Auburn football's recruiting heater might just be getting started
The Tigers have jumped to a top-five 2027 class in the SEC after a monster OV weekend, and there are several more commits to come.
AUBURN — In late April, Alex Golesh said he was “beyond excited” — twice — about the state of Auburn football’s recruiting for the 2027 class.
“I think the commitments we’ve got, I’m beyond excited,” Golesh said before an AMBUSH event in Montgomery. “The guys we’re trending with, I’m beyond excited about. The OVs will be huge, in the sense that you feel like a majority of these guys that aren’t committed have four or five official visits. It will be absolutely huge.”
At that point in time, Auburn had just gotten a commitment from elite running back Myson Johnson-Cook, who is currently rated as a top-50 player overall and a top-five prospect nationally at his position. He was only the third commit in the class.
But Golesh was still excited. He acknowledged that a lot of the early recruiting work for a Year 1 staff is playing catch-up, and things were going to have to take time on the trail for the Tigers.
“I think when I was young, I would panic early and feel like you need some sort of traction, or… I don’t know if ‘buzz’ is the word,” Golesh said. “I feel like we’re trending in the right direction. We’ve been really picky, and we’ve hit on some guys that we need to. I think, by the end of June, you’ll feel like you know where you want to be.”
Judging by Auburn’s June so far, he might have been underselling his excitement.
Since MJC’s commitment in late April, Auburn has picked up 11 new players for its 2027 class. It’s now soared into the top 20 nationally, per the 247Sports Composite, and is currently No. 5 in the SEC. Conference powers such as Georgia, Texas, Alabama and LSU are all looking up at Auburn right now in the early arms race.
It’s also very much a quality over quantity class at this point in the cycle. (Note how Golesh said the Tigers have been “picky” so far in recruiting.) Only three teams with fewer than 15 commits are ahead of Auburn in average player ranking, and they are some huge names: USC, Ohio State and Oregon.
And, for those of you who are focused on the Blue-Chip Ratio: Exactly half of Auburn’s current 14 commitments are 4-stars in the 247Sports Composite.
Golesh and his Year 1 staff at Auburn are swinging with some of the very best on the trail, too. They’ve notably beaten out Miami for an elite running back, Notre Dame for an elite offensive tackle and — most recently — Georgia for an elite linebacker. This isn’t piling up 3-stars that just want to be in the SEC. These are legit battles.
But Auburn isn’t purely star-chasing. The Tigers could have very well ended up with 4-star linebacker Jeremiah Culpepper from nearby Troup County (Ga.), but, after evaluating 3-star Kareem Palmer, the Tigers decided to take him instead. (Culpepper recently committed to Ole Miss.) Auburn has pounced on 3-stars after spring evals and just offered a defensive back that doesn’t have any recruiting site profiles.
It’s been a fascinating time to watch the recruiting strategy unfold, and it’s yielded plenty of results. This recruiting heater cranked up the temperature to a new level this past weekend, which was the first of the summer for official visitors on the Plains.
As is tradition for coaches, Golesh has tweeted out his version of a “bat signal” whenever the staff gets word of a commitment. Over the weekend, it was a “War Damn!” followed by an eagle emoji.
The number of emojis grew. His last one had seven of them.
What’s interesting about that is Auburn has only had five recruits announce commitments since May 31: 3-star cornerback Nash Johnson, 3-star kicker Noah Ash, 4-star running back Kingston Miles, 3-star cornerback Aidyn Wiggins and 4-star linebacker Isaac McNeil.
However, it’s worth noting that the counter reset for Golesh right around the time McNeil announced his commitment to Auburn on Tuesday evening.
That means there could be as many as three more Auburn commitments that haven’t gone public yet. It’s the type of run that could put the Tigers’ past weekend of official visits as one of the very best for the program in a long time, even going back to those legendary ones under Gene Chizik in 2009 and 2010.
And, again, this was the first official visit weekend for Auburn football under this new staff. There are still some major weekends ahead, which is an insanely positive signal for the direction of the recruiting class.
There’s a long way to go between now and National Signing Day in December, and trophies aren’t handed out for summer recruiting. (They also aren’t handed out for recruiting at all, as Auburn learned during the Hugh Freeze tenure.)
But, for a new era that could have very well been in “wait and see” mode with recruits, this has been a start that has exceeded expectations. Win some games in the fall, and it should only get better for the Tigers — even as they look to 2028 and beyond.
In this edition of the Observer newsletter, let’s catch you up on the latest with Auburn football’s hot run in recruiting and project what could be next for the Tigers.
Here’s the 2027 class so far…
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Auburn Observer to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.