Jackson High School produces college football players.

Take Auburn cornerback Nehemiah Pritchett for example. Pritchett played for the Aggies in west Alabama from 2015-19, helping them to a combined 35-15 record through his four seasons and earning a 3-star rating as a prospect before enrolling with the Tigers.

“We’ve got teachers here in the school that are talking about (Pritchett) getting drafted and stuff, so you know, there’s still a lot of close ties with Auburn,” said Jackson’s head football coach Cody Flournoy.

Despite Auburn having one of its former players on the roster, when Bryan Harsin was the head coach of the Tigers, Jackson didn’t get much love from Auburn.

Up until Hugh Freeze and his staff took over, current Alabama defensive coordinator Kevin Steele, who previously held the same title on The Plains from 2016-20, was the last Auburn coach to contact Flournoy and Jackson.

“That’s the last time we ever heard from anybody at Auburn and we’ve got a player there,” Flournoy said.

No one on Harsin’s staff gave Jackson the time of day.

“At Jackson, every year or two, we’re always going to have good players. And that’s not that I’m producing good players, but Jackson and this community… this Highway 43 corridor in West Alabama that we’re on… there’s always players coming out of it,” Flournoy said.

“What I’m getting at is to not hear from Auburn… it’s like at least y’all could give us a call or something. We’ve got a guy there. It’s like, y’all know where (Pritchett) come from, don’t ya?”

Less than 10 miles east of Auburn’s campus in Opelika, Erik Speakman, head coach of the Bulldogs’ football program, shared many of the same stories.

Speakman, who has been at Opelika for more than 20 years, tried giving Harsin and his staff the benefit of the doubt in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“He came in under Covid so you kinda give him a pass in year one,” Speakman said. “But then you really never saw much of those guys. And it wasn’t just him, but the whole staff.”

The state of Alabama is regarded as one of the best in producing college football talent.

According to Bleacher Report, Alabama is the fifth-ranked state in terms of football talent for the 2024 class with two 5-star prospects and 19 4-star prospects. Alabama’s neighboring states, Georgia and Florida rank No. 3 and No. 2, respectively.

“I don’t know why he didn’t put an emphasis on recruiting, maybe they just thought they could out-coach people,” Speakman said of Harsin. “But with the quality of coaching and the quality of players in this league, it’s not just coaching and it’s not just recruiting. So it’s not one or the other, you’ve gotta do both.”

Harsin’s 2021 recruiting class ranked as the 18th in the nation after neglecting to land a 5-star recruit and reeling in seven 4-star prospects. Auburn’s 2022 class ranked as the 21st in the country and again didn’t feature a 5-star.

Emphasizing recruiting is especially vital at a place like Auburn, where your program is sandwiched between two of the country’s recruiting powerhouses in Alabama and Georgia.

In Freeze’s first true recruiting cycle at Auburn, he’s already done what Harsin could never do in securing the commitments of a pair of in-state, 5-star prospects in linebacker Demarcus Riddick and wide receiver Perry Thompson.

Making the blue-chip duo’s pledge to the Tigers that much most remarkable was the fact that Riddick flipped from Georgia and Thompson flipped from Alabama.

The Tigers also added 4-star athlete Malcolm Simmons during Big Cat Weekend, securing yet another in-state commitment.

Granted, there’s still a while to go before Auburn’s current commits put pen to paper and sign their letters of intent, which bind them to the university.

“It’s still a recruiting win when you’re getting three really good players out of the state of Alabama to commit to you,” Speakman said. “And for whatever reason, that wasn’t happening the last two years. Those kids would not have been coming to Auburn.

“You really better do your homework, And I think that’s what you’re seeing now with Coach Freeze is his familiarity with the SEC from his time at Ole Miss and just the emphasis on getting in-state guys that wanna be at Auburn and wanna play for Auburn and then those guys in Georgia and some guys from Florida.”

And a lot of those in-state guys do want to play for Auburn.

Sure, most of the time the local high school teams are a balanced mix of Crimson Tide fans and Tigers fans. But an Auburn offer, especially if it comes to a kid without an Alabama offer, gives the Tigers a pretty considerable chance.

“For us being this close, it’s probably 90 percent of them (want to play for Auburn),” said Opelika’s Speakman. “They’re either going to be an Auburn fan or an Alabama fan growing up here. They may like other schools… But if you threw out an Alabama or an Auburn offer to them, they’re going to take those first. To get that Auburn offer is huge for these kids.”

Take the example of Jarell Stinson for example.

Stinson, a 4-star cornerback prospect and 10-time track state champion out of Opelika High School, was recruited to Auburn by Gus Malzahn’s staff in 2020. Even after Malzahn’s firing, sold on playing for a program and not a specific coach, Stinson committed to his hometown team.

On June 18, 2021, six months after Auburn hired Harsin, Stinson returned to campus for an official visit.

Twenty six days later, on July 14, Stinson decommitted from the Tigers.

“I don’t know, he was just never sold on the previous group (at Auburn),” Speakman said when discussing Stinson’s flip.

So what exactly is Auburn’s current staff doing to sell players and local high school players alike? Local coaches’ answers might infuriate Tigers fans.

“They’re just putting forth some effort,” Flournoy said. “And it doesn’t take a ton of effort, but come by and see me. And they have… It doesn’t take much. Show your face, wear your Auburn gear and it makes a big impact.”

Auburn wide receivers coach Marcus Davis and offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery have each made the three-hour trek down to Jackson to visit with Flournoy and discuss his program and its prospects.

Speakman says Davis and defensive line coach Jeremy Garrett have passed through Opelika to do the same.

Freeze was asked about Auburn’s recent recruiting successes Thursday as he opened fall camp with a press conference.

“I’ve always felt like — I want this to sound the right way — I was pretty decent at recruiting,” Freeze said. “I had a good plan and a good plan for the staff. I’m not really shocked.

Freeze admits to being a little shocked by the talent, or perhaps lack thereof, on Auburn’s roster when he first got to The Plains.

And he, like the rest of those who have watched Auburn recruiting over the years, whether as a high school coach or a fan, express a sense of confusion as it relates to the lack of recruiting success the past two seasons.

“I think it’s easy to recruit to Auburn. This is one of the elite programs in the country. Maybe we haven’t had the production in the last few years that is expected. I wasn’t here, I don’t know. I’m not really surprised that you can recruit at Auburn.”