AUBURN | There are parallels that can be drawn from Billy Napier’s second season at Florida last year and Hugh Freeze’s second season at Auburn this fall.

But there are also signs that the Tigers’ recruiting class won’t suffer the same fate, which saw the Gators’ top 3 class fall to No. 15 nationally and Napier enter 2024 on the hottest of hot seats.

Florida managed to secure a commitment from just one player during the season last fall in Rivals100 defensive tackle LJ McCray, who nearly joined two of their other elite prospects in flipping to Auburn.

Auburn’s class is on a completely different trajectory.

The Tigers have added three big-time commitments since the start of the season and all three have been flips from Power 4 schools in Rivals100 linebacker Elijah Melendez from Miami, Rivals100 quarterback Deuce Knight from Notre Dame and 4-star wide receiver Samuel Turner from Georgia Tech.

And Auburn remains in the hunt for several more high-profile prospects, some of which are potential flips.

The Tigers recruiting class is still cruising along at warp speed while UF’s class was already at a standstill this time a year ago.

But Auburn’s not out of the danger zone just yet.

Florida lost eight of its commitments from Nov. 11 through Signing Day on Dec. 20.

It was a star-studded group that included Rivals100 outside linebacker Jamonta Waller and Rivals100 strongside defensive end Amaris Williams to Auburn, 5-star safety Xavier Filsaime and Rivals100 cornerback Wardell Mack to Texas, Rivals100 strongside defensive end Kendall Jackson and 4-star wide receiver Izaiah Williams to Texas A&M, 4-star defensive tackle Nasir Johnson to Georgia and Rivals100 outside linebacker Adarius Hayes to Miami.

This year’s signing date is set for Dec. 4 and that’s still the case without a National Letter of Intent (NLI), which will be replaced by a new financial aid agreement.

So Auburn has to hang on for a little more than seven more weeks to potentially sign its highest-rated class in the Rivals era.

What needs to happen over those 51 days?

Well, it would certainly help if the 2-4 Tigers were able to turn things around on the field starting this Saturday at No. 19 Missouri. That would alleviate a lot of outside recruiting pressure.

If AU finishes with a fourth consecutive losing season, you better believe other top programs will be hammering AU’s commitments to get them on campus for visits.

But the biggest difference I think Freeze and his staff have over the group from UF is their ability to build strong personal relationships with their recruits.

That’s why I think AU could continue to struggle on the field and still bring in a top five or better class.

Now, they’re going to need to recruit their current commitments as hard as they did before they joined the class and keep selling a positive future for this program under Freeze.

That’s certainly happening right now with the social media team pointing out AU leads the nation with defensive snaps played by true freshmen and leads the SEC with true freshman snaps on offense and defense combined.

That’s a positive sign for the future and a good example of what AU’s coaching staff needs to be spotlighting over these next seven weeks.

Sure, I’m a little skeptical Auburn can sign a top 5 or better class while playing this poorly on the field. But I’m not ruling it out and I’m not betting against this staff to get it done.

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In today’s musical journey, we go back 41 years to the day a 1980’s and MTV icon became the first female musical artist to release a debut album with four top five hits. On Oct. 14, 1983, Cyndi Lauper released her first solo album, She’s So Unusual, which included the hit singles “Girls Just Want To Have Fun,” “Time After Time,” “She Bop” and “All Through the Night.” Lauper began her solo career after the band she formed, Blue Angel, had a poor debut album, broke up and she was sued by her former manager, forcing Lauper into bankruptcy. “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” was the first single from the album and Lauper’s breakout hit, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard 100 and No. 1 in nine other countries. “Time After Time” became the first of her two No. 1 singles in the U.S. She’s So Unusual sold 16 million copies, which makes it the 30th best-selling album of the 1980’s. The album helped Lauper win two Grammy Awards in 1985 including Best New Artist. It’s ranked No. 184 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time and was preserved in the Library of Congress in 2019.

Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1953, but grew up in Queens listening to the Beatles and Judy Garland. She began playing guitar and writing songs at age 12. She was expelled from high school due to her poor grades and ran away from home at age 17 to escape an abusive stepfather. Lauper spent much of the 1970’s playing in cover bands and working as a waitress and office assistant. She formed Blue Angel with saxophonist John Turi in 1978 and after they broke up in 1980, she had to take a year off to recover from a cyst on her vocal cord. She co-wrote both “Time After Time” and “She Bop” on her debut album and also changed the lyrics for “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” which was originally written from a man’s point of view. She’s gone on to release 12 albums and have another No. 1 single 1986’s “True Colors.” Lauper had three more top 10 hits in 1985’s “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough,” 1986’s “Change of Heart” and 1989’s “I Drove All Night.” She’s also appeared in 12 movies including 1985’s The Goonies, more than a two dozen T.V. show and a couple of broadway musicals. She won an Emmy Award in 1995 for her guest appearance on “Mad About You,” a Tony Award for best original score in 2013’s Kinky Boots and a third Grammy in 2014. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2015.