AUBURN | Auburn has signed two five-star quarterbacks and landed one top five recruiting class in the 23 years of the Rivals recruiting rankings.

They combined the two in 2010. And about 11 months after signing, Cam Newton led the Tigers to an undefeated season and the National Championship.

It could happen again, at least the first two accomplishments, with this year’s class.

Hugh Freeze set a goal of signing a top 10 class last year and did just that with Auburn finishing eighth in the team rankings. He set a goal of finishing in the top five in the 2025 class and I certainly wouldn’t bet against him.

A big step in achieving that top five class would be securing a five-star quarterback and Auburn has its sights set on a special one in Julian Lewis.

Lewis, or Ju Ju, is more than just a five-star. He’s the No. 1 quarterback in the country and the No. 1 overall recruit in the entire 2025 class.

He committed to USC last August, but Auburn has continued to actively recruit him and hosted him for a number of visits, which will culminate in an official June 14.

He will also officially visit Indiana May 31, USC June 7, Colorado June 22 and perhaps Alabama.

There are no guarantees in recruiting — ever — but with perhaps just weeks to go before a final decision, Auburn is in position to pull off one of the biggest flips in its history and one that would send shockwaves through a college football world that’s not quite prepared for the Tigers recruiting at this high of a level.

We are entering the most crucial period for recruiting in the 2025 class. The next month and the days and weeks that follow will determine if AU can indeed land that top five class.

It’s been recruiting that held Auburn back over most of the Gus Malzahn era and both of the disastrous years under Bryan Harsin.

And it’ll be recruiting that brings Auburn back to competing for championships.

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Auburn’s softball team ended its season in Tallahassee yesterday but don’t let that overshadow what was a breathtaking performance by Maddie Penta late into Saturday night and the wee hours of Sunday morning.

Penta threw 3.0 innings in a 9-0 run-rule win over Chattanooga and then 12.0 complete innings in a 2-1 win over UCF to advance to the Regional championship.

In the win over UCF, Penta set a school single-game record with 21 strikeouts including back-to-back strikeouts in the 12th inning to end the game at 3 a.m. local time. She threw 224 pitches.

In all, Penta was 2-0 allowing one run on three hits in 15.0 innings with 26 strikeouts on Saturday. She threw a total of 257 pitches and came back again Sunday and threw 25 more in a 10-4 loss to Florida State.

She finished her AU career with a school-record 76 wins.

Legendary.

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In today’s musical journey, we go back 32 years to the day the Divine Miss M became the final guest on the penultimate show of the King of Late Night. On May 21, 1992, Bette Midler appeared as the final guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. They sang “Here’s That Rainy Day” together as a duet and Midler closed the show by singing “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road),” modifying some of the lyrics just for Carson, who watched on with tears in his eyes. The next night, Carson would air his final show without guests and focusing on highlights and memories over the previous 30 years. He brought long-time collaborators and friends, Ed McMahon and bandleader Doc Severinsen, to the couch for one last chat. It was viewed by more than 50 million people. Carson closed with a final message beginning, “And so it has come to this. I am one of the lucky people in the world; I found something I always wanted to do and I have enjoyed every single minute of it.”

John Williams Carson was born in Coming, Iowa in 1925 and moved to Norfolk, Nebraska at age eight, where he started performing for his family from a mail-order magician’s kit and doing card tricks. At age 14, he performed as The Great Carsoni at the local Kiwanis Club. He joined the U.S. Navy in 1943 and served in World War II aboard the USS Pennsylvania battleship where he posted a 15-0-1 record as an amateur boxer. After the war, he earned a degree from Nebraska in radio and speech and began his broadcasting career at WOW radio and T.V. in Omaha. He moved to Los Angeles in 1951 where he worked with Red Skelton and Jack Benny and became a panelist on the T.V. show To Tell the Truth. He moved to New York where he became the host of the the daytime T.V. show Who Do You Trust before replaced Jack Parr on the Tonight Show on Oct. 1, 1962. The show was originally filmed at 30 Rockefeller Plaza but moved to Burbank, Calif., in 1972. By the mid-1970’s, Carson became the highest earning T.V. star making $4 million a year. He won six Emmy Awards and was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1987. A long-time smoker, Carson passed away of emphysema in 2005.

Bette Davis Midler was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1945 and named after actress, Bette Davis. She spent three semesters majoring in drama at the University of Hawaii in Manoa before moving to New York in 1965 and appearing in several plays. She began singing along with pianist Barry Manilow at the Continental Baths in the Ansonia Hotel in 1970. Manilow produced her first album, 1972’s The Divine Miss M, which included her first hit single, a cover of the Andrews Sisters’ “Boogie Boogie Bugle Boy,” which peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 100. Her first and only No. 1 single on the Billboard 100 came with 1989’s “Wind Beneath My Wings.” She also had two top five singles in 1980’s “The Rose,” from the movie, The Rose, which she also starred in, and 1990’s “From A Distance.” Over her five decade career, Midler has starred in more than 100 films, T.V. shows and Broadway shows, and produced 14 albums. She has won three Grammy, three Emmy, two Tony and four Golden Globe Awards. She was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role for 1979’s The Rose and 1991’s The Boys, losing to Sally Field in 79 and Jodie Foster in 91. One of her Emmy Awards came from her final appearance on the Tonight Show.