Four Signs That Lead To Auburn's 2025 Recruiting Class Becoming 'Elite'

Will Auburn overcome several obstacles to sign a big-time 2025 recruiting class?

Becoming an elite recruiting program will not be easy for Auburn.

The obstacles are many and the challenges will include all-too-familiar recruiting foes, but Auburn must find a way to win many difficult recruiting battles to have the recruiting success needed to become a consistent SEC and national title contender.

Here are four challenges the Tigers face and conquer to have an elite 2025 recruiting class.

1) The Tigers must win the state of Alabama. According to Max Preps, five in-state recruits were selected in the 2023 NFL Draft. In 2022, 12 former Alabama prep players came away from the Draft as being selected.

The state of Alabama is where Auburn must do its best work; 11 of the Tigers' 2024 signees hail from inside the state of Alabama. That's a tremendous job by the Auburn staff. 

Now, continue on that path and also add a few more of the truly dominant players like Alvin Henderson, an elite in-state running back from Elba (Ala.) High School, and hopefully top defenders like each of Enterprise (Ala.) High School's Zion Grady at defensive end and Eric Winters as a hybrid linebacker or safety, among others.

2) Sign even more top recruits from the state of Georgia. While the Yellowhammer State is Auburn's bread and butter, the Peach State is a close second. 23 former Georgia prep players drafted last year is a sign of just how good the talent is one state over. Further, it's the No. 1 state for NFL talent, per capita, per the NFL's website called Play Football. For the record, Alabama is third per capita.

Auburn recruits Georgia well. Is it enough to win an SEC title? No, not yet anyway. It's not only about the number of Georgia recruits signing with Auburn. There needs to be more elite talent coming to the Plains. Auburn needs to consistently land one of the top five players in Georgia, in the 2025 class, and continue that trend thereafter.

Auburn's 2024 recruiting class has two players from Georgia. Cornerback Jalyn Crawford is the #15 player by Rivals and offensive tackle Favour Edwin is the #58 player by Rivals. The Tigers are bringing in two high-upside recruits but also need more elite talent from their neighboring state.

3) As noted in yesterday's article, there's no way around Auburn becoming an elite recruiting program without winning more big-time recruiting battles against Alabama, Georgia, and LSU.

Most of those battles will take place close to home. The extension of those battles will likely take place in two more states nearby, like Mississippi.

Signing Rivals' #143 player in Akylin Dear would be fantastic because he's an elite running back recruit. Keeping him away from Alabama, Georgia, and LSU is also something to think about. Plus, for good measure, beating Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss for arguably Mississippi's top in-state recruit, that's a nice bonus. 

There are plenty of other recruits throughout SEC country that Auburn is going to go head-to-head with the Tide, Dawgs, and Bayou Bengals, among other top recruiting programs. The Tigers lost far too many of those same types of recruiting frays before Hugh Freeze and the current staff arrived on campus.

4) Almost every elite recruiting class has at least one, if not two or three, recruiting wins that were not projected to go that school's way earlier in the process. Auburn saw that same kind of success in 2024 by flipping Florida commitment and edge rusher Jamonta Waller, and another Gators' commitment, defensive lineman Amaris Williams. Waller came in at #70 from Rivals, while Williams would be #68.

This is the open-ended part of recruiting that's so intriguing. Which recruit or recruits end up signing with Auburn that nobody truly believes Auburn eventually signs as of right now? Keep in mind, Auburn came from behind to win over Waller and Williams.

Maybe Auburn will shock everyone and sign the #2 player by rivals, quarterback Julian Lewis. The Tigers are not the obvious pick for the current Southern California commitment, and Bama and Georgia are making a serious push for his signature. 

Perhaps it will be knocking off Georgia for Rivals' #11 player in defensive lineman Justus Terry, or Alabama, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State for elite wide receiver Caleb Cunningham, Rivals' #17 recruit.

There are plenty of options. Auburn needs to pull some recruiting upsets to get to where it wants to go.