Auburn Lands Big Ten Cornerback from Transfer Portal

The Auburn Tigers beef up their defense by adding a cornerback from UCLA in the transfer portal

Auburn gains an experienced cornerback via the portal | Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images

New Auburn Tigers head coach Alex Golesh certainly had his work cut out for him, as over 30 Tigers have entered the NCAA Transfer Portal before ever playing a snap with him. Despite such significant losses at nearly every position, Golesh is in the process of reloading his Tiger team, and he just picked up another quality piece.

BREAKING: Auburn has signed UCLA CB transfer Andre Jordan Jr., @Auburn247 has learned

He was an honorable mention All-Big Ten selection in 2025, a big addition for DVDhttps://t.co/hAxlXZcrcd pic.twitter.com/kaBAbBcbGu

— Christian Clemente (@CClemente247) January 10, 2026

On Saturday, Andre Jordan Jr., a cornerback who formerly played at UCLA, announced that he’d be giving Golesh a shot and transferring to Auburn. The Washington native is 6-foot-1, 175 pounds and is rated as the 62nd-best corner in the portal.

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Jordan was a three-star out of high school in Washington, so he started his career with Oregon State before transferring to UCLA after two seasons. Jordan’s been looking for the next step in his growing career and seems to have found it on the Plains.

In 2025, at UCLA, Jordan defended 10 passes and accumulated 12 solo tackles. 

Brandon Huffman, a 247Sports National Recruiting Editor, was quite impressed with Jordan

 when he evaluated him out of high school, even projecting him as a future Power Four starter.

“[Jordan] has the ability to break up passes if they even target his side of the field, but his ability to run stride-for-stride with receivers with his plus ball skills usually result in a different receiver being targeted,” he said. “[Jordan] has good play speed and quickness and reacts to passes well with the instincts to jump routes when playing off and has good burst.”

DJ Durkin’s once-strong defense certainly took a hit with the loss of Keldric Faulk to the 2026 NFL Draft, but it then continued to take hit after hit as many defensive pieces announced their intent to transfer.

At the cornerback position alone, Durkin’s already lost Raion Strader, Kayin Lee, Donovan Starr, Jay Crawford and A’mon Lane-Ganus. As such, Jordan should have ample opportunity to find a role within the Tigers’ 2026 defense, which is still short on parts despite Golesh’s eight portal acquisitions.

With that said, Golesh has also signed Fred Gaskin, who was a former All-Conference defensive back, so Jordan won’t be left out to dry in Jordan-Hare.