Hugh Freeze’s time at Auburn has been pretty rough, with back-to-back losing seasons—6-7 in 2023 and 5-7 in 2024. His overall win rate sits at just 44%, and he’s only 5-11 in SEC play, which makes it hard to judge his time there so far. But it’s not all bad; recruiting has been a bright spot for him. The 2024 class really showed that he knows how to snag some top-notch prospects, ranking 8th nationally. Still, he’s got some competition, as one of his 4-star recruits is now being courted by a rival SEC team.

Freeze exceeded expectations in the 2025 class, too, and produced an 8th-ranked class again in 2025. The head coach even managed to land a five-star QB, Deuce Knight, who was ranked 5th in his position. But he didn’t stop here and brought in 20 transfers. These consisted of big names like Jackson Arnold from Oklahoma, Xavier Chaplin from Virginia Tech, and Eric Singleton Jr. from Georgia Tech. So, now with the class done and dusted, the work began for the 2026 one.

The 2026 recruiting class is sticking to the same game plan as the last couple of years and is currently sitting at 13th in the nation. The head coach has locked in seven commitments so far, with five of them being blue-chip prospects. Devin Carter is making waves as the 19th-ranked wide receiver, and Shadarius Toodle is holding down the defense as a 12th-ranked linebacker. But the real standout is Hezekiah Harris, a super-talented edge rusher who’s ranked 15th overall and has a solid 93.19 rating on On3. The only problem? He seems to be slipping away.

Matt Ray sat with Josh Newberg in ON3 Recruit’s 30th May episode and gave a scenario where Tennessee has landed a last-minute visit from Harris. The move is big since Harris wasn’t going to take any visits apart from Auburn this weekend. “Hezekiah Harris, that’s a guy that’s going to visit Auburn this weekend, and you can expect that they’re going to full-court press to get him to shut this thing down, and not take any more visits,” said Matt Ray. But amid Auburn coming hard this weekend and Tennessee landing a final visit, the development is big since it wasn’t even on the cards remotely.

“For Tennessee, it was big to get him back before that. You’re continuing to work and build toward getting that last official visit in June. You’re continuing to work on that relationship and solidifying that. So, that’s a big reason that you needed to get him back to campus this weekend. And Tennessee was able to do just that,” said Matt Ray.

While Auburn and Hugh Freeze have always been a priority for Harris, he has visited Tennessee three times earlier, and now his OV is coming on 20th June. Standing at 6’5″ and 230 lbs, Harris is a native of Huntsville, Florida, and already commands an NIL value of $154k. Proximity-wise, Auburn and Knoxville are not that different, and thus the battle will probably get down to NIL money and final persuasion.

QB1 spot in jeopardy for Jackson Arnold?

Jackson Arnold has finally come to Hugh Freeze’s camp from Oklahoma and is expected to be the starter. After all, the QB showed moments of brilliance last season and produced 1,421 passing and 444 rushing yards. So, while the QB1 spot is his to take any slip-up, and we can see even land it in favor of the incoming 5-star freshman Deuce Knight. However, for now, Arnold seems to be the guy.

The Barn’s host, Charlie 5, talked about why Arnold’s place is set at least initially in the season. “They finally have a quarterback. Jackson Arnold is not a world beater. You can rattle him, but he’s a day-one upgrade, and that receiving room is really deep.” The host then talked about how Arnold’s place is almost confirmed.

“A lot of things that we’ve talked about seem like confirmation. It’s one thing to hear it from a sportswriter. It’s another thing to hear it from an SEC coach,” said Charlie. While the SEC coach who echoed the confirmation is still anonymous, since the confirmation comes from an insider, it is a big deal. Everyone knows that Arnold is brimming with talent; now he only needs to take a step forward and produce a memorable season