Auburn football recruiting has had its highs and lows over the past two years, but it’s fair to say there has been an overall improvement since Hugh Freeze took over as head coach.

Auburn finished with the No. 10 ranked 2024 recruiting class and currently has the 15th-best 2025 recruiting class, according to the 247Sports composite rankings.

Last year’s class finished with the highest ranking Auburn has had since 2020, and was highlighted by five-star wide receiver, Cam Coleman.

Auburn’s philosophy behind recruiting is one Freeze claims isn’t common in modern day college football.

“Building genuine authentic relationships is important to me. That lasts the test of time and I don’t think money can buy that,” Freeze said Thursday at SEC Media Days. “I tell people all the time [Auburn] is one of the last few public universities that has that true essence of faith and family running through.”

Veteran linebacker Eugene Asante spoke to those same ideas when talking to reporters at SEC Media Days.

“When you talk about the way the program is ran, it’s a faith-based program,” Asante said. “We tell any recruit coming into this that it’s a faith-based program. Coach Freeze does a good job of appealing to players’ hearts.”

Asante transferred to Auburn from North Carolina prior to the 2022 season, but opted to stay at Auburn after head coach Bryan Harsin was fired in 2022.

He has become one of Auburn’s veteran leaders and was the team’s leading tackler in 2023 with 86.

Despite wanting to continue centering his recruiting around relationship-building, Freeze is aware of the challenges that presents in the age of NIL.

“Am I going to have to adjust and and do the 24-hour recruiting more? I don’t know. We’ll see if relational coaching will stand the test of the onslaught of of other opportunities that these young men will have,” Freeze said.

Regardless of how the sports continues to change, though, Freeze’s specialty remains the same.

“I’m much more comfortable recruiting a family and a young man and being able to work with them over the course of a few years so that he reaches his potential as a player and as a student and as a man,” he said.