College football recruiting has never been a wilder ride than it is in 2025.

The age of committing, decommitting, flipping and posting pictures suited up in another school’s uniform while being “committed” elsewhere gives May and June the drama of October or November.

Even when early signing day is six months away, fans are already prone to drawing out doomsday scenarios on their message board of choice. At Auburn, three blue-chip decommitments in the past two weeks seems to be doing just that.

On June 12, while Auburn was hosting 7on7 camps on campus, four-star linebacker JaMichael Garrett announced his decommitment. While losing a recruit is hardly ever ideal, Garrett’s decommitment was an isolated incident at the time and a decommitment already seemed to be on the table.

Ten days later, fellow four-star linebacker Shadarius Toodle followed Garrett, not just decommitting, but flipping to Georgia. That decision also came less than two weeks after Toodle visited Auburn and left the Tigers without two previously committed blue-chip linebackers.

Devin Carter’s flip from Auburn to Florida State on Monday capped off what has been an unfortunate two weeks for Auburn recruiting. The son of former Florida State running back Dexter Carter, his flip doesn’t seem to be a shock either, at least on the surface.

But with three blue-chip recruits decommitting in a matter of weeks and Auburn’s class ranking in the 70s, per 247Sports, is it time to hit the panic button?

Th short answer is that it’s probably too early to tell. Early Signing Day is still close to six months away and there have been plenty of cases of teams who built impressive classes mostly in the back half of the cycle.

With that said, here’s a look at where Auburn’s 2026 class currently stands:

Ranking

247Sports: 72

On3: 61

Rivals: 64

Committed players

• Hezekiah Harris, four-star edge rusher
• Denairius Gray, four-star wide receiver
• Parker Pritchett, three-star interior offensive lineman
• Wayne Henry, three-star safety
• Eric Perry, three-star athlete

The assessment

Things aren’t going well for Auburn recruiting right now. That’s fair to say. It’s also fair to say that what happens on the field in 2025 could determine the trajectory of the class as signing day gets closer.

Each of Hugh Freeze’s first two full classes at Auburn ranked in the top 10, but eventually success on the field will mean something to recruits. Most high school players don’t react much to individual wins and losses or even a bad season, but eventually, there needs to be progress.

That hasn’t happened yet at Auburn, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen in 2025.

It’s also worth noting that given how deep Auburn’s previous two signing classes have been, combined with two deep transfer classes, Auburn may not need to sign 25+ players again. The 2025 signing class featured 26 incoming freshmen, followed by 19 more transfers.

Looking specifically at a player like Carter, a wide receiver, the Auburn pitch becomes a harder sell when it includes competing with or sitting behind players like Cam Coleman, Malcolm Simmons, Perry Thompson, Sam Turner, Derick Smith and potential others.

That’s different from the last two classes, where it was easy to pitch early playing time and contributing to a rebuild right away. When you make joining the rebuild a part of your recruiting pitch, there eventually needs to be signs that the rebuild is happening. Few top recruits are willing to sign up for a college experience that includes both sitting on the bench and losing.

NIL is a factor too, but Auburn is equipped to be competitive there. Revenue sharing is also a new factor to consider in recruiting, as players can be paid directly by schools starting July 1.

Will Auburn recruiting pick back up for the 2026 class? There may not be a late summer surge like last year, but there’s still plenty of time.

Recruiting across the FBS will officially go into a dead period starting June 24 and ending on July 31. Once things pick back up in the fall, what Auburn does on the field could be a big part of determining what the class looks like in December.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m