Auburn Tigers Land Kicker via Transfer Portal

The Auburn Tigers were dead last in the SEC in field goal percentage in 2024. They're looking to address this deficiency by signing former Southern Miss kicker Connor Gibbs.

Auburn Tigers kickers struggled mightily in 2024, making just 12 of 22 field goal attempts. / Jake Crandall/ Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Auburn Tigers have made another addition to its special teams unit via the transfer portal, adding former Southern Miss kicker Connor Gibbs, according to a report from Caleb Jones.

Gibbs, a 5-foot-10, 180-pound sophomore, appeared in 16 games over his two seasons with the Golden Eagles. Gibbs was 10 of 13 on field goal attempts this season, including his career-long of 59 yards. Additionally, Gibbs averaged 59.2 yards per attempt on 30 kickoffs, six of them going for touchbacks.

According to Kohl’s Kicking, Gibbs was a five-star recruit coming out of high school and the No. 20 kicker nationally in the class of 2023.

Gibbs will aim to assist Auburn in returning to its position as a special teams power house in 2025. The Tigers were missing Alex McPherson for nearly the entire 2024 season as he only appeared in Auburn’s win over Kentucky and went one of two on field goal attempts.

True freshman Towns McGough was thrust into the starting role and went five of 12 on field goal attempts. Sophomore Ian Vachon took over as the starting place kicker for the final-three games of the season and went six of eight on field goal attempts.

In all, the Tigers were a woeful 12 of 22 (54.6%) on field goal attempts in 2024, dead last in the SEC. No other team in the conference was worse than 66.7% on the season.

Gibbs joins former Oklahoma State punter Hudson Kaak as special teams players who have joined Auburn via the portal since it opened. The Tigers lost Gabe Russo, a redshirt sophomore punter, who did not appear in a game during his two seasons with the program, to the portal on Dec. 3.

The Tigers added one specialist in their 2025 haul of high school recruits, five-star recruit and Kohl’s Kicking’s No. 5 punter nationally, John Alan McGuire from Alabaster, Ala.

Click here to read about the 14 players who have announced their intention to transfer from Auburn as well as keep track of the Tigers’ activity in the portal.