BMattAU: Deuces wild
AUBURN | It’s a monumental day for Auburn recruiting.
The flip of four-star quarterback Deuce Knight from Notre Dame has solidified the Tigers’ 2025 class at No. 4 nationally and gives AU the bluechip quarterback it needed.
Auburn still has some more pieces to add to the ’25 class but it now has at least one highly-rated player at every position on offense and defense.
In this class alone, Hugh Freeze and his staff have flipped players from Michigan, Penn State and Notre Dame, two from Alabama, and landed another that was previously committed to Ohio State.
And I doubt they’re finished flipping high-profile players.
Recruiting has held Auburn back in so many ways over the last decade-plus, and that’s especially true at the quarterback position.
Since Cam Newton won the Heisman Trophy in 2010 and was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, AU has signed only one other quarterback the caliber of Knight, and that was Bo Nix in 2019, who had three good years at Auburn and two great years at Oregon.
Knight, who will be surrounded by much better players at Auburn than Nix, is rated by Rivals as the nation’s No. 2 dual-threat quarterback and No. 31 overall. Nix was the No. 1 pro-style quarterback and No. 29 overall.
The only other quarterback signee that comes close to those two in the last 15 years was Joey Gatewood, who was ranked the No. 3 dual-threat quarterback and No. 62 overall, but finished his career as a tight end at Louisville.
Landing a quarterback like Knight is not a regular occurrence at Auburn, at least before Hugh Freeze showed up.
Having Knight in this class and being on track for only its second top 5 class in the Rivals era, should boost Auburn in finishing with more elite prospects, especially at receiver.
There’s just two months until Signing Day and there’s no telling what Freeze and his staff will come up with before Dec. 4.
Auburn fans should know better than anyone what stacking top 5 classes on top of each other can do for a football program. They’ve watched their bitterest rivals do just that for years and have it translate into multiple championships.
Now, it’s the Tigers turn to start their own run of elite classes. This is just the start, but it’s a heck of a start indeed.