Wednesday marked the first day of the 2024 Early Signing Day, and head coach Hugh Freeze was thrilled about his incoming class.
Twenty-four players have officially put the pen to paper to seal their commitment to the Tigers with 19 coming from high school, three coming from the transfer portal and two from JUCO.
“Excited about this class, obviously,” Freeze said. “Just thrilled with the effort, and I really believe that the young men that we’ve signed and the families they come from, I love these kids. I love them as individuals. I think they’re genuine. I think they want to help a program reestablish itself as one of the elite programs in the country, and I think they love to work at it and excited to get a lot of them here soon and go to work.”
A large chunk of Auburn’s class that signed Wednesday came from the high school ranks, a tactic that Freeze and his staff implemented by design. Last offseason, Auburn signed 20 players from the transfer portal.
While the Tigers will certainly add more after Wednesday, right now they only have three commitments from the portal. In what seems to be a different tactic from last season, Freeze is not looking to be overly reliant on the portal this season.
“We focused on the high school class,” Freeze said. “... I don’t know if that’s the right approach, but I wanted them to feel like they’re the priority. So, we did not chase hard and portal on everyone that could play, and there was a lot that could, because we were just committed to making sure that our high school class felt like they were the priority of us establishing the true rebuild here at Auburn.”
Leading that class of high school commitments were the two jewels of Auburn’s 2024 class: Cam Coleman from Central High School and Perry Thompson from Foley High School. Both Coleman, who was previously committed to Texas A&M, and Thompson, who was once committed to Alabama, are rated as 5-star wide receivers and are the two highest-rated players in the Tigers’ 2024 class according to 247Sports.
Freeze publicly reaffirmed his commitment to 2023 starting quarterback Payton Thorne earlier this week by saying, “If we get the right pieces around him and Holden (Geriner), I think our quarterback room is going to be fine next year." And with the addition of two of the highest-rated commits in Auburn history running routes for him next season, Thorne’s job should become a whole lot easier in 2024.
Additionally, Auburn has two other top-200 wide receivers coming in with Malcolm Simmons from Benjamin Russell High School and Bryce Cain from Baker High School also signing with Auburn on Wednesday – meaning all four of Auburn’s wide receiver commits are staying in-state.
“And then you move to where it was no secret, we needed to get some difference makers at the receiver position,” Freeze said. “And to land two of the top 10 in the nation in Perry and Cam, and then two others that I think are sleepers… Now they’re gonna have to get thrown in the deep end of the pool and swim pretty fast, but I think they have that ability.”
Freeze compared this incoming receiver class to the 2013 class he signed during his time at Ole Miss when he brought in 5-star receiver Laquon Treadwell, who left Ole Miss as the program leader in career receptions and finished fifth in school history in receiving yards.
While wide receivers were the obvious need for Auburn, Freeze had just as many good things to say about the linebacker class that he and linebacker coach Josh Aldridge signed.
The class is led by three linebackers rated inside the top 150 of the 247Sports rankings with Demarcus Riddick ranked the highest – just in front of Jamonta Waller and Joseph Phillips.
Each of those three signees were huge recruiting wins for Freeze at the time of their commitments. Riddick, the No. 55 player in the country, flipped his commitment from Georgia to Auburn in July. Waller also flipped from SEC foe Florida to Auburn in November, and Phillips’ summer commitment to Auburn earned Freeze a win over Georgia.
Another Auburn linebacker commitment is D’Angelo Barber, who recently won an Alabama state title with Clay-Chalkville and tallied 152 tackles, eight tackles for loss, two sacks and two forced fumbles in his senior season.
“I don’t know how they rank that or anything but if you take Waller and Phillips and Riddick and Barber, I would venture to guess that we rival most any linebacker class that was signed from the high school ranks,” Freeze said.
With Auburn flipping players who were previously committed to Georgia, Alabama, Texas A&M and Florida, it’s fair to wonder how the Tigers, who are 17-20 over the past three seasons, have had so much success this cycle and currently have a top 10 recruiting class.
According to Freeze, Auburn is an easy place to advertise, and preaching to recruits that they can be responsible for bringing Auburn back to the top of the college football world is his best way he can recruit.
“Yes, you can go to the elite right now, and you can help them sustain and there’s nothing wrong with that,” Freeze said. “You can also choose that you want to be a trailblazer and do something different and join together with a group of guys and return a program that’s proven it can be there and return it back to that, and that is the message.”
Auburn still has time to add to its impressive class as 4-star offensive lineman Coen Echols and 3-star offensive lineman Favour Edwin are both Auburn targets who could sign between Wednesday and Friday.
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Jacob Waters is a senior majoring in journalism. From Leeds, Alabama, he started with The Plainsman in August, 2021.
Twitter: @JacobWaters_
