Auburn football: Tigers trying to flip Tennessee commit

Auburn is trying to flip an in-state receiver from the SEC East.

Roc Taylor has been committed to the Tennessee Volunteers since April. That hasn’t stopped Auburn football from pursuing the in-state athlete. Taylor, a three-star prospect out of Oxford high school, received an offer from Gus Malzahn and his staff on Tuesday, adding to the 17 other offers he has received.

The 6-foot-2, 212-pound Taylor is projected to play wide receiver at the next level. The Oxford standout is rated as the No. 33 athlete in the class of 2021 and the 16th-best prospect in the state of Alabama. It is also noteworthy that Taylor is listed as tall as 6-foot-4 by some websites.

Auburn has been recruiting Taylor for quite some time and he visited the school prior to the recruiting dead period. It seems as though the Tigers are confident that they can convince the in-state standout to flip on his commitment to the Volunteers.

A commitment from the senior pass-catcher would give Auburn their 11th recruit in a 2021 recruiting class that has gotten off to a slow start so far. As of writing, the Tigers only have 10 commitments and only two top-100 recruits which puts them at No. 29 in the nation in recruiting class rankings and eighth in the SEC.

The class is headlined by four-star defensive tackle Lee Hunter and four-star running back Armoni Goodwin. If Taylor does end up playing receiver at the next level, he would be the lone wideout in the Tigers 2021 class and would join three-star tight end Landen King as the only two pass-catchers.

As a junior in 2019, Taylor helped lead the Oxford Yellow Jackets to a 14-1 record and a victory over Spanish Fort high school in the Alabama 6A state championships.

Auburn is no stranger to flipping recruits from other schools. Just last year, the team convinced four-star wideout Ze’Vian Capers to choose the Tigers after he was already committed to the Arkansas Razorbacks.

At the same time, the opposite is also true. five-star receiver George Pickens and top outside linebacker Trenton Simpson are both recent examples of former Auburn commits flipping to new schools.