When first-year head coach Hugh Freeze arrived to The Plains in November of 2022, there were a number of on-field positions he and his pieced together coaching staff wanted to prioritize immediately.

Auburn’s offensive line was perhaps No. 1 on the list after the unit struggled mightily in the 2022 season.

Next on the list was beefing up the Tigers’ receiving corps. And while that obviously meant plucking wide receivers out of the transfer portal – which Auburn did as it added four receivers from the portal – Freeze first went and picked up an unsuspecting tight end out of Florida International University.

Junior Rivaldo Fairweather announced his intentions to transfer from FIU on Nov. 29, 2022, with his name first appearing in the portal on Dec. 5.

That same day, Freeze and the Auburn Tigers offered the athletic, 6-foot-4 tight end. But so did countless other programs like Maryland and UConn.

But Freeze was serious about landing Fairweather, a guy he got to see play with his own two eyes when Freeze’s Liberty team welcomed FIU in 2020.

Fairweather caught just one pass that game, but it was a 22-yarder late in the fourth quarter that set up a scoring drive to help the Panthers come within two points of the Flames. Liberty went on to win the game 36-34.

But Freeze remembered Fairweather.

“I do remember game planning and then watching them and thinking, ‘Dang, that dude’s good.’,” Freeze said of Fairweather at SEC Media Days in July. “So when he did go in the portal and we came here, we were on it in a hurry, because I think he’s a really talented kid.”

And it’s a good thing Freeze and the Tigers acted with urgency, going as far as to send tight ends coach Ben Aigamaua to Fairweather’s home on Dec. 6 to recruit him to The Plains.

When all was said and done, Fairweather, who ranked as a 4-star transfer prospect, committed to the Tigers on Dec. 18 in a tweet from his younger brother’s Twitter account.

Fairweather joined a tight end room that featured veterans Luke Deal, Brandon Frazier and Tyler Fromm, as well as redshirt freshman Micah Riley.

Together, the five tight ends all hover around the 6-foot-5 mark, making them a mismatch nightmare for opposing defensive backs, assuming they have a pass-catching role in Auburn’s new-look offense.

And by the sounds of it, they do.

“We are kind of putting more on his plate as far as the pass game and the RPO world,” Aigamaua said when asked of Fairweather specifically. “This spring, every day, he’s doing something out there spectacular with the catches, taking the ball off the DB’s head, whatever it is. He’s been really, really impressive during camp with the work he’s doing in the passing game.”

In Auburn’s 11th practice of fall camp on Aug. 17, Fairweather was seen adjusting to a short pass during one-on-one drills and making a spinning, one-handed catch in the deep corner of the end zone for a touchdown.

It was the type of play you might see on SportsCenter the next morning. It was also the type of play you might expect out of a wide receiver – not necessarily a big-bodied tight end like Fairweather.

Given Fairweather’s size and athleticism, he’s got quite the role on Auburn’s offense, Aigamaua says.

“His role means a lot because we can do a lot of different things when he is in the game and when Luke’s in the game or with (Brandon) and Tyler,” Aigamaua said.

But when things will get real testy for opposing defenses is when the Tigers run more than one tight end out on the field.

“Defenses, they’ve got to figure how they want to play a two tight end system. We’ll even throw three out there and they’ve got to figure out how to do it,” Aigamaua said. “It’s very valuable to have guys like (Fairweather) out on the field. That’s a big body that can jump and run and be able to do the things that we ask them to do. It’s huge.”