College football blue bloods like USC and Texas, and non-blue bloods like UCLA and Oregon, will all remain in the mix for Auburn football offensive tackle commit DeAndre Carter according to Auburn Daily’s Brian Smith — this despite Carter assuring the Auburn family that his commitment was 100% and that he’d be Iron Bowl-bound on November 25.
“It’s not like Texas, Oregon, UCLA, Southern California, and many other schools are going to give up on the 6-foot-4 and 340-pound road grader,” Smith wrote. “He’s a special player and one that could potentially help the Tigers as soon as the 2024 season. Carter is not the only prospect to discuss today either.”
Hook’em Headlines’ Andrew Miller relayed on October 12 that Texas was “chipping away” at the Mater Dei star.
“Flood and the Longhorns are also prioritizing the recruitment of the highly touted four-star Mater Dei interior offensive lineman, and Auburn Tigers commit DeAndre Carter,” Miller prefaced before saying, “Despite being head coach Hugh Freeze and Auburn’s only offensive line commit in the Tigers’ 2024 class, Texas is still chipping away at Carter’s pledge this fall.”
Auburn football can not lose star offensive line commit
Auburn football has already lost 2024 running back recruit J’Marion “Phat” Burnette, so a Carter loss would be downright damning for Hugh Freeze, and in particular, offensive line coach Jake Thornton.
It’d be a sad way to welcome Walker White to the Plains after his recruiting efforts, and wouldn’t speak well to the Tigers’ chances of competing on the recruiting trail with SEC hopefuls given the two new recruiting giants in-conference in UT and Oklahoma.
Freeze cannot go the way of Lane Kiffin and build through the transfer portal each year. You may get high win totals with veteran teams, but a sustainable winning culture akin to Alabama’s or Georgia’s won’t occur if the high school ranks aren’t loaded up each cycle.
Burnette’s de-commitment hurt, but Carter’s would be devastating. This goes without saying, but the 2024 class cannot lose any more than it has started to. There’s only so much grace Freeze will get if the win totals don’t start climbing toward double-digits in the next few seasons.