Brian Battie wasn’t on Cadillac Williams’ radar until Philip Montgomery planted a seed during an early film session among Auburn’s new offensive assistants.

Before Battie, the former South Florida running back, hit the portal, Montgomery and Williams were studying film when the former Tulsa head coach recalled one of the best individual performances against his team last season. In Tulsa’s 48-42 win against USF on Nov. 18, Battie rushed for 169 yards while averaging 8.89 yards per carry. It was the highest individual rushing performance surrendered by Tulsa’s defense last season.

“Cadillac, South Florida’s got a running back that’s tough,” Williams recalled Montgomery saying.

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Williams took note and filed it away in the back of his mind. Auburn’s running back room was in need of another option; it was returning Jarquez Hunter and a less-experienced piece in Damari Alston while bringing in four-star 2023 signee Jeremiah Cobb, but the Tigers wanted more depth after leading rusher Tank Bigsby declared for the NFL Draft.

The only problem? At the time, Battie wasn’t in the transfer portal.

That changed on Jan. 6, when Battie opted to transfer from USF after three productive seasons, including a consensus All-America nod as a return specialist in 2021 and a 1,000-yard campaign in 2022. Williams perked up as soon as he saw Battie’s name in the portal, recalling Montgomery’s earlier mention of the 5-foot-8, 165-pounder.

“To have a guy like him jump in there, I was ecstatic,” Williams said. “So, (I) got an opportunity to cut on his film, and his film speaks for itself.”

It’s not every day a program has an opportunity to bring in a former All-American through the transfer market, and Williams was thoroughly impressed with what he saw from Battie during his time at South Florida in the various roles he played. There was of course the 1,186 rushing yards last fall, when Battie averaged 6.7 yards per carry—the 20th-best mark among FBS running backs in 2022. His 98.83 rushing yards per game ranked 23rd among all qualifying players in the country. He had seven 100-yard performances as a junior, including five in a row to close out the year, and has nine for his career.

Then there was Battie’s prowess in the return game, where he established himself as one of the nation’s most dangerous special teams weapons the last two seasons. Battie was a consensus All-American in 2021 while averaging 32.5 yards per kickoff return (sixth-best in the nation) and returning an FBS-leading three of them for touchdowns. He followed it up by averaging 20 yards per return last season while juggling those responsibilities with a featured role in the Bulls’ backfield. For his career, he averaged 24.2 yards per kick return.

“Whenever you turn on (film) — first of all, the speed, the explosiveness, but I love the fact that the first guy, he either made him miss or broke the tackle,” Williams said. “The first guy is never going to bring him down or tackle him. He always—also, he’s a smaller guy, but he’s a natural runner between the tackles. He’s a running back. He’s a football player. He’s a guy that understands leverage and angles, a guy that’s going to break tackles, and he’s strong, and he’s very competitive, and he wants to be one of the best. We are getting a complete back that I think can do it all.”

What really stood out to Williams about Battie’s film, though, was how he performed when given the opportunity to face SEC competition. South Florida traveled to Florida last September to take on the Gators in The Swamp, and Battie turned in one of the best games of his career. He rushed for 150 yards — at the time a career high, and by the end of the year the second-best mark of his career — and a touchdown while averaging 8.82 yards per carry. On the road. Against an SEC defense.

“If you turn on the Florida game and you watch him run the football, and again, I’m going to keep saying, he’s not a scatback… he’s a guy that you can run between the tackles,” Williams said. “He’s a guy that understands leverage and angles. He’s a guy that’s going to break tackles, as small as he is. He’s a guy that’s going to break tackles. He’s got superior vision, will stick his foot in the ground, you know, explosive guy. Man, he’s a guy that’s dynamic, man, that I know Coach Freeze and Coach Montgomery are waiting to see everything he can do and how we can utilize his talent.”

But first, Auburn had to acquire that talent. As soon as Battie hit the portal, Williams—whose NFL career was largely spent in Tampa, Fla.—used his local connections to find out more about Battie. Combined with the efforts of defensive intern Ty Holder, Auburn was able to get in touch with Battie and quickly arrange a visit to campus just two days after his name appeared in the transfer portal.

A day later, Battie committed to Auburn, providing the backfield with a veteran piece to pair alongside Hunter and a potential impact player on special teams.

“He gets to come here and have an opportunity to define his role and play big-boy ball,” Williams said. “…I’m excited about Brian. I thank God for us having the opportunity to get him and him choosing Auburn.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.