There was arguably no other signee with more attention in Auburn’s 2025 class than Deuce Knight, a five-star quarterback who flipped from Notre Dame.

Knight, who played high school football at George County High School in Mississippi, flipped to Auburn on Oct. 2, and the Tigers held off a push from Ole Miss to keep the blue-chip signal caller in their class.

He enrolled early at Auburn, meaning he already arrived on campus when the spring semester began in January. That allowed head coach Hugh Freeze to already spend some time around him, and he had good things to say about Knight when speaking to reporters at Senior Bowl practice Wednesday.

“Man, the maturity he’s got. Even after we recruited him, I still wasn’t quite as aware,” Freeze said of Knight. “He’s in there studying every day. And man, he doesn’t want to wait around to be great. He’s trying hard now to pick up every drop of knowledge that he can.”

Knight was one of four new quarterbacks Auburn signed going into the 2025 season, joining Jackson Arnold, Ashton Daniels and Tanner Bailey. While Arnold is the early favorite to be the starter, Freeze spoke highly of Daniels, who comes to Auburn after starting for two seasons at Stanford.

Unlike the others, though, Daniels won’t join the team until the summer. He threw for 3,947 yards, 21 touchdowns and 20 interceptions during his two seasons as a starter, but Freeze pointed out that he’ll have more talent around him at Auburn.

“I don’t want to say this has a slap toward anyone, but he didn’t have a lot around him, and he still produced significant, significant yards,” Freeze said.

Freeze was most complimentary about Daniels’ ability as runner. Daniels rushed for 669 yards and three touchdowns during his final season at Stanford, adding dual threat ability that fits what Auburn does on offense. Not only did Freeze like the physical tools the Stanford transfer brings, he praised the mental aspect of Daniels’ game.

“He’s going to come in with a mentality, and he’s got, I mean, his knowledge of the game, his IQ is extremely high,” Freeze said.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m