Auburn’s 2023 recruiting class, the first in the brief tenure of head coach Hugh Freeze, has racked up some decisive wins: Two four-stars flipped on signing day; Four transfers secured from within the Southeastern Conference; Over 30 new players added to the roster overall, the byproduct of an active coaching staff pulling on old connections. Yet, there’s something missing.

Why hasn’t Jeremiah Cobb signed his national letter of intent?

Cobb, the in-state standout running back who committed to Bryan Harsin in July, is Auburn’s top-ranked offensive commit, per the 247Sports Composite. He capped off another first-team all-state season with 39 total touchdowns and 2,163 rushing yards for Montgomery Catholic, leading another deep run in the AHSAA playoffs. In the overall class, Cobb is the second-highest-rated player, behind Highland Home’s Keldric Faulk.

Cobb is still expected to compete for carries in Auburn’s running back room next fall, Catholic head coach Kirk Johnson confirmed to AL.com. The Knights don’t allow students to graduate early, Johnson said, and Cobb’s signing day ceremony with the rest of his classmates will occur on Feb. 1 before Cobb enrolls this summer.

“(Cobb) built great relationships with Zac Etheridge, Cadillac (Williams) and (Trovon Reed),” Johnson said in July. “We go way back and to watch the way Aubun recruited an in-state kid made me really happy. The fact that we have multiple kids that leave the state every year for whatever reason, it always blows my mind. I’m happy to see a high-level recruit (like Cobb, the No. 1 back in Alabama) see him in-state. There’s some little kid running a football right now that’s going to be talking about Jeremiah Cobb like we talked about Cadillac. It makes it familiar. I’m from Alabama and I did this. And I want to see you do the same thing I did. Cadillac is a legend at Auburn and to hear him give his spiel to Cobb was amazing.”

There’s little reason to doubt Cobb’s eventual arrival on the Plains. Three of Catholic’s Division I standouts from the 2022 cycle followed a similar path as T.J. Dudley and Kylon Griffin chose Clemson after their recruitments continued through the new year. Even Jourdan Thomas, who signed with the Volunteers in December 2021, waited til the following summer to step on campus.

Though the Tigers did bring in a 1,000-yard rusher in USF transfer Brian Battie, there is still an opening following the loss of Tank Bigsby. Cobb, who picked up a Georgia offer in October, told AL.com’s Ben Thomas in December he was “excited” about Williams, his lead recruiter, being retained on Freeze’s staff.

“I think (Freeze) can really turn the program around and make it better,” Cobb said.

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Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].