AUBURN | The newcomers have arrived. The portal drama is mostly over. Now the hard work begins.

Fifteen signees from the 2024 class along with four invited walk-ons and six transfers are scheduled to go through their first winter workouts at Auburn Thursday.

They’ll be led by a group of veteran teammates that are determined to return the Tigers’ program back to respectability.

“It 100 percent starts with winter workouts,” said rising senior linebacker Eugene Asante. “Because you're putting your body in a condition to where it's hard, you don't want to do it, your body's worn down. But that's when the mental game kicks in.

“Instead of them leaning on quitting or just tapping out, it's allowing them to push themselves beyond their limits. And that's what shows up on the football field.”

Winter workouts are when the real team building begins for the 2024 season. Of course, it’s an opportunity for players, new and old, to become bigger, strong and faster, but there are more important benefits.

There’s the mental toughness that players build from pushing themselves farther than they thought possible and the togetherness that comes with players working together to reach goals and push each other.

Hugh Freeze has said repeatedly that building a player-led team is a major priority for the offseason.

“I'm still as confident as ever that this can be an elite football program again, and it takes great recruiting, but it also takes player-led teams that put team first and the standard of the team every single day first,” said Freeze. “We're still learning that, and we've got to demand it as coaches, and we can't waver from it when we get back in January, and I'm looking forward to the leadership of our team doing that.”

Freeze is counting on existing leaders like Asante to push his teammates even harder and for new leaders to emerge. One player he’s asked to take on a bigger role is rising sophomore Keldric Faulk.

“I’m going to have to lead this team, have to pick up a bigger role than what I’ve been doing,” said Faulk. “Really just help this team grow and to be something better than what it is. We made tremendous strides with the leaders we had this year, which were some pretty good leaders.

“He said he wants more of the players to be active with the players because a player-led team is better than a coach-led team.”

Auburn opens the 2024 season Aug. 31 against Alabama A&M at Jordan-Hare Stadium.