Auburn Running Backs Coach Plans on Using 'The Whole Room' in 2026

New Auburn Tigers head coach Alex Golesh will look to re-establish the run game during his time on the Plains. Running backs coach Larry Porter will set that plan in motion.

Auburn returns its top rusher from last season, Jeremiah Cobb, for his senior season, looking to build on what he was able to do in 2025 with 969 yards and five touchdowns. However, Porter plans on giving him plenty of help within the backfield for next season.

In fact, he wants to use the entire room.

“I want the whole room. That’s what I work for every single day,” Porter said on Thursday. ‘You got to coach the guys at the bottom of the roster just as hard as you coach the guy at the top of your roster.”

Fortunately, the Tigers made some moves during the offseason to give Porter plenty of help in making that process possible. Auburn got USF running back Nykahi Davenport and Baylor transfer Bryson Washington to help aid that effort, coming to the Plains with over a combined 1,300 yards on the ground last season at their respective schools. Other names, like sophomore Omar Mabson II, have had strong starts to their respective fall camp to help push for a spot as well.

But, when it comes to coaching, a player like Cobb is getting the same type of treatment as a true freshman to get this plan underway.

“I understand, and I tell them all the time, like it’s tough to get four, five, three guys ready to play each week,” Porter said. “So, we have to operate in a way as well as in a space to where you have to assume that you’re next.”

The amount of depth comes to have fresh legs throughout the season. While Cobb is expected to take the majority of the touches, others like Davenport and Washington bring their own expertise into the fray to have a blend of different types of tailbacks on Auburn’s offense. Of course, quarterback Byrum Brown is known to use his legs and will have designed runs for him as well.

It has Porter controlling the uncontrollables, which in this case, would be when players get sidelined throughout the season, if it happens.

“Obviously, injuries happen, and you can’t control that,” he said. “So, again, the expectation is, and this is a place in which. . .we grade guys at the bottom of the roster no differently than we grade the guys at the top of the roster. So, the expectations are the same.”

However, the running back room is responding, and it’s in a way that’s happening off the field.

Porter described how the backs are helping each other when it comes to growth. While off the field, Auburn’s skill position players are doing things together, like cooking fish and taking lessons together to benefit as people. Through this, Porter said that “they can be completely transparent with each other,” which can roll onto the football field.

It makes the process throughout fall camp a lot smoother, especially with a lot of new faces in next season’s room.

“The thing that I will say about this room is I love the chemistry and continuity,” he said. “These guys are not only just trying to understand what becoming an Auburn man is all about, but they’re also building a brotherhood. I’m talking about life lessons.”

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