Auburn Fans Press Panic Button Over Lack Of Recruiting Success
Auburn Tigers fans are starting to get antsy with coach Hugh Freeze's lack of wins on the recruiting trail.
July is a fascinating time of year for the average college football fan.
You are either anxiously looking forward to the season and meticulously reviewing your team's two deep, or you are getting way too invested in recruiting.
On the plains of East Alabama, it would appear Auburn fans are doing the latter.
For context, the Tigers are currently ranked 85th in the 247 Sports composite recruiting rankings, an industry standard, and only have seven players in their class right now.
Literally, as I write this, one of their top targets still on the board, five-star safety Jireh Edwards, has just committed to in-state rival Alabama.
It's gotten so bad, at least from a perception standpoint, that both head coach Hugh Freeze and Athletic Director Joe Cohen had to come out and make public statements to quell their fanbase's concerns.
It's not often an AD has to step up to the podium to discuss recruiting in July, but that's life in the SEC for you.
It doesn't help things when your most hated rival, the aforementioned Crimson Tide, is on an all-time heater on the recruiting trail.
Things have reached such a boiling point that even Golf Digest has gotten in on the Freeze bashing.
Yikes! It's never a good sign when outlets outside your own sport are commenting on something as niche as recruiting.
Take a deep breath, Tigers fans. I am here to offer a little perspective and words of encouragement.
Programs taking a massive leap in recruiting after the summer months is rare, but there is precedent.
One needs only to look at the Florida Gators' feverish close to the 2025 recruiting cycle for proof, as Billy Napier parlayed a vote of confidence from his AD and a four-game winning streak at season's end into a historic finish on the trail.
The Gators were sitting outside the top 50 on November 1, only to finish with the seventh-ranked class on signing day.
There are even examples of Auburn pulling off massive climbs late in the cycle as well.
Both Auburn's 2024 and 2025 classes finished in the top ten after being outside the top-25 midway through the cycle, with the 2024 class in particular adding five of its top six signees after Fourth of July.
Freeze and company will have to get it done on the field this season if they want to pull in another top 10-15 class, though.
The Tigers have had losing seasons in each of his first two years at Auburn, and if his team stumbles out of the gates to start 2025, the hole could be too big to climb out of with respect to recruiting.
The talent is there, as we discussed above. Now the efforts on the recruiting trail need to translate into results on the field.
If Auburn goes 9-3 and makes the College Football Playoff while reeling in another top-ten class in the process, Hugh Freeze may not have to pay for another round of golf in eastern Alabama for a long time.