Early Signing Period for Auburn Brought ‘Relief and Excitement’

For the second year in a row, Early National Signing Day was good to the Auburn Tigers.

Auburn’s 2025 recruiting class currently sits at No. 6 nationally according to 247Sports and 24 prospects have signed their letter of intent to play for the Tigers. Devin Williams, a three-star cornerback, is the only recruit Auburn is waiting on.

“Really excited,” Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze said. “Good day for us. I’ve been very clear since my arrival that I thought would take three top-10 classes to overhaul our roster to get it to where it’s apples to apples with the elite in the country. Man, today is one of those days where the first emotion you probably feel is relief, and excitement is the next one.”

Arguably the biggest win Auburn had today was holding on to Deuce Knight, a five-star quarterback who is expected to be the team’s quarterback of the future. Knight flipped his commitment from Notre Dame to Auburn in October, but the Tigers had to hold off a late push by Ole Miss to land Knight’s talents.

Landing Knight, the No. 29 player nationally and the No. 4 quarterback according to 247Sports, was a high priority for Freeze and company.

“Deuce was kind of my first choice when I first got here,” Freeze said. “I loved his length. I thought his upside was huge. I know his high school coach real well. We go way back to junior college days and when he transferred from there to Tennessee, I honestly kind of lost a little interest and thought he was headed in another direction, and I kind of dropped the ball truthfully, and then when he came back to Mississippi, I said, ‘Man, I'm I gotta shoot my shot.

“And it didn't hurt that his favorite player was Cam Newton either.”

Auburn’s class features four offensive linemen, addressing a need the team has had for quite some time. Freeze is excited about the additions the Tigers made to such an important position.

“Huge because last year we signed very few,” Freeze said of the impact of adding quality pieces to the room. “That’s probably the hardest position to know if you’re right on. It’s just very difficult because they have the hardest assignment in the world of blocking the best d-lines in the country and it’s not an easy job. I’m really excited about the four guys that we signed.”

This is the second consecutive year that Auburn has brought in a top-10 recruiting class, something that Freeze has made a priority since taking over the program.

“It’s impossible to do what we want to do and not have these classes,” Freeze said. “I just think it would be impossible. That’s the way I feel. I said I wanted to build it primarily through the high school ranks. That had to be rethought a little bit, but not as much as I thought. We were able to hold on to some really, really dang good players. To get to where we want to get, you have to have similar recruiting classes to the elite.”

The Tigers narrowly missed out on a few prospects this cycle, most notably Na’eem Offord who flipped his commitment from Ohio State to Oregon. However, this is a class that Freeze and company can feel good about.