The final seven schools in contention for 3-star Pike Road, Alabama running back recruit Quinshon Judkins has been released, and Auburn football is among them.
Truly, there appear to be three true contenders, with five teams having a realistic shot at landing the five-foot-11 speedster.
Penn State, Florida, and Auburn are the schools with the highest odds of landing Judkins, with his interest in all three being considered “warm” by 247Sports. Ja’Juan Seider, Greg Knox, and the Tigers’ own Cadillac Williams were the primary recruiters, respectively, for each program.
Outside of those two, Michigan and Notre Dame have an outside chance to swoop in on name value alone, while Ole Miss serves as a true outlier that really would need another major step forward from Lane Kiffin’s bunch in 2021. Yale is a contender merely because of academics, with their FCS season being canceled entirely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As Judkins told 247Sports’ Keith Niebuhr, Bryan Harsin and co. have upped their recruiting intensity in recent weeks:
"“It’s harder than ever,” Judkins told Auburn Undercover earlier this month. “When Coach Harsin first called me, he told me what they were looking for and he said he saw that in me. Everyone there has been recruiting me, from the director of recruiting to a lot of the coaches. But the last couple weeks, they’ve been recruiting me way harder.”"
That must be music to the ears of Auburn football fans everywhere, especially after he was seen at Auburn’s A-Day spring game (per my coeditor Mary Kate Hughes):
"Another class of 2022 recruit from close by, Quinshon Judkins made the trip to the Plains from Pike Road, Alabama to visit his potential future college. The running back has 26 offers according to 247 Sports but seems to be primarily interested in Penn State or Florida outside of Auburn. Judkins dropped a pin on Twitter to let everyone know where he spent his Saturday."
There’s no place like home, especially when your home is Sweet Home Alabama. While Florida’s program has been healthier than Auburn’s, and Penn State’s figures to potentially rebound quicker, no program offers more excitement and hope for the future than Harsin and the new regime just an hour away from his hometown.
From Pike Road to the Plains, Judkins can bring a little home cooking to the Tigers in 2022 should he decide to forge his football legacy locally.