Auburn football in pursuit of high-profile 2024 offensive lineman
Since Hugh Freeze arrived on the Plains back in November, offensive line recruiting has taken a massive turn for the better.
Seven linemen are arriving to Auburn through a combination of the transfer portal and the 2023 recruiting class. New offensive line coach Jake Thornton has been putting in the work on the recruiting trail, and now he's after another big time recruit.
Casey Poe, a 2024 four-star lineman out of Lindale, Texas, has scheduled a visit to Auburn in March. Poe is starting to get a lot of looks from big time programs, and the Tigers are trying to get in early on his recruitiment.
College football recruiting expert John Garcia Jr. joined Zac Blackerby on the Locked On Auburn Podcast to discuss Poe and his relationship with Auburn.
"Poe's recruitment is really on the ascent," Garcia said. "His junior tape got out, it was really good, just checked it out again this morning. He's got a whole lot of versatility to his game. I know he's an interior projection, but he plays tackle on every down on Friday nights in a balanced offense."
According to Garcia, it's a rarity to see a lineman that plays both inside and out - at such a high level, too.
"There's just not a lot of guys that have that on their resume before their senior season. So, you can see why that tape circulating and him making visits on top of it as these schools verify his size can lead to a really big uptick from a recruiting perspective."
So, who's in contention for his services? 14 Power Five schools have offered Poe already - including Alabama, LSU, and Texas A&M among others - but what's important is being on his visit list, per Garcia.
"He's visiting a lot of schools and picking up a bunch of offers so it's hard to peg who's really in the running for this thing. But I think when you start talking about a hot recruit planning visits, and Auburn coming up, that's when you start to see the interest. We know with the Walker White recruitment, those things can change very quickly once you get on campus. I think you'll see a lot of that relative to Jake Thornton because he's a guy that has had to recruit beyond the traditional footprint at previous stops, and he's already doing that at Auburn pretty much hitting the ground running. Clearly he's built a relationship with Poe, and he's reciprocating with this visit."
As any offensive lineman would, Poe is likely looking for an offense similar to his in high school - balanced, exciting, fun. He'll get that at Auburn... in theory.
"When you're an offensive lineman you want to see an exciting offense, that is theoretically set in stone here at Auburn - at least, from a vision perspective," Garcia said. "You want to see that element of balance, right? And we think this offense is going to look pretty balanced here going forward and Thornton comes from that type of system at Ole Miss as well., so he's got something to sell."
Not only do the Tigers have the offensive system that will attract players like Poe, there's already history between Auburn's new OL coach and the high-profile recruit.
"I want to say that relationship was kicked off before Thornton made the move to Auburn,' Garcia said. "You've already got some history there with your potential future offensive line coach and those things usually uptick a bit when you get the face time and you get on campus, so once that visit goes down in March, I think we'll get a better idea. But there's not a lot of schools on his list, there's four or five he's planning to visit, and it's kinda quiet. Again, these things can change in very short order, so to be on the upcoming visit list alone is a big deal for Poe."
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