Auburn Recruiting Trends: Mostly Good News For The Tigers
Auburn's recruiting situation is changing by the day.
There are many recruits ranked inside Rivals' Top 250 that Auburn fans should be excited about becoming Tigers, while some other prospects are more up in the air right now.
The following is an overview of recruiting questions to consider that dig into think big-picture topics, position groups, areas these young football players come from, and more.
To make all of this happen, the following is a collection of information that's been collected from recruits like defensive lineman Justus Terry, high school coaches, trainers, and other members of the recruiting media.
Where is Auburn falling short?
Nowhere, at least not yet. There's potential angst over the quarterback position but that's the nature of the beast. Whenever a team goes after 5-star talent like Lacey and Lewis, there are going to be ups and downs. Let's revisit the signal-caller position in about a month for more of a focused approach on that specific subject.
Overall, the only real current concern should be with the offensive line and that's more due to Auburn's recent results at the position. No doubt, AU must sign at least four top offensive line recruits this year. Spencer Dowland is a great start, with Kalen Edwards being another great option; he could play defensive tackle as well.
Is Auburn recruiting well against the SEC and the nation's best programs?
This is a question, or something similar, that's asked quite often. Many recruiting media members notice how Auburn is making headway with top recruits from Rivals, On3, etc. There's the 2024 recruiting class as evidence. Now that Auburn is inside the nation's top-10 classes, the pressure is on to do it again.
Looking at 2025 prospects, the overall number of top recruits considering Auburn is tremendous. Prospects like defensive ends Zion Grady and Jared Smith, wide receivers Caleb Cunningham and Travis Smith, and quarterbacks KJ Lacey and Julian Lewis, are considering the Tigers and reside among the nation's top-100 prospects.
There's a long way to go but if you take nothing else from this article, note that Auburn is involved with many more top recruits in the 2025 class than the 2024 class at the same time of the year; A great sign.
Where is Auburn turning up the heat?
Georgia. There's no doubt about that. The Peach State is one where Auburn has an opportunity to host 10 or more players for official visits. In the end, while the Tigers always seem to sign at least one or two players from the state of Georgia, gaining four or five prospects from Kirby Smart's backyard would not be surprising.
There's a bunch of talent to recruit. Plus, Smart and his staff are not going after all of them anyway. If the Tigers steal a few recruits that UGA truly wants inside their state borders, even better for AU.
In-state recruiting, why is it different this year?
According to the top-30 players in Alabama by Rivals, Auburn has five verbal commitments while Bama has but one. The team for Auburn to be more concerned about would be Georgia, at least for now.
The Dawgs recruit the Yellowhammer State hard each year. Case in point, top safety recruit Anquon Fegans going over to Athens to visit the Bulldogs, as the tweet defines below.
Fegans is a recruit Auburn reportedly leads for but Georgia cannot be counted out. As another example, UGA is involved with several Alabama prep recruits that Auburn covets and are uncommitted. That does not mean Bama is going away.
It's going to take a few months to see how well Kalen DeBoer's new staff acclimates to Dixie recruiting, especially inside the state of Alabama. More on that topic at a later date.
Will Auburn land surprise recruits?
Auburn still needs a recruit outside of its normal recruiting footprint to sign despite offers from the nation's elite. There's no bigger stamp to help define recruiting success.
Maybe a player from Maryland, Texas, or California. If the Tigers add one or two non-traditional recruiting wins and also clean up with prospects in the Peach State, yes indeed, Auburn should sign another top-10 class.
Auburn made it happen last year with defensive lineman Amaris Williams coming from North Carolina, plus the Tigers were able to sign signal-caller Walker White from the state of Arkansas. No reason to believe Auburn is not going to be able to win those big-time battles once again.