Aubserver Mailbag 129: What are Auburn's biggest positions of need?

This week: 5-star WRs, 2013, QB1, biggest 'Bama routs, Johni Broome, hoops home-and-homes, Kaleb Kim, All In and the best tweets

(Austin Perryman/Auburn Athletics)

Welcome back to the mailbag. I hope everyone had a safe and fun Fourth of July… weekend? Weird pause in the week? Not sure what to call it, actually.

For a holiday week, this has been a fun one here at Observer HQ. I appreciate those of y’all who read and interacted with our newsletters around the holiday about Auburn football’s explosive passing situation and how K.D. Johnson could be in line for a really fun senior season on the Plains. And both of our podcasts with young guns Rich Silva and Christian Clemente have been among the best of the entire offseason.

We’re getting closer and closer to SEC Media Days, the unofficial start of football season in this part of the country. While it might be hard to come up with stuff to write or talk about this time of year, that hasn’t been the case for us.

I appreciate that there are always great questions in the mailbag — and I’m thankful I got a lot of them Wednesday, which allowed me to hit the road for an extended weekend vacation in Destin on Thursday.

We talk a good bit of recruiting this week, along with some looking back at big football moments and looking ahead in basketball. Let’s go.

In recruiting, based on who is currently committed, what are our biggest positions of need/strength?

David

The biggest positions of need, without a doubt, are along the line of scrimmage. As I wrote about in a recent mailbag, both lines are tilted toward the older side of the spectrum after Auburn’s transfer overhaul. Right now, the Tigers have zero linemen committed for 2024, but it’s still early.

On offense, there are four super seniors and two more regular seniors — and the three juniors aren’t guaranteed to be playing college football for much longer. Auburn has six underclassmen along the offensive line, including four true freshmen.

The Tigers really need to add close to a whole offensive line’s worth of players in order to be in the best position for the future. The transfer portal can help out here some, but you would ultimately like to get as many high schoolers to develop as you can. Unfortunately, as Christian talked about in Thursday’s podcast, this is a very down year for offensive line recruiting throughout college football. You won’t rack up stars here, but you need the bodies.

On the defensive line, Auburn has four seniors, three juniors and just four underclassmen. There’s a real need to rebuild here, and loading up here for the future with blue-chip talent is going to be a real bonus in the fight to get closer to your rivals on the recruiting trail. Malik Blocton, the younger brother of Marcus Harris, could commit to Auburn this weekend. He would be a composite 4-star pickup for a unit that could use several additions in the 2024 class.

Tight end is going to be fascinating to watch with all the seniors on the 2023 roster, but Martavious Collins is a big pickup there — and the Tigers are in the mix for several more at the position. It’s kind of in a group of its own when it comes to strength vs. need in recruiting.

The biggest position of strength right now for Auburn is defensive back, where it signed a massive 2023 class and already has three blue-chip players committed for 2024. Zac Etheridge continues to do massive work on the trail, and the return of Wesley McGriff has only made things better for the Tigers in that regard. Auburn will lose a good number of defensive backs after the 2023 season, but it’s in a strong position to handle those losses.

Some smaller positions of strength include quarterback and running back, where Walker White and J’Marion Burnette are great foundational pieces for the 2024 class. Auburn isn’t in a real numbers crunch at either spot, yet it’s already done a good job of ensuring a blue-chip arrival for next season.

With the (surprising) Cam Coleman commitment to A&M, has that changed your confidence with Perry Thompson coming to Auburn?

Sam