This is an opinion column.

______________________

When Auburn hired Hugh Freeze to be the Tigers’ football coach, the school knew there would be initial blowback.

It was a shrewd decision, and now it’s paying off.

On Wednesday, Freeze landed Auburn’s best recruiting class in years. It included a quarterback who will be an instant leader in Walker White and a Christmas stocking full of elite players. Perhaps most impressively of all, this class includes three players who flipped their commitments with Alabama, Georgia and Texas A&M.

It takes a sizable warchest to compete in recruiting these days, and let’s just say that Auburn isn’t hurting for cash. War Damn dollar bills, y’all.

It’s like this. Winning in the SEC takes something more than money, but no one is bringing home a conference championship without delivering the goods for Christmas.

Welcome back to the party, Auburn. The SEC is always better when the Tigers have their house in order.

Saban and Smart are still the kings of the SEC after this recruiting class, but Auburn once again has a pulse. It was touch and go there for a couple years. I don’t put much stock into recruiting rankings, but jumping from No.21 in 2022 to No.7 in 2024 is a clear move in the right direction. Now the trick is to stack multiple top classes on top of each other.

Georgia was ranked No.1 this time and Alabama No.2. Last year, Alabama had the top-ranked class and Georgia was second. Auburn should be competing with its rivals every season for the top class in the country. This latest haul proves that it’s still an attainable goal.

Was Freeze the only coach who could resurrect the Tigers? I don’t know about that, but I can say after speaking with people around the SEC that no one worked harder this past recruiting cycle than the coach chasing redemption at Auburn.

Auburn basketball has Bruce Pearl, who was hired while still under a show-cause suspension by the NCAA. Auburn football has Freeze, the coach who had everything at Ole Miss and squandered it away.

Freeze came to the Plains with plenty of baggage, but Auburn needed a proven SEC coach who could stand side-by-side with Alabama’s Nick Saban and Georgia’s Kirby Smart. Auburn couldn’t miss again. The stakes were too high. It felt like the football program was at a desperate crossroads after the university fired Bryan Harsin.

Auburn took a chance on Harsin hoping he would be the SEC’s next Urban Meyer. It was a colossal miss. In Freeze, the university hired a man with a burning desire to resurrect his name and reputation. Freeze began delivering on his part of the deal this week.

RELATED: Hugh Freeze gave up play-calling duties to recruit

RELATED: How Auburn built its recruiting class

RELATED: What’s left for Auburn recruiting

RELATED: Three takeaways from Alabama’s recruiting class

In the past, Auburn was always at its best when it featured a stout rushing attack. The running game isn’t going away with Carnell Williams coaching the position, but Freeze signaled a new era of Auburn offense with his first real signing class (it’s probably unfair to count 2023). Auburn wants to be Wide Receiver U, and it’s on the right track with four new prospects: Cam Coleman of Phenix City, Perry Thompson of Foley, Malcolm Simmons of Alexander City and Bryce Cain of Mobile.

In addition to those incoming freshmen, Auburn also added a talented receiver out of the transfer portal, Robert Lewis of Georgia State.

Coleman was committed to Texas A&M before choosing Auburn and Thompson was aligned with Alabama when he changed his mind for the Tigers. They’re the crown jewels of the class and should give Auburn a dynamic offense in 2024. What I like most of all about Auburn’s new receiving corps, though, is that the four incoming freshmen are all from the state of Alabama. That sends a message.

Auburn fans are well aware of the football program’s history of losing elite recruits from close to home. Reuben Foster and Rashaan Evans of Auburn High School famously chose Alabama. Receiver Justyn Ross of Phenix City went to Clemson. There are others. If Freeze can build a wall around east Alabama and west Georgia and then construct a recruiting bridge to Atlanta, then Auburn will compete for national championships.

The SEC is changing. It’s impossible to know how the single-division model of the league will affect recruiting in the long term, but Auburn let everyone know this week that it will not be lost in the shuffle. In 2024, prepare for the return of the Tigers.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the most controversial sports book ever written, “We Want Bama”. It’s a love story about wild times, togetherness and rum.