Ben Aigamaua's face lit up when the subject of Micah Riley-Ducker came up. The new Auburn tight ends coach sometimes has to realize that the player is still just a redshirt freshman but is excited about what the tight end can do for the Tigers.

"Just his physicality," Aigamaua said. "He plays a lot of edge out there. And then you see somebody that big running the way he runs."

A 4-star signee in the 2022 class, Riley-Ducker has the appropriate size – 6-foot-5, 238 pounds – to be a producer on the field in several ways. While he didn't see any action in his first year on the Plains, Aigamaua has seen how quickly the Nebraska native learns on the fly.

"Once the light goes off, once it clicks, once he sees on film, like, 'Okay, I see exactly what you're talking about, Coach,'" the coach said. "Then you've got something cooking. And so he excites me a lot, and I just tell him every day, trust the process, you'll be fine."

It's part of a position room that is full of playmakers. While there are some veterans in Luke Deal, Tyler Fromm and Brandon Frazier, the addition of FIU transfer Rivaldo Fairweather and the improvement of Riley-Ducker make the tight end corps the deepest part of Auburn's offense.

"Athletically, gifted athlete," Aigamaua said of Fairweather. "He can run. I think the ceiling is still high. The thing that comes with that is the blocking scheme, the footwork, all that comes with that and the techniques of it, we still have to get crisp in the things that we do. But man, he's been impressive out there."

And while all of them can catch the ball, it will be the ones that do the dirty work that will see the field the most. Aigamaua praised how his group takes that to heart.

"That's the thing with that room; they take pride in everything that we do," he said. "The physicality part of it, if you don't have it, we've got to find somebody else that can do it. That's just the whole mindset of the room."

Aigamaua also knows that his group has to be versatile, serving as blockers, receivers and meshing with the offensive line. So when asked to describe his bunch, he used a popular tool.

"We're the Swiss Army knife," he said. "When you guys are able to watch practice, you'll see us out there flexed out, running go routes, corners, digs, overs, flats; I mean, you name it, we're out there doing it."