A new coach at Auburn meant significant roster turnover would surely follow. Before Hugh Freeze’s team lines up for fall practices in a few weeks, his roster has more than three dozen new faces, including more than 20 transfers. In his first offseason back in the SEC, Freeze took advantage of the new landscape the transfer portal has made for college football to reshape the Tigers. Auburn brought in the fifth-ranked transfer class, according to 247Sports, and led the nation with 11 four-star rated transfers.

Here’s a look at one of them…

No. 13 Rivaldo Fairweather, tight end, junior

Hometown: Lauderhill, Fla. (Boyd Anderson HS)

Previous university: Florida International (2020-22)

Height: 6-foot-4

Weight: 251 pounds

A look back at the past: Prior to suiting up at FIU, Fairweather was a 3-star prospect who played both football and basketball at Boyd Anderson High School. As a senior in high school, Fairweather saw time on both sides of the line of scrimmage, collecting 40 passes for 812 yards and 15 touchdowns on offense and tallying 23 tackles on defense. On the hardwood, Fairweather averaged 13.8 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. During his three seasons at FIU, Fairweather notched 838 yards on 54 receptions with five touchdowns. In 2022, Fairweather was named to the preseason All-CUSA team. When Fairweather entered the transfer portal, he was rated a 4-star transfer prospect by 247Sports.

2023 season outlook: Fairweather was one of the first transfers first-year head coach Hugh Freeze welcomed to Auburn, officially onboarding with the Tigers less than one month after Freeze was hired. And it’s with good reason Freeze prioritized Fairweather, who played against Freeze in 2020 when he was at the helm of Liberty’s program. Undoubtedly, the first thing people will notice about Fairweather is his size. Stretching 6-foot-4 and eclipsing 250 pounds, Fairweather’s size alone is difficult to combat. But when you pair his size with his speed, physicality and consistent hands, is makes Fairweather’s skillset a dangerous one with the potential to change the dynamic of an entire offense. Fairweather’s tool bag also allows him to be multidimensional, as he lined up out wide for FIU on a handful of occasions.

“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,” Auburn tight ends coach Ben Aigamaua said.

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.”