Auburn strikes early and late on National Signing Day to bolster 2024 class

Auburn came away from Early National Signing Day a winner, as it flipped four-star defensive lineman Amaris Williams from Florida and landed a late-night pledge from three-star offensive tackle Favour Edwin.

Hugh Freeze and the AU coaching staff kept their foot on the gas from start to finish on Wednesday and now have the No. 7 recruiting class in the 2024 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Team Recruiting Rankings.

On the latest edition of The Inside Scoop, Auburn recruiting insider Cole Pinkston joined On3’s Josh Newberg to detail how the Tigers landed their two new prospects for a positive NSD, despite not flipping the two highest-ranked targets on their board.

Auburn beats out Ohio State in race to flip Amaris Williams

Down the stretch this fall, it seemed Clinton (N.C.) four-star DL Amaris Williams’s pledge to Florida could be swayed. Ohio State was the program that had the buzz at first, but along came Auburn.

The 6-foot-2.5, 265-pounder took an official visit to The Plains on Dec. 10. That trip did wonders for the Tigers’ chances, according to Pinkston.

“It seemed like it was almost a done deal with Ohio State, it seemed like Florida was going to lose him to somebody … it went a lot of different ways, but boy his visit to Auburn, that’s when it was different. He spoke to us pretty candidly on and off the record — off the record, he was like ‘yeah, this might pretty much do it,’ is how he told us … that’s exactly how it worked out,” Pinkston said.

“It was a huge signing day addition, because if you don’t get that one, the day doesn’t look all that great, other than keeping who you had in the class, so that was a really big one.”

Williams is the No. 82 overall prospect and No. 11 DL in the 2024 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He became the fifth top-100 prospect to join the fold for AU, catapulting the class.

Tigers close NSD on a high note with commitment from Edwin

It came down to Auburn, Alabama and Florida for McDonough (Ga.) Eagle’s Landing Christian three-star OT Favour Edwin. All three schools appeared to have the momentum for the 6-foot-8 lineman at some point this week.

Eventually, the Tigers and Gators emerged, but as Wednesday night drew on, Edwin was yet to come off the board. Then, Freeze took to social media with a smoke signal of sorts, hinting that something was coming soon. Enter the announcement of Edwin committing and signing with the Tigers at 11:30 p.m. ET.

“It was 50-50, really bottom line it wasn’t going to be Alabama, that was what it was, Auburn or Florida. With the way things had gone with offensive line recruiting in this class for Auburn — you got two really good ones, in my opinion, but the numbers weren’t working out,” Pinkston said.

“Sure enough, 10 o’clock on the dot, Hugh Freeze tweets out the eyeballs emoji like something’s happening…I checked in to it, sure enough, it wasn’t 15 minutes later Favour Edwin had already signed — not committed, but signed with Auburn.”

The No. 631 prospect and No. 39 OT in the cycle became the third O-lineman in Auburn’s class, joining Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei four-star DeAndre Carter and JUCO Snow College three-star Seth Wilfred.