Auburn still battling for Alabama 5-star WR commit Perry Thompson

Foley (Ala.) five-star wide receiver Perry Thompson committed to Alabama back in June of 2022. Since then, Auburn has continued to push hard for the in-state receiver. Thompson will attend Auburn’s Big Cat Weekend later this month.

The 6-foot-3, 205-pound Thompson said that he hadn’t heard from Auburn until Hugh Freeze was hired. But, that he had already built a relationship with wide receivers coach Marcus Davis.

“I didn’t even hear from them before coach Freeze came in, but (wide receivers) coach (Marcus) Davis offered me when he was at Georgia Southern, so we had a relationship there,” Thompson told AL.com. “I went up there (when Davis was hired at Auburn) and met all the other coaches, and it felt like a family environment.”

“…I feel strongly about Alabama, but Auburn is definitely there.”

Thompson impressed by Auburn visit

He visited both Alabama and Auburn officially in June after taking multiple trips to each throughout the spring. 

“They are at the top with Alabama,” Thompson told Auburn Live after his official visit. “(Auburn) is up there. They are right there with Alabama.”

Thompson told Auburn Live that the Tigers’ coaching staff made him “feel like family.”

“The whole coaching staff, they are great,” Thompson said in June. “They make me feel like family. (The visit) went very well. I loved it, for real. The coaches, the environment . . . everybody makes me feel like family.

“The highlights were spending time with Coach (Hugh) Freeze and Coach (Marcus) Davis. Just going through the plays and them showing me how they’d use me in the offense. Them telling me how big of a legacy I could make if I come home.”

Thompson is a five-star prospect ranked No. 29 overall and is the No. 8 wide receiver in the 2024 cycle according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He is also the No. 3 player in Alabama.

Thompson currently has an On3 NIL Valuation of $216K. The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets high school and college athletes’ projected annual value (PAV). The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.