The third time wasn't a charm for Hugh Freeze. He lost the crown jewel of his program: his top 10 high school recruiting class in 2026.
It was bad as is with the consecutive losing seasons and the building up hot seat talks, not having their recruiting cycle among the top 10 worsened the trolls.
However, Rivals recruiting analyst Steve Wiltfong believes Freeze can shed the albatross of having one bad recruiting cycle and get Auburn back into the top 10 recruiting cycle mix in 2026.
"Auburn has injected the roster with two Top 10 recruiting classes and what should be several impact transfers," Wiltfong said, referencing the Texas recruits Freeze and Co.