This is an opinion column.

One by one, Auburn stacked the headlines.

It began with a commitment from four-star Hezekiah Harris on Saturday morning and just didn’t stop the rest of the weekend.

And into Monday.

The annual Big Cat weekend had that holiday spirit as Auburn took a sleepy recruiting cycle and made a statement over three days in late July.

Hugh Freeze always said he wanted to build his Tiger program the old-fashioned way and, for a second straight year, the Big Cat weekend was something of an ambush.

Auburn snagged eight total commits in the blitz, snatching two from its archrival.

Like last year, there was a message delivered in the rivalry that’s a 365-day battle once again on the recruiting trail. After a few lean years where Auburn wasn’t necessarily competing regularly with Alabama for the elite talent in state, the Freeze machinery is clearly staking its claim.

With more Tiger alums on his Year 2 staff, Freeze and his staff are striking when Alabama’s as vulnerable as its been. It snatched a pair of commits from Alabama — Antonio Coleman and Derick Smith — in the Big Cat weekend that sent a few messages.

Auburn’s prioritizing the in-state talent and creating the kind of momentum necessary to dig out of the hole left by Bryan Harsin.

Look around and Auburn suddenly has the No. 5 group in the Class of 2025 rankings made by 247Sports. While there’s a long way to go in this cycle — flips, flops and more flips to come — but it’s an improvement from the No. 10 class in 2024 and No. 18 in 2023.

The timing is crucial in all of this as Alabama steadies the sea legs of a rebuilt coaching staff and recruiting machine as Saban’s ship sailed and Kalen DeBoer’s docked. Freeze is in Year 2 with any acclimation to the big leagues from his time at Liberty left behind.

It’s worth noting Auburn took a few bites from Saban this time last year in the same realm. The headlines from last July were about five-star receiver Perry Thompson flipping from Alabama to Auburn in Freeze’s first shot lobbed north and west to Tuscaloosa. (See my column from that point in the timeline).

Thompson is now on campus so we’ll get the first indication of how the Tigers can translate theoretical recruiting wins into actual progress in flipping the 60-minutes-of-football version of the reality back in its favor.

All of this also comes with a few major caveats.

First, Alabama’s hardly been picked clean by the large feline heist.

DeBoer’s 2025 class had been in the range of No. 1 overall before the defections and still sits at No. 2 in the 247Sports rankings. The Crimson Tide still have five of the coveted five-star prospects — the most of any class to date — while Auburn still has the one in Malik Autry.

Nobody at Alabama sounds overly concerned with the recent flips, partially because that’s just part of the expectation when non-binding commitments are perpetually in the crosshairs. It’s also fair to assume Alabama’s casting a net that’s more nationally focused.

There’s no right or wrong way of doing this. Just different strategies and staff configurations that dictate direction.

The Opelika defensive lineman leads the parade of in-state scores for Auburn. Each of the top seven 2025 commits as rated by 247Sports are from the state of Alabama.

When looking at the top-10 prospects overall in the state, seven are pledged to Auburn with five-star (and No. 2 in state) Jared Smith of Thompson a top priority.

A decent chunk of the credit for Auburn’s scores within the state’s borders goes to its new co-defensive coordinator Charles Kelly. A former Tiger on the playing field, Kelly is home after working last year at Colorado and is already the No. 9 recruiter in the 247Sports ranking of assistant coaches. He’s credited with at least a piece of the commitments from the following (with 247Sports overall ranking):

54. Eric Winters (S) Enterprise

78. Derick Smith (WR) Selma

98. Anquon Fagens (S) Thompson (who committed Monday)

Kelly’s been a powerhouse in recruiting for years — netting some of Alabama’s biggest prospects in recent years — before landing back at his alma mater. Kelly was credited for bringing Caleb Downs (a top prospect in 2023) and Will Anderson (among the most dominant defensive ends in the first half of the decade).

Now the Ozark, Alabama product has a little extra in the tank for his alma mater and it’s paying off.

How it all translates to the field remains a question for the future.

But what Auburn has now that it lacked in previous seasons is momentum on the recruiting trail — a tailwind of sorts in a post-Saban era that certainly offers more hope for sustaining success that proved fleeting in the previous decade and a half.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter@ByCasagrandeor onFacebook.