With the turmoil of firing their head coach and trying to find a new one prior to National Signing Day, the Auburn Tigers football team was fighting an uphill battle. However, in his first signing day as head coach, Alex Golesh knocked it out of the park. He maintained most of the class that the previous regime had been working on. He also brought recruits with him that he was recruiting at South Florida. Golesh even finished the job on a couple of flips Auburn and he were working on.
Auburn Football: Tigers Early Signing Day Recap
Auburn started the day as the 93rd-ranked recruiting class for 2026 and rose 58 spots to 35th. The drop was likely due to the decommitments of Peyton Falzone, Nekau Hepi, Kentrell White and Bralan Womack. Falzone and White were likely “replaced” with two recruits that Alex Golesh was pursuing at USF with Rhys Brush (three-star quarterback) and Damarcus Broughton (three-star tight end) who both flipped to Auburn on Early Signing Day. Mykall Lundy-Foster also flipped from USF to Auburn, which may be why Hepi may have decommitted.
Auburn maintained a multitude of players they had been pursuing with the previous coaching regime. Those players include Shadarius Toodle, Shadrick Toodle Jr., Parker “Dooly” Pritchett, Wayne Henry, Jahquez Wilkes, and Travis Wakefield. DJ Durkin being retained definitely helped seal the Toodle brothers, but also with Henry and Wilkes who are both defensive prospects.
Auburn was pursuing other players, and so was Golesh prior to joining the Tigers as head coach. Some of these players aligned even more with Golesh’s addition, and ultimately flipped their commitment from other schools or signed with Auburn after being previously uncommitted. Two wide receivers that fit this category are Deshawn Spencer and Brian Williams.
Spencer had been previously committed to Duke, despite having a great relationship with Golesh and garnering serious interest from Auburn. When Golesh came to Auburn, Spencer flipped within 48 hours of the coaching change. Meanwhile, Williams flipped from Alabama; and any chance Auburn can steal a player from Alabama is a good day. Williams had been previously been recruited by USF and new associate head coach at Auburn, Kodi Burns.
The final players to round out Auburn’s class include a pair of flips, and players Auburn had previously recruited. The most notable of these players may be Corey Wells. The four-star defensive linemen had been projected to flip to Auburn from Texas for months. However, the noise had gotten real quiet leading into December. Wells and his brother Chris (former South Alabama commit) both ultimately flipped to Auburn to boost the defensive line.
Auburn got more of that help when three-star defensive linemen Tavian Branch signed his NLI. Branch is 6-foot-4 and 300 pounds. He will be a huge addition to the Tigers defensive line. The final commit in the Tigers class is to no surprise a defensive “heat seeking missile” in three-star linebacker Adam Balogoun-Ali. “Goon” reopened his commitment late, but landed with the Tigers because of Durkin and Golesh. He said that Golesh had recruited him since he was a freshman while the former was still USF’s head coach.
There are still recruits to watch for to finalize the Tigers class. Four-star offensive tackle Wilson Zierer is committed to Auburn and signed his NLI to officially join the Tigers late. Zierer is another great addition to the Tigers class, considering he is listed at 6-foot-6 and 280 pounds. That size will be key for Auburn.
The other key recruit to watch for the Tigers is five-star wide receiver Jase Matthews. Matthews delayed his signing to Friday to further discuss with coach Golesh (and other schools). With Lane Kiffin leaving Ole Miss, Matthews recruitment is intriguing because the Rebels and LSU had both been pushing hard for him. With an offense like Golesh’s, any wide receiver should be highly interested in playing for Auburn now.
Once the class is finalized, Golesh and company will have an enormous amount of work to do to retain current players and decide who to pursue in the transfer portal. With a smaller recruiting class from the high school ranks, the transfer portal recruiting is going to be essential.
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