Hugh Freeze's Auburn football recruiting strategy claims to have been changed from gearing up for a major Big Cat Weekend to being willing to hand out bigger NIL deals closer to National Signing Day. Bama Hammer's Ronald Evans shared the change -- and added his two cents that Kalen DeBoer still owns Freeze on the recruiting trail because of the NFL pipeline Alabama can boast in recent years that AU cannot.
"The Auburn recruiting situation shows some obvious disconnects," Evans prefaced before saying, "For several weeks, Auburn insiders said the Big Cat weekend would yield multiple commits from top players. Some insiders now say Hugh Freeze will not be throwing out any big bags until late in the recruiting cycle when Auburn will flip some top prospects. What must trouble the Aubies is Alabama Football, without Nick Saban, apparently still holds a recruiting discount, driven by the program's pipeline to the NFL."
Auburn was once a top-10 2025 class but took several losses on the trail to already match the number of de-commits Freeze had from his 2024 class. They sit at No. 15 as of this writing.
It's been a rough go of late for Freeze's staff, but things move quick enough in college football to get the ship righted by December. Things could really look good for AU if they're still playing meaningful games around that time.
2024 Auburn football season significant to determine how high Hugh Freeze can take Tigers
For stability's sake, Freeze staying in AU beyond 2025 feels like a safe bet. There's too much buyout money being doled out to add onto it if Auburn doesn't take any step back -- and even if there isn't a substantial step forward -- in 2024.
But if Auburn can emotionally rally around the contiuously improving recovery of Brian Battie and band together on the field behind Payton Thorne, or whoever would step into replace him under center, they could use the incoming talent infusion at receiver to become an attractive option for other skill position threats.
Freeze and Co. just have to give recruits something to believe in. Proof of concept. Then the Tigers will be on the other end of the flipping spree the post-NIL world constantly is on the trail.