The Tides are a Turning
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Welcome everyone to College Football for the 2024 season! CAN YOU FEEL IT? As summer practice pivots for most schools from summer workouts to full blown preseason practice, it is hard not to look back and reflect on what a tremendous offseason it has been. Since the Michigan Wolverines were crowned National Champions, The GOAT Nick Saban has quit coaching (does the Godfather ever really retire), national runner-up Kalen Deboer from Washington has replaced Saban at Alabama, a bevy of coaches from other schools have come and gone, conferences have scrambled to fill their ranks, some dissolved, while others have swelled, the College Football Playoffs officially enter a new expansion age, Auburn is dominating their cross-state rival with recruiting inside the State of Alabama for the first time since 2006, and The SEC will not be on at 2:30 on CBS for the first time in forever. Some may say “my how the tides have turned.”
Just like last season yours truly will cover all the action weekly here at Radio Free Auburn with weekly articles, weekly polls including the brand new “ESPN 106.7 College Football Top 20” brought to you every Monday this season by The Wisdom Firm, LLC.
https://www.radiofreeauburn.com/blog/espn-1067-pre-season-college-football-top-20
Make sure to check out the calendar at the bottom of this website homepage every Sunday for an updated schedule on where will be. Between On the Line at ESPN 106.7 from 2-4 weekdays, The Auburn Blitz on Fridays, Gameday on Wings every Saturday five hours before Auburn Tiger Football at Wings 94.3, and this website, it will be a remarkably busy fall! Also, do not forget about “Sensigreen Sundays” popping in with live video reviews of the week brought to you by our good friends at Sensigreen! For air that is cool and clean, call Sensigreen! Finally, The Uncle TBONE Top 20 drops every Sunday here!
https://www.radiofreeauburn.com/blog/uncle-tbone-top-20-pre-season-2024
What a difference a year makes? How about Auburn fans, what a difference a coaching staff makes? Auburn’s first year under Coach Hugh Freeze ended on a bitter, sour note but things on the plains are looking up. The Tigers have aggressively recruited the State of Alabama for the best talent since the day one of Hugh Freeze being hired. Those efforts quickly showed positive results in year one of a fragmented recruiting class, moved extremely towards the positive in year two with the flipping of Perry Thompson from Alabama, Cam Coleman from Texas A&M, and Demarcus Riddick and Joseph Phillips from Kirby Smart and UGA. Fast forward to the current 2025 class and by several recruiting service accounts have or are projected to have eight of the top ten players in Alabama committed for this next recruiting cycle. Ohio State of all teams have the other two top ten players locked down now. For long time Auburn fans this is such a breath of fresh air compared to the Saban Years when Alabama stuck a fork into Auburn in-state recruiting beginning in 2008. Below shows the trajectory of Auburn recruiting in-state under Hugh Freeze from the Rivals site. Pay special attention to 2024 and 2025 below with a 46% click of players from Alabama making up those two recruiting classes.
2023 – # 15 nationally – 22 commits/6 from Alabama (arrived late to Auburn)
2024 - #8 nationally – 20 commits/9 from Alabama
2025 - #6 nationally – 21 commits/10 from Alabama (not complete)
It is evident that Auburn understands clearly that their pathway to being competitive nationally begins and ends in-state with recruiting. A task much easier said than done here for Auburn in Alabama. Remember, it is not just The University of Alabama that Auburn must contend with for talent in-state but Clemson, Georgia, LSU, now Ohio State and every other school looking to seriously compete for championships in college football. There are a few states in the union that put out more college football talent than Alabama, but not many. What is also very evident in the loveliest village is for the first time in a long time plus a galaxy far away, everyone at Auburn is on the same page. Gone are the days for now when hanger ons, power players, boosters, money guys, incompetent Presidents, Athletic Directors, Coaches and Board of Trustees are meddling in day-to-day affairs in affairs they had no business meddling in. This holds true not just in football currently, but within the entire new-look professional Athletic Department at Auburn.
Hugh Freeze and this staff knew when hired the totality of this rebuild at Auburn. The first step regarding rebuilding the roster to a championship standard was to position themselves as the go-to for relationships with Alabama High School coaches as soon as Nick Saban retired from coaching. No one, including most Alabama people, had any idea that day would come as soon as it did. Like Hugh Freeze, new Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer had a limited time to build relationships in his first recruiting cycles arriving to Tuscaloosa after the early signing day in December of 2024. If you turn back the clock, you can clearly see Hugh Freeze taking the same approach to rebuilding his roster that Nick Saban did in 2007.
2007- #10 nationally – 25 commits/12 from Alabama (arrived late to Alabama)
2008 - #1 nationally – 32 commits/18 from Alabama
2009 - #1 nationally – 27 commits/10 from Alabama
2010 - #5 nationally – 26 commits/9 from Alabama (Auburn unleashed Tiger Prowl and Big Cat statewide)
Pay special attention to 2008 and 2009 above. 28/59 commits for Alabama were from in-state at a 47% click rate. Does that number sound familiar to the 46% above from Hugh Freeze second and third classes? Folks, is there anyone better to emulate in rebuilding a shattered program and roster in the State of Alabama not named Nick Saban? Not NO but HELL NO!
So, what does that say about the current head coach for the Tide, Kalen DeBoer? There is just not enough data to conclude about his long-term recruiting sustainability either positive or negative at Alabama. On a positive note, DeBoer has Alabama sitting at #2 nationally from Rivals in football recruiting. Is it a negative that out of the twenty-one current commits, only three, meaning 15% are from Alabama? Two of which local experts claim were not recruited by Auburn and one being a Tide legacy? Does it matter to longstanding Alabama fans that 6/25 current commits hail from California? The truth is Kalen Deboer inherited a healthier program than either Freeze or Saban and can afford a mulligan in-state his first couple of years until there is time to build relationships in-state. But, as healthy as Alabama is, it should have been easier for the Tide to heavily recruit the state under DeBoer immediately and that “mulligan clock” is ticking quicker than ever. The fact is Auburn under Freeze has made that concept of dominating in-state more difficult for the current regime in Tuscaloosa than it ever was for Nick Saban. No matter how it plays out through an important season for both programs until signing day in December, the way things are being done at both schools in-state are simply different than they have been done in years. FACT.