Auburn Tigers Must Conquer These Four Goals To Reach An Elite Recruiting Status

Auburn is trending towards having another exceptional recruiting class.

The Tigers are coming off a successful recruiting junior day in which players from across the state of Alabama and beyond came to the Plains, and there has been a lot of buzz about the Tigers along the recruiting trail overall.

To help the Auburn football program truly have an elite 2025 class that maximizes its potential, the following four goals need to be achieved. All four of them are obtainable.

1) The Tigers must have a big-time offensive tackle recruiting haul.

To truly be considered an elite 2025 class, Auburn needs to hit the home run at offensive tackle. It's been the Achilles heel for the Tigers' recruiting efforts for far too long. Plus, this is the year to do it.

From Rivals 2025 top-250 recruits, more than 10 are offensive tackles from states with SEC schools residing in them. That includes big-time offensive tackle and Auburn lean Micah DeBose from Prichard (Ala.) Vigor at #15 nationally. He's as close to an offensive line recruit must-get as the Tigers will have. There are more offensive tackle recruits to know as well.

A player that's expected to finish inside the Rivals top 250 would be Tavaris Dice from Fairburn (Ga.) Langston Hughes. He's coming off a tremendous visit to the Plains and the Tigers are the odds-on favorites to land his services. Here's a quote for Dice from this past Feb. 3.

"The visit was great," Dice said of his latest visit to Auburn. "It's a family visit...I've been here about five times. I'd never been here with my family."

Dice wants to make a decision this summer and the Tigers are probably going to be hard to beat for the 6-foot-5 and 293-pound offensive tackle. There's another recruit even closer to the Plains to note.

Right down the road from Auburn at Central-Phenix City is Mal Waldrep. He could play offensive tackle or guard at the college level, as he's one of the more versatile offensive linemen in the South.

With Auburn, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Florida State, Clemson, Georgia Tech, and Kentucky offers at his disposal, Waldrep is quite the talented prospect.

It's also important to note that Auburn has Spencer Dowland already in the 2025 recruiting class. Similar to Waldrep, Dowland can play tackle or guard at the college level.

2) Win more head-to-head battles against Alabama.

If there's a year to knock off Bama along the recruiting trail, it's the same year that Nick Saban retires. The Crimson Tide will not have the same kind of recruiting success that it did and now is the time to prove it.

Five of Auburn's seven verbal commitments come from inside the state borders. The Tide would like several of them to on their commitment list right now. To that point, Bama recently hosted Auburn commitment Antonio "Big Tony" Coleman for a visit.

It's ironic. Auburn flipped Coleman from his original commitment to Bama. There are several more chances for Auburn to defeat their arch-rival along the recruiting trail, especially inside the Yellowhammer State. Enterprise (Ala.) High School edge rusher Zion Grady would be a great player to start with.

The 6-foot-4 and 225-pound defender is a national recruit who backed off his Crimson Tide commitment once Saban stepped down. There's a great chance for Freeze and his coaching staff to win a recruiting battle for a top target who's also going to play a premium position. Grady has a chance to be a difference-maker at the SEC level.

These types of winner-takes-all recruiting battles will likely define whether Alabama or Auburn finishes with a better 2025 recruiting class.

3) Find a way to sign Na'eem Offord despite his Ohio State commitment.

Losing the state's #1 recruit to Ohio State is a hard pill to swallow. Offord pledged to the Buckeyes this past weekend. Considering he's from Birmingham (Ala.) Parker, a high school that's also home to Auburn defensive tackle commitment Jourdin Crawford, his OSU commitment adds salt to the wound. Crawford is ranked as the 12th-best recruit inside the Alabama state borders by Rivals.

Offord, meanwhile, is the state's #1 or #2 recruit by ESPN, On3, Rivals, and 247. Like Grady, he plays a pivotal position and also provides the natural physical size at 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds that college coaches desire with a cornerback. Offord's arm length makes him an even more attractive recruit.

As a comparison, Offord's skills at this stage of his career are similar to former Alabama cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry. Here's an important assessment about McKinstry from Pro Football Network that mirrors Offord's style of play.

"Great length and knowledge of how to maximize it."

Offord is adept at playing bump-and-run man coverage, off-man, and zone with similar success for each. Above all else, Offord is an instinctive prospect who makes game-changing plays by creating turnovers and pass breakups.

Point blank, it would be a huge disappointment if Auburn did not land this special in-state prospect right after Saban departed from being the head man in Tuscaloosa, especially to a Big 10 program.

4) Home game recruiting success must go up another notch.

The 2024 Auburn football schedule has tremendous opportunities to host elite recruits. Home contests versus Arkansas (Sep. 21), Oklahoma (Sep. 28), and Texas A&M (Nov. 23) are three of the games that will draw top crowds and recruits.

The Tigers should be a much-improved squad in 2024 and the home crowd inside Jordan-Hare Stadium is always raucous for the big games. These contests will present opportunities to win elite recruiting battles as the prospects see the passion from the Auburn faithful.

Even if it's just one or two more prospects signing with Auburn because of the home environment, landing at least another four-star or five-star recruit should be expected.