Hugh Freeze Hits Another Recruitment Home Run

Breaking down the importance of 4-Star running back Alvin Henderson to flip his Penn State commitment to the Auburn Tigers.

Alvin Henderson is a 4-Star running back from Elba, Ala. who committed to the Auburn Tigers. / Ehsan Kassim/Tallahassee Democrat / USA

In order to regain their elite status in college football, Auburn Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze is taking the bull by the horns on the recruiting trail.

Stunning recruitment coup de grace type efforts orchestrated by Coach Freeze are becoming commonplace, especially after he convinced Elba, Ala. native Alvin Henderson to stay home.

"Coach Freeze made me feel like a top priority," Henderson told On3's Chad Simmons. "Since he got there, he has recruited me hard, he has made me feel special and I knew he wanted me from the time he got there."

Henderson is the No. 36-rated-player nationally on the coveted Rivals 100 list and No. 3 running back, therefore, the explosive back's verbal pledge to decommit from Penn State and join the Auburn revolution sends another signal that Auburns is on the way back.

Auburn's class of 2025 is currently-ranked fifth in the country by 247Sports and No. 7 by On3.

Tiger fans are bound to be buoyed by the high profile commit flip, many of course will obviously be familiar with Henderson's prodigious and record breaking in-state performances.

Henderson registered a state record 61 rushing touchdowns last year playing at Elba High School, so the powerfully built 5'9 and 195-pound bowling ball figures to take his prodigious nose for the end zone with him to Auburn. 

Quite a box of tricks for the Tigers to develop moving forward, skills which were also tantalizing enough, that Henderson received tangible interest from Alabama, Miami, Texas and Deion Sanders at Colorado.

After nearly a decade spent living in the cold shadow of dreaded rivals Alabama and watching the emergence of Georgia as a national force under Kirby Smart, Freeze is now mounting a serious assault on the local state ranks in a bold effort to turn things back around.

Of the top-20 prospects in the state of Alabama according to 247Sports, Henderson represents the sixth Auburn commitment.

In the process, the Tigers second year head coach is landing recruitment blows on his rivals that will be felt in the meeting rooms and on the playing field rather profoundly. 

Just how quickly Freeze can get his talented crop of youngsters making impacts on the field remains to be seen, but the wider ripples of what he's pulling off in terms of recruitment is massively encouraging. 

Henderson is another one of the recent new recruits who paid tribute to just how convincing Freeze could be when selling the greater Auburn project, which is already showing some real green shoots of recovery. 

"I believe in Coach Freeze. I love how he recruited me and I trust him as a coach," Henderson explained to Simmons. "Auburn almost beat Alabama, they played Georgia very tough and he is now recruiting top players and building the program up. He is a great person, he is a great coach and he is getting Auburn back."

Simply staying home has its fairly obvious benefits for Henderson, plus, playing for a group of fans and coaches he knows will show him the love has to help.