Rivaldo Fairweather: Auburn’s not–so-secret asset
September 26, 2020.
Hardcore Auburn football fans may remember that day as a Saturday when Auburn scored fourteen points going away in the fourth quarter to beat the Kentucky Wildcats 29-13 to start the season. In another world, Hugh Freeze was coaching his own team to a win. Good coaches, nay, great coaches remember details. He looked up to see and feel a mountain of a man outrun his linebackers and defensive backs, past him on the sidelines, for twenty-two yards before stepping out of bounds. As the saying goes: Underutilized. It was filed away in Coach Freeze’s brain. By now, you may be asking yourself, “What does this have to do with the 2023 Auburn Tigers?”
Everything.
Fast-forward to November 29, 2022, Hugh Freeze takes control of a floundering Auburn football program. His thoughts turn to the portal to bring in some impact players. What you reach for first is what you want the most. Eighteen days later, he makes his first portal signing. That tight end he had seen fly by him a few years earlier. FIU junior transfer, Rivaldo Fairweather.
Fairweather is a defensive coordinator’s nightmare. A 6-foot 5, 251-pound dynamic threat in the passing game that has blazing speed for his size and hands that a lot of NFL receivers would be jealous of. Not to mention another trait nearly unheard of in a tight end: An uncanny ability to run after the catch. No linebacker can cover him and very few defensive backs will willingly tangle with him. Throw him in the tight end friendly system that Coach Freeze has and you quietly have a weapon that opens up the entire offense.
Recently named to the “Twenty newcomers generating buzz” list of athletes flying under the radar this Spring, Fairweather is looking to have a season that shows that he was underutilized at FIU and is ready to make considerable contributions to the Auburn Tiger's passing game. Fairweather’s size, speed, and physicality also makes him a utility man that can be used out wide or in the fullback slot. These are traits that Coach Freeze has used before at Ole Miss with TE Evan Engram that turned him into a very desirable NFL player. Fairweather stated he had that thought in mind after Auburn tight end coach Ben Aigamaua spoke with him on an in-home visit. Eleven days later, Fairweather became an Auburn man. Coach Aigamaua was one of the first to laud what Fairweather brings to the tight end room:
“I’m excited about our room, especially adding Rivaldo (Fairweather) and the guys that we’ve got, adding Rivaldo to that room kind of — the expectations have risen from the passing game to the run game; we’re very involved in everything we do offensively. We don’t want to be stuck with somebody that only gives us one dimension because that limits our play-calling, we’ve been very successful with our tight ends at Liberty and Ole Miss and Arkansas State. For us, we have to find those guys because it puts defenses at a disadvantage when you have two or even three that can do all of those things.” - Coach Ben Aigamaua
A cursory glance at Fairweather’s highlights from FIU shows an explosive tight end that was very hampered by a generally terrible offense. In scheme and execution. Placed in an SEC offense that functions at a high level, this player could easily become one of the few elite tight ends in the nation.
A thought that is not lost on this young man. He already has big touchdown celebration plans choreographed with his teammates. For him, it's not if he’s going to be a household name in Auburn Fan’s hearts, it’s when. For Auburn fans waiting for a reason to cheer, it makes Autumn seem that much further away. Just one hundred and fifty-eight more days.
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