Outside of his amazing recruiting efforts in a short amount of time, Hugh Freeze has made two great decisions since being named Auburn’s head football coach on Nov. 28… retaining both [autotag]Cadillac Williams[/autotag] and [autotag]Zac Etheridge[/autotag] from the previous staff.
Both Williams and Etheridge have developed key relationships with high school recruits, which was instrumental in keeping the 2023 class together for the most part, and even helped in flipping talent who had previously committed elsewhere. Because of this, the latter is deemed one of the best recruiters in the country.
Auburn managed to sway several players away from other programs such as four-star EDGE [autotag]Keldric Faulk[/autotag] (Florida State), four-star safety [autotag]Sylvester Smith[/autotag] (Tennessee), and four-star cornerback [autotag]Kayin Lee[/autotag] (Ohio State) thanks to the efforts of Etheridge. Once the dust settled from the opening day of the early signing period on Wednesday, Etheridge found himself ranked No. 12 among the top recruiters for the 2023 cycle according to 247Sports.
Out of Auburn’s 18 high school signees, Etheridge had a hand in eight of them. He also was the primary recruiter of four-star running back [autotag]Jeremiah Cobb[/autotag], who will sign with Auburn in February. His efforts played a part in Auburn signing the No. 20 recruiting class according to 247Sports.
Etheridge joins the likes of Alabama assistants Freddie Roach and Robert Gillespie, Ohio State’s Brian Hartline, and Clemson‘s Nick Eason as assistant coaches who rank in the top 15 of college football’s best recruiters.
Here’s a look at the 2023 signees that were recruited by Zac Etheridge.