EARLY SIGNING DAY LIVE THREAD

Boy, how things have changed! Ever since the addition of this Early Signing Day, the recruiting game just gets quicker and dirtier. Throw in the Transfer Portal, NIL collectives, and the current state of affairs with COVID years and the such, and you’ve got a monster that we never imagined a few years ago.

Hugh Freeze has been on the trail nonstop since he arrived at Auburn, but unfortunately for us it might not be enough to make the kind of impact we’d like to see after the inaction from Bryan Harsin over the past two years. Harsin was not just a bad recruiter, he didn’t try in the slightest. Not visiting the top high schools in the state, not going to coaching dinners and meetings, not even hitting the trail on Friday nights for high school football games. It was bad, and it’ll take some time to turn things around. However, we can make some noise in the #Crootin’ game here today, and then the best way to get people to notice you is to win in the fall. We’ll have to wait and see how that turns out, but alas. Them’s the brakes.

Here’s where we stand at the moment. You can see the addressing of the areas of need (OL, DB, DL, QB sort of). We were of the impression that Auburn was going to get one of Grayson McCall (Coastal Carolina) or Devin Leary (NC State), but Auburn doesn’t offer McCall’s major and there were some issues with credits transferring, and then Leary is heading to Kentucky. There may be someone who looks to transfer after bowl season from another school, but we’ll have to see how things shake out there.

Auburn’s class currently sits in the Top 25 according to 247, but that’s still only good for 8th in the SEC. A couple of gets today would help boost into the Top 20 at least, and a surprise may help jump into the Top 15. We’ll be here all day.

7:17 AM CST: Two of the first three signees are offensive linemen. Our long national nightmare is starting to come to an end.

8:15 AM CST: Six LOIs are in, and five of those players are interior linemen, with three OL. Gotta load up in the trenches.

8:25 AM CST: BOOOOOOOOOOOOO

9:21 AM CST: Four OL on board now, and a QB who was committed to Freeze at Liberty. We’ll see if we get any bites from other quarterbacks, because I don’t know if Robby’s the guy to take us forward in 2023.

9:28 AM CST: That’s a pair of 4-star safeties who’ve now joined the class with Sylvester Smith (former Tennessee commit) and Terrance Love now officially signed. There’s a good group that can be foundational in the next couple of years joining the team, we just need a couple of electric pieces to make things pop.

10:28 AM CST: No-go on Tony Mitchell, who was our likeliest chance for a big splash flip.

Auburn is still loading up in the defensive backfield, as Colton Hood (nephew of Rod Hood) has officially signed. That makes four DB signees with more to likely come.

Also, lumping all bad news in this update:

Deion comes in and swoops a kid up. We’ve got plenty of OL in this class, but he would’ve been a solid addition as well.

11:11 AM CST: Well, Gus just took Braeden Marshall, so we won’t be adding more to the DB class at this time.

But we got a big one!

12:27 PM CST: Big flip as Kayin Lee spurns Ohio State and comes aboard!

Auburn Signees

• 4-star OL Clay Wedin
• 3-star DL Stephen Johnson
• 3-star OL Bradyn Joiner
• 4-star S Sylvester Smith
• 4-star DL Darron Reed
• 3-star OT Tyler Johnson
• 3-star DB JC Hart
• 3-star OL Connor Lew
• 3-star QB Hank Brown
• 3-star EDGE Elijah McAllister (from Vanderbilt)
• 4-star S Terrance Love
• 3-star CB Colton Hood
• 3-star EDGE Brenton Williams
• 4-star DL Wilky Denaud
• 4-star EDGE Keldric Faulk
• 4-star WR Daquayvious Sorey
• 4-star CB Kayin Lee
• 3-star OT Izavion Miller (JUCO)
• 3-star DL Quientrail Jamison-Travis (JUCO)

Auburn Commits

• 4-star RB Jeremiah Cobb (apparently waiting until February to sign his LOI)
• 3-star QB Keyone Jenkins (likely to take the PWO role for now)

Transfers (with current Transfer star rankings)

• 4-star TE Rivaldo Fairweather (from FIU)

Leaning Toward Auburn

• 3-star DB Braeden Marshall SIGNED WITH UCF DAMNIT GUS
• 3-star S CJ Johnson

Maybe Leaning Toward Auburn?

• 4-star CB Kayin Lee ADD HIM TO THE SIGNEE LIST
• 3-star OT Isaiah Jatta SIGNED WITH COLORADO

Anybody’s Game

• 4-star DB Tony Mitchell (rumors he’s told both AU/AL that he’s coming, so we’ll see if we actually win one of these) SIGNED WITH ALABAMA
• 4-star EDGE Keldric Faulk ADD HIM TO THE SIGNEE LIST

No chance, but let’s see what Brother Hugh is made of

• 5-star EDGE Qua Russaw
• 5-star DL James Smith