Meet the Auburn Tigers: Center Cole Best

In an era where receivers, quarterbacks, running backs, edge rushers and many other positions get top billing in the news, the offensive line is often overlooked, but the Auburn Tigers have found themselves a top-level center in Cole Best.

Best transferred over from USF to follow his head coach, Alex Golesh, along with nine other USF players, including two key pieces: quarterback Byrum Brown and running back Nykahi Davenport, both of whom he has blocked for before and will continue to block for in the upcoming season.

Out of high school, Best was a three-star prospect who was rated as the 80th-best interior offensive lineman in the 2021 class as well as the 148th-best player from his home state of Florida. He stayed in-state, committing to the USF Bulls, where he stayed until his head coach announced he would be departing to the Plains.

Largely thanks to the combined effort of Best and the other USF offensive linemen, Byrum Brown was sacked just 16 times last year. For context, Jackson Arnold, the Tigers’ quarterback in 2025, was sacked 30 times, despite not even playing an entire season’s worth of games.

It will certainly be a new level of difficulty for Best and the other Tiger offensive linemen, who have yet to play in a league like the SEC, in which many teams pride themselves on top-level defensive linemen. To be successful against such top-level teams, the Tigers need to be on the same page, and Best himself was quoted as to what his quarterback, Brown, is doing for that effort.

“That guy’s got a smile on his face every day. He’s the same guy every day. He’s the first one there to lift guys up,” he said. “Anything you need. You call Byrum, you text Byrum, he’s there. And he’s a true leader. I think that’s why guys truly rally around him.”

It takes supreme confidence in your own abilities to say this about your quarterback, especially as a center, which is typically defined as the leader of the offensive line. Best’s relationship with Brown certainly bodes well for the chemistry of this team, which should lead to fewer penalties and more clean reps in the pocket as the team grows throughout the 2026 season.

In the trenches, though, that effort starts with Best, who, rather ironically, may be the ‘best’ option for the Tigers at center this year. Notably, he is a senior, so the Tigers will have to figure out who will be set to replace him at the end of the season, when Best will likely enter the NFL Draft.

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