Auburn football beat writer identifies $592K QB as best plug-and-play fit for Hugh Freeze's offense

Hugh Freeze recruited Kaidon Salter to Liberty during his time in Lynchburg, Virginia, and now On SI's Brian Smith believes the QB could be a good fit for Auburn football in the transfer portal. Smith sees Salter as not just a good fit, but "as close to a plug-and-play quarterback as Auburn could find."

"(Payton Thorne, Hank Brown, and Holden Geriner leaving) makes the addition of a big-time Transfer Portal signal-caller a must for the Tigers," Smith prefaced before saying, "How about one with proven production and a long history with Hugh Freeze?

"Enter Kaidon Salter. At 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds, he’s a proven commodity with four years of experience at Liberty. Most notably, Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze signed Salter out of the Transfer Portal at Liberty after Salter began his career with Tennessee.

"Perhaps Salter will transfer to play for Freeze again."

Salter is a dynamic dual-threat who has break-away speed and the ability to bail bad play-calling out with his feet. Freeze's play-calling has been suspect at times over the past two years, but Salter could cover for a lot of mistakes there.

Trust has been a big thing for Freeze, and as his loyalty to Payton Thorne showed, he's all about the guys he personally recruits. Hank Brown didn't get that treatment, but Freeze wouldn't spend the potential $600K price tag for Salter if he wasn't being handed the keys to the offense. Salter has a $592K NIL valuation right now.

Salter would be a good stop-gap option until Deuce Knight is ready to start in his second year. He'd likely represent a higher ceiling in 2025 than Knight or Walker White.

Does Freeze spend close to a million dollars this time around after being against the idea during the last recruiting cycle?

Well, he can't make the same mistakes at QB he made in 2024. Fill in the blanks.