Auburn Secures Commitment from Portal DL

The addition comes with two years of eligibility, giving Auburn some long-term stability on the defensive line

Auburn adds an experienced defensive lineman from the portal | Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

The Auburn Tigers have added another defensive lineman to their transfer portal class, this time Appalachian State’s Saint Farrior. Farrior will be a redshirt junior for the 2026 season and has two years of eligibility remaining.

Farrior began his collegiate career at the FCS level with Hampton, where he redshirted his first season on campus and had a small but quality impact as a redshirt freshman. He then transferred to App State for his redshirt sophomore season, where he recorded 15 total tackles, 8 solo tackles, and half a sack for the Mountaineers. 

Due to his slightly smaller role and time at small programs, Farrior is not ranked by 247Sports in the current portal class, receiving a zero-star grade, the same as his ranking out of high school. On3’s Rivals has him ranked the same.

However, stars aren’t everything, and some of the best coaches in college football have made their livings identifying talent at smaller schools among lower-rated players that end up blossoming into quality contributors, or even star players.

While I wouldn’t expect Farrior to be a frontline starter, he does offer a solid and reliable presence against the run. His 6-foot-3, 335-pound frame will definitely play at the SEC level in the trenches as long as he has the technique to leverage it properly.

Farrior has graded out fairly well against the run from Pro Football Focus as well, earning a 79.7 tackling grade and a 65.8 run defense grade. Despite that, I think he offers Auburn the most as a designated pass rusher from the interior. He has better burst than you would expect from someone over 330 pounds, and he recorded a 13.6 percent pressure rate on pass rush snaps in 2025, a very solid mark for an interior defender.

Farrior joins a portal defensive line class that is starting to take shape for Auburn, as it’s becoming clear that the Tigers have taken the approach of going after players who were able to put up good tape and produce at slightly lower levels of competition. Head coach Alex Golesh and his staff added Arkansas State transfer Cody Sigler to the class earlier this week, a very solid interior run defender.

However, it hasn’t all been small school talent. Auburn also secured the commitment of Missouri’s Nate Johnson today, an athletic edge rusher who should provide an excellent spark for the Tigers next season, to go along with the bolstered interior.