Auburn's sizzling summer has reached a new high — a top-10 class
The Tigers have gone from one commit on A-Day to two dozen before the end of June. Here's the latest on the Tigers' 2027 haul.
AUBURN — This time last year, Auburn football had arguably its worst summer ever.
The Tigers’ recruiting class was ranked as low as 89th nationally in late June, sitting dead last in the SEC and behind a handful of Group of Five programs. Hugh Freeze and John Cohen had to play defense publicly, saying Auburn’s woes were a product of the program doing things the right way and claiming things would change August 1.
Recruits weren’t buying what the Tigers were selling, and for good reason. The flips never came. Neither did the wins that could have saved Freeze’s job. He was out four months later and replaced by Alex Golesh, the former USF head coach who was known more for his offensive turnaround prowess than his recruiting chops.
But now, before Golesh and his staff have coached a single game, the Tigers have been hotter on the recruiting trail than the soaring temperatures in East Alabama.
After landing the top two in-state wide receivers Tuesday, Auburn now has the No. 8 class in the country — and the No. 4 class in the SEC — according to 247Sports. The Tigers are also up to No. 7 overall in the composite rankings with 24 commitments.
Keep in mind that Auburn had just one commitment when it took the field in Jordan-Hare Stadium for its annual A-Day Game in April. By the end of the month, it was only up to three pledges. Since then, the Tigers have been on an incredible heater.
In fact, when Auburn signed top-10 classes under Freeze in the 2024 and 2025 cycles, the Tigers didn’t have quite as many commitments as they do right now. From what we can tell, this is the largest an Auburn recruiting class has been at this point in the cycle in the modern era.
Simply put, this has been extremely quick, extremely efficient and extremely successful recruiting from Golesh and his Year 1 staff.
It might be hard to stay in the top 10 of the rankings from now until National Signing Day as other teams start to fill up their classes. But, on paper, this has been a good mix of big-time talent and lower-rated “our kind of guys” evaluations.
Throughout the month of June, we’ve outlined Auburn’s hot run in recruiting here on The Observer. You can check back to the aftermath of that first massive official visit weekend and the mid-month check-in — along with a podcast episode featuring our friend and recruiting expert Christian Clemente of Auburn247 — down below.
Since then, Auburn has added eight more commitments to the class. Let’s take a look at all of them and what else could still be out there for the Tigers in the 2027 class.
4-star EDGE James Pace III
No. 155 overall, No. 16 EDGE
Hyattsville, Maryland (DeMatha Catholic)
6-foot-3, 225 pounds
Pace was one of Nerd’s favorite targets in the entire class, and Auburn had to work hard to land his commitment June 19 over the likes of Colorado and Tennessee. He recorded 80 tackles, 14 sacks and 10 more TFL as a junior last season at a powerhouse program — one of the crown jewels of the DJ Durkin DMV pipeline.
Pace has an incredibly quick first step and good arm length despite what is more of a smaller frame for a player at his position. He doesn’t rely just on his athleticism alone, using his hands well to defeat blocks. He will likely get time to grow into a 5-technique — think Keldric Faulk — long term, but he could play as a standup Buck early.
