Auburn Among Top-10 Teams in Running for 2027 Recruit

The 2027 recruit was originally committed to Florida State, but he decommitted over the summer

Lake Wales wide receiver Kaneilius Purdy has Auburn in his top 10 | Scott Wheeler | Photo / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Auburn Tigers have a chance to nab their first commit of the Alex Golesh era. Kaneilius Purdy, a 2027 recruit, posted his final 10 schools he's choosing from, and the Tigers are one of them.

Among the final 10 include fellow SEC schools Texas A&M, Miami, Tennessee and Florida. Michigan, Louisville, UCF, Florida State and Colorado round out the remaining schools.

Where’s home? @polk_way @CountyPolk @CoachAG_3 @xmarcthespott @Hayesfawcett3 @H2_Recruiting @CoachGrant_LW pic.twitter.com/NgaZECkckK

— Kaneilius Purdy4⭐️ATH (@KaneiliusPurdy) January 7, 2026

Purdy is ranked as a three-star recruit out of Lake Wales, Fla. He’s a top-40 player out of the state and is a top-25 player at his position, according to 247 Sports. He’s classified solely as an “athlete,” but according to his X (formerly Twitter) bio, he plays wide receiver, running back and safety. 

He initially committed to Florida State on March 31, but he didn’t stick with the Seminoles for long. He decommitted in mid-June and has been fair game ever since. Auburn offered him back in June 2024, but he has yet to visit the campus. The only campuses he has visited are Florida State’s and Tennessee’s. Neither was official.

Auburn currently has no commits for the 2027 recruiting cycle. They had one previously, four-star safety Jaylen Scott, but he decommitted right after the Golesh hire was announced.

Before the 2026 class, Auburn had been on a good streak with recruiting. Head coach Hugh Freeze had assembled back-to-back top-10 classes in the country in 2024 and 2025. However, after a lackluster 2026 season, recruits started to balk at committing to heading to the Plains.

Their managed to sign 20 recruits, but it is the 22nd-ranked class in the country, a bit of a drop off from the year before. There is an argument that can be made that with a new head coach, having who signed on is still respectable.

Golesh will be tasked with assembling his first recruiting class as an SEC coach. It's a completely different level of talent than what he is used to looking at back with USF. The Bulls have the 70th-ranked recruiting class for the 2026 cycle with no blue-chip recruits bound for Tampa. Grabbing a player like Purdy would be a good way to get things jump-started.