4-star West Coast OT includes Auburn football in Top 7

One of the biggest needs for the Auburn football program when it comes to recruiting over the next couple of years is offensive linemen. For the last few cycles, the Tigers have struggled to recruit o-linemen, and it culminated in the position group’s struggles last season.

When head coach Hugh Freeze came in during the offseason, he began addressing the problem immediately, adding multiple offensive line transfers and several highly-ranked offensive line recruits to the class of 2023. Now, the attention is turned to the class of 2024.

Earlier this week, 4-star west coast prospect Paki Finau cut his list of programs down to his Top 7, and included Auburn football as the only SEC school he is considering alongside a group of mostly west coast schools: Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA, Washington, Utah, and Penn State, the only other eastern option.

Finau is ranked as the #269 overall prospect and the #18 IOL in the recruiting class of 2024 and is the #24 recruit out of the state of California. He already has official visits set to Arizona, Utah, Penn State, and Washington, and according to Auburn Undercover he plans to take an official visit to the Plains, too:

"“I don’t have a date yet but I’ll be visiting Auburn for an official visit. That offer was amazing since Auburn is a big time SEC school and that’s obviously a great conference. I like coach Thornton (OL coach), he’s the one who offered me and I’m really interested in learning more about the program. I’ve never been that far before for a visit so it should be fun.”"

The OT wants to take as many visits as he can now that the players are no longer limited to only five officials, and he plans to make a final decision sometime in late summer.