coach Hugh Freeze said after his first season on the Plains the prevalence of tampering would be impossible to eliminate unless the NCAA reverted back to old eligibility rules, which made players sit out a year after leaving.
There are no rules against family members, NIL representatives or rogue agents reaching out to coaching staffs on their client's behalf, a way to back-channel potential interest prior to transferring.
