Can lightning strike twice for Auburn with Eric Singleton?
The Tigers hit big with KeAndre Lambert-Smith in '24. Singleton is a different transfer receiver, but they could use that kind of impact in '25.
AUBURN — Eric Singleton Jr. doesn’t know fast he is, exactly.
He says he’s never been timed in the 40-yard dash, the gold standard for measuring speed on a football field. He’ll save that for whenever he gets to the NFL Combine.
But there are plenty of ways to verify that Singleton is a true burner. In high school, he was a Georgia state track champion in the 100, 200 and 400 meters. Whenever he’s brought up in interviews, coaches and teammates quickly point to his ability to move.
“He is just blessed with the ability to not only have top-end speed, but he accelerates fast as well,” wide receivers coach Marcus Davis said last month. “And then he’s quick, too. It’s good to have somebody like that, because he’s an awesome changeup to what you already have in the room.”
New quarterback Jackson Arnold has another way to describe Singleton’s speed, which he puts next to fellow wideout and former track champion Malcolm Simmons.
“I feel like throwing to Eric and Malcolm is like throwing routes on air sometimes,” Arnold said. “They’ll just blow by some people. It just makes my job easy. Throwing to somebody that’s kind of smothered, or throwing to somebody that’s wide open?
“It’s a lot easier to throw to the wide-open guy.”
Unfortunately for the Auburn fans that made the trip to Jordan-Hare Stadium a couple of Saturdays ago for the A-Day practice, they weren’t able to see that combination of Singleton and Arnold for the first time on the Pat Dye Field turf. Both players were held out as precautionary measures with minor injuries they picked up in spring ball.
Fortunately for those same fans, though, Singleton’s speed isn’t something that has only been seen behind closed doors.
No, he’s got plenty of that to show on film — and that’s exactly why Auburn brought him onto the Plains with its second chance to recruit him.
Singleton was one of the most accomplished players available in the transfer portal this offseason. At 247Sports, he’s rated as the No. 5 overall player, only trailing names such as Nico Iamaleava and Carson Beck. He was ranked ahead of well-known wide receivers like Nic Anderson and Zachariah Branch, too.
It’s been quite the glow-up for Singleton, who was ranked as the No. 1,072 overall prospect and the No. 149 wide receiver in his own 2023 high school class. The cousin of former Auburn wide receiver Darvin Adams, Singleton was very familiar with the program and visited several times. But he wasn’t a priority for the previous staff.
Singleton decided to stay close to home and go to Georgia Tech, where he instantly became the Yellow Jackets’ No. 1 receiver under first-year head coach Brent Key. He was a freshman All-American in 2023, recording 48 catches for 714 yards and six touchdowns as Georgia Tech broke through for its first winning season since 2018.
Then, as a sophomore in 2024, Singleton jumped up to 56 catches for 754 yards. While he only had three receiving touchdowns for a Georgia Tech team that went bowling once again, he added kick returner and occasional rusher to his list of big-play responsibilities.
After two seasons in Atlanta, Singleton said he decided with his family that he should see what was out there in the transfer portal.
“I felt like it was the perfect time to get my name out there a little more,” he says.
And Auburn is grateful that he did.