Auburn football: 4-star tight end Jelani Thurman sets official visit

The Auburn football coaching staff has done it again, and secured another top-tier official visitor this summer. The Tigers will stay busy in the coming months, hosting camps, training in preparation for fall, and hosting visitors from the transfer portal and the recruiting class of 2023.

On June 10, a high-priority tight end recruit will make his way to the Plains for an official visit. Jelani Thurman, a 4-star tight end out of Langston Hughes High School in Georgia, is ranked as the #131 overall prospect and the #9 tight end in the recruiting class of 2023 in addition to being the #11 recruit out of The Peach State.

The Tigers have already earned the commitment of one of Thurman’s Langston Hughes teammates, 4-star safety Terrance Love, which could be a serious help in landing Thurman. Whether or not this link to Auburn football is a major factor to Thurman, his interest in the Tigers remains very high, per Auburn Undercover:

"“Man, they’re a great school,” Thurman told Auburn Undercover. “If they weren’t high they wouldn’t be in my officials. My officials are basically the people I’m really looking at, really interested in. Somebody I want to see what else they can bring to the table. I’ll see how the officials go and see how much love they show me. They’ve been real heavy on me since they started recruiting me, so it’s been great.”"

Also working to recruit Thurman to the Plains is current Auburn tight end Landen King, whose hybrid tight end-wide receiver role fits Thurman’s capabilities perfectly.

The TE plans to make a decision sometime in late July, but before that he will take official visits to Michigan State, Alabama, and Ohio State later this month after his trip to the Plains. Though Auburn football will be competing with other top programs, they stand a good chance to land Jelani Thurman.