Hugh Freeze and his staff have landed a recruit for their 2024 class who was previously committed to Auburn’s biggest rival.

Three-star athlete Martavious Collins announced his commitment to Auburn on Friday, joining the Tigers’ class a little more than two months after his decommitment from Alabama. Collins, a 6-foot-3, 241-pounder who will play tight end at the next level, originally committed to the Tide in July before reopening his recruitment in early February.

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Collins is the fifth commit for Auburn in its 2024 class, which will be the program’s first full class of the Freeze era after he took over at the end of November. He joins four-star quarterback Walker White, four-star running back J’Marion Burnette, and four-star cornerbacks A’Mon Lane and Jayden Lewis in the Tigers’ current class.

His commitment comes just days after an unofficial visit to Auburn for the Tigers’ A-Day spring game, when the program attracted hordes of top recruits to get a firsthand look at Freeze’s program at the end of its first spring in this new era.

The addition of Collins boosts Auburn’s recruiting class up three spots to 21st in the nation, as the Tigers have leapfrogged Arkansas and Ole Miss in the 247Sports Composite team rankings. The Tigers’ class now ranks seventh in the SEC.

A native of Rome, Ga., Collins is rated as the No. 507 overall recruit in the 2024 class and the 50th-ranked athlete this cycle, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. He was re-offered by Auburn’s new staff Dec. 22. As a junior at Rome High, Collins was an All-Region honorable mention for his role in the Wolves’ 12-win season.

Collins is the first of what Auburn hopes to be a two-tight end class this cycle. Auburn currently has five tight ends on scholarship for the upcoming season, including a trio of seniors in Luke Deal, Tyler Fromm and Brandon Frazier. It would like to bring in two versatile players, who can be deployed as pass-catchers or as traditional in-line blockers, at the position this cycle to help replenish those numbers for 2024 and beyond while making the tight end an important weapon within Freeze’s offensive system.

“A lot of people look at our offense and they’re very excited because of the things we’ve done with Evan Engram and Dawson Knox,” tight ends coach Ben Aigamaua said in February. “…It’s important in today’s day and age because tight ends, you have two good ones, it gives the defense something to think about. They’ve got to figure out how they want to play it and if they want to do it a certain way, we’ll have some counters off of it. But it’s very important that you have tight ends in today’s game to kind of throw some defensive tendencies and all that stuff.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.