Top 2023 recruit-turned-transfer not likely for Auburn
Dante Moore, the 2023 recruiting class’s No. 4 overall recruit nationally, is leaving UCLA and hitting the transfer portal; making him a natural speculative target for every school that needs a quarterback. Hugh Freeze’s Auburn football program fits that description after his two-QB system crashed and burned.
Auburn Daily’s Andrew Stefaniak doesn’t believe that Moore making his way to the Plains makes much sense, though, believing that a more experienced starter would make more sense ahead of incoming 2024 recruit Walker White.
“What would be surprising about Auburn going after Moore is that Hugh Freeze has Walker White already committed in the 2024 class and he seems to be the future,” Stefaniak prefaced before saying, “Moore would have a bunch of eligibility left if he transferred to Auburn, which is why I feel like Coach Freeze will go after a more experienced veteran starter.”
Bleacher Report’s Francisco Rosa linked AU to Moore and referenced Freeze’s past success with unknown players in the past at Ole Miss and Liberty.
“While Moore is still unproven, there is still plenty of upside that Freeze—who has been known for getting the most out of his quarterbacks—could work with,” Rosa wrote. “Freeze got good to great production out of relatively unknown guys like Chad Kelly, Malik Willis, and Stephen Calvert, among others.”
Auburn football must land a top-tier quarterback in transfer portal
Moore is an unproven entity that may cost a lot to land. On To Victory’s NIL funds raised off the hard work of donating members of the Auburn family should not be used to bring in such a gamble; one who needed one year in Los Angeles to figure out that he needed to hit the transfer portal the first chance he got.
Landing a more proven entity should instead be the goal, and the portal is chock full of them. Coastal Carolina’s Grayson McCall is the most sensible pursuit given Freeze’s past interest, while Kansas State’s Will Howard, Mississippi State’s Will Rogers, and Ohio State’s Kyle McCord would all be steps up from the current Tigers QB situation.