The Auburn football program’s recruiting class of 2023 has come a long way in just a few short months. From the very beginning of former head coach Bryan Harsin’s tenure, there were worries about whether or not he could recruit in the SEC.
Most of the players that signed with the class of 2021, the one that Harsin inherited from Gus Malzahn, have entered the transfer portal and moved on to other programs. The class of 2022 fared okay, but there were really no high-profile recruits and the Tigers still landed in the middle of the SEC.
Things were not looking great for the 2023 class, either, with Auburn football missing out on most of their targets and struggling to build relationships with high schools and future recruits. Hugh Freeze has done a tremendous job recruiting in the time he has been on the Plains, but there was still a critical month where the Tigers were without a head coach.
Even though the football team had only won three games and was operating with an interim staff, the atmosphere surrounding Auburn football immediately changed thanks to the hard work of those that were left to pick up the pieces after Harsin and several others were fired.
According to 247 Sports Recruiting Director Steve Wiltfong, the success that the Tigers were able to find in the recruiting class of 2023 is a direct result of the work put in by interim head coach Cadillac Williams and several others:
"“Spatula U, as I like to say. It was flip season, and no one swung a heavier spatula than Auburn here. A lot of credit goes to Cadillac Williams and Zac Etheridge, the interim coaches there that helped keep their alma mater afloat with so many great players for when the new staff came in. A lot of those guys visited campus several times when Auburn was between coaches, and here they are in the class."
Here’s hoping that Hugh Freeze and company can keep swinging their heavy spatula into the recruiting class of 2024.