Football Recruiting
Auburn Transfer Safety Donovan Kaufman is Taking an Official Visit to NC State this Weekend
Auburn Transfer Safety Donovan Kaufman (5’10″/204) confirmed with me that he is taking an Official Visit to NC State this weekend. Kaufman entered the Transfer Portal last week, on January 16th.
Rivals ranked Kaufman as a 4-Star prospect in the 2020 recruiting class. They ranked him as the #186 overall player nationally, the #11 Safety, and the #9 player in the state of Louisiana. Out of high school, Kaufman committed to Vanderbilt.
In his first season of college football, Kaufman played 2 games (started) for the Commodores as a True Freshman, collecting 15 tackles and a pass breakup in limited action.
In 2021, Kaufman transferred to Auburn, where he played in 13 games as a Freshman (2020 didn’t count against eligibility due to Covid), starting in 7 of them. In 414 snaps, Kaufman had 33 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 1 sack, 1 interception, 2 pass breakups and 3 forced fumbles.
In 2022, Kaufman was the returning starter at Safety, starting in the first 7 games, before suffering an injury that kept him out of the final 4 games. Still, he played in 459 snaps, which was a new career high. As a Sophomore, Kaufman recorded a career high 39 tackles, as well as 2 pass breakups and 1 forced fumble. His PFF grade was 72.1 that year, which is the best grade of his career.
This past season, Kaufman started in 4 of the 12 games he played in, recording 395 snaps. As a Junior, Kaufman had 37 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, 1 sack, 1 interception, 1 fumble recovery and 2 forced fumbles.
Kaufman has played 1,369 collegiate snaps in 34 career games, starting in 18.
NC State is returning both of their starting Safeties from 2023 in Devan Boykin and Sean Brown. Boykin is recovering from a torn ACL suffered in December, but I’m hopeful he will be full go by the start of the 2024 season. Robert Kennedy III started for the Wolfpack at Nickel this past year, and he has run out of eligibility leaving a hole there. I could see Boykin moving to Nickel. Either way, there will be a starting role open at Nickel, or one of the Safety positions if Boykin moved to Safety.
It appears that he has two years eligibility left, correct? He played 20 is has been removed from the record. He played 21 and 22, and red shirted 23. Getting SEC players is a good move to make as well as the Auburn linebacker.