Looking for Auburn's next big freshman? Start with Jourdin Crawford.

The massive nose tackle from Birmingham was a popular name among the Tigers at SEC Media Days — and for good reason.

(Austin Perryman/Auburn Tigers)

ATLANTA — Auburn is fresh off The Year of the Freshman.

Cam Coleman and Malcolm Simmons burst onto the scene as the Tigers’ No. 2 and No. 3 wide receivers. On the defensive side of the football, Auburn got plenty of starts and overall value from the likes of Malik Blocton, Kaleb Harris, Jay Crawford, Demarcus Riddick and Sylvester Smith.

That means there are plenty of candidates for a Year 2 sophomore surge in 2025, including players such as Amaris Williams and Perry Thompson — former standout recruits who didn’t get nearly as much playing time as their fellow classmates in 2024.

But this is major college football. If you’re going to recruit at a high level, you’re always going to get some sort of impact from players who were in high school a year ago.

In the Tigers’ first season under Hugh Freeze, they got big-time production from freshmen Keldric Faulk, Connor Lew and Kayin Lee. The first two were with Freeze at SEC Media Days this week, and all three quickly became some of the best players on the entire roster. Having that trio back should be massive for Auburn in 2025.

So, even though Auburn has a younger-than-most roster when it comes to the two-deep, you can expect breakout players from the 2025 class.

As is often the case, you start to hear more buzz about those specific players at SEC Media Days — just a couple of weeks before the start of preseason practices.

And there was a clear-cut big winner of the freshman hype train on Tuesday, when Freeze and his players made the rounds in Atlanta.

Emphasis on the word big.

It all started during the very first interview session of the day for Freeze, who took questions at the smaller, more intimate “electronic media room” at SEC Media Days.

Freeze was asked by a TV reporter about one of his local area’s products. A lot of Media Days questions are like this: Specifically tailored to a certain audience. Most of the time, the answers are positive but generic.

There was a difference, though, when Freeze was asked to talk about defensive tackle Jourdin Crawford and if he could remember a newcomer with as much potential as him at his position.

Usually, a coach will be quick to say that the freshman is talented, but it’s tough to project what he could be right away. Instead…

“It would be hard to say I’ve had one (like Crawford) as a freshman,” Freeze said. “Maybe Robert Nkemdiche.”

Hello.

Yes, Freeze mentioned the true freshman signing who put him on the map at Ole Miss. When the Rebels landed Nkemdiche out of Georgia powerhouse program Grayson in 2013, he was the unanimous No. 1 overall recruit in the country.

Nkemdiche was huge early. The defensive tackle was a Freshman All-American in 2013 and was the cornerstone of a 2014 Ole Miss defense that allowed the fewest points per game nationally. In 2015, he was named a second-team All-American and a first-team All-SEC selection before becoming a first-round pick in the 2016 NFL Draft.

The fact that Freeze is mentioning Crawford in the same breath as Nkemdiche is significant, because it’s not like he’s doing it with other freshmen.

“Jourdin’s strength and explosiveness are special, and he’s very difficult to handle,” Freeze said.

And, keep in mind: Crawford wasn’t even the highest-rated defensive lineman that Auburn signed this past cycle.