Don't sleep on Horatio Fields.
The Wake Forest transfer might not have the star power of the kids or the stats of Eric Singleton Jr. But he could be quite valuable this fall.
AUBURN — When your position group has one of the highest-rated high school signees in program history and one of the highest-rated transfer portal pickups in program history, it can be easy to fly under the radar.
That feels like what Horatio Fields is doing right now at Auburn.
Cam Coleman gets plenty of attention from people inside and outside of the Plains, and for good reason. He was an ultra-elite 5-star recruit who came in and put up nearly 600 yards and eight touchdowns as a true freshman. Considering he had a couple of games with zero targets due to injury issues and two more with only one, it doesn’t take much to buy into a sophomore surge for Coleman in 2025.
Eric Singleton Jr. has captured the imagination of Auburn fans this offseason, too. After all, he put up back-to-back 700-yard seasons at Georgia Tech — not an easy place or an easy offense for that to happen — before jumping into the transfer portal. He was the highest-rated receiver who made a move this offseason, and only a few others were ahead of him in the overall transfer rankings.
Beyond the highly touted duo of Coleman and Singleton, there’s the rest of the “Freeze Four” that defined Auburn’s 2024 signing class. Malcolm Simmons made plays all over the field as a dynamic athlete in the slot as a true freshman. Perry Thompson and Bryce Cain didn’t have much production, but the former blue-chips’ outstanding physical tools are more than enough to believe in breakouts.
And the new freshmen at wide receiver are getting a lot of the spotlight, too. Sam Turner made highlight-reel catch after highlight-reel catch during spring practices, causing some in the program to believe Auburn sniped a diamond in the rough. This summer, the Tigers are set to add twins Duke Smith and Erick Smith — the former one of the best athletes in the state, the latter a big, 6-foot-6 target on the outside.
With all the combined social media hype and star ratings of these receivers, Fields might have gotten lost in the shuffle somewhat.
But don’t mistake that a sign of an underwhelming player.
While Fields played on a Wake Forest team that, like Auburn, underachieved and finished with a losing record last season, he was quite productive.
In fact, Fields’ 39 catches last season were more than Coleman had and would have ranked third on Auburn’s roster.
His 463 yards? Those would have also ranked third for the Tigers last season, putting him ahead of Simmons.
His four touchdowns? Yep — those also would have ranked third on the team.
Considering the fact Auburn finished the season with the No. 28 passing offense in the country in terms of yards per game, picking up a new receiver that would have firmly been the No. 3 option on the team behind the now NFL-bound KeAndre Lambert-Smith and Coleman is nothing to overlook.
“We absolutely hit a home run in adding him to the mix, through the transfer portal,” Hugh Freeze said during spring practices.
Oh, and Fields also had a statistic in 2024 that zero Auburn receivers have been able to put up in at least the past decade.