Tag: Shamar Arnoux

Auburn flips 2025 CB Shamar Arnoux from USC

The Carrollton, Georgia native had been committed to join the Trojans in Los Angeles since early summer.

Four-star cornerback [autotag]Shamar Arnoux[/autotag] flipped his commitment from USC to Auburn on Thursday. The Carrollton, Georgia native had been committed to joining the Trojans in Los Angeles since early summer.

A consensus top 40 cornerback in the 2025 class, the 6-2, 175-pound defensive back is the ideal replacement for the recently flipped [autotag]Dante Core[/autotag], who [autotag]Hugh Freeze[/autotag] lost to Ole Miss earlier this week. Although Arnoux had been committed to USC since June, Hugh Freeze and his staff continued trying to flip him throughout the late summer and fall.

He was recently on campus for Auburn’s home loss to Vanderbilt, and although the Tigers lost, he may have seen some of the optimistic signs on the defensive side of the ball that fellow four-star recruit Jared Smith saw. Arnoux’s commitment to the Tigers brings Auburn’s number of cornerbacks set to join the team next season up to four.

Auburn’s 2025 recruiting class now sits at 28 players heading into National Signing Day next month. With the possibility of more commitments and flips, Hugh Freeze has the chance to further improve on a class currently ranked in the top-five according to 247Sports. It would not be surprising if the majority of the 2025 class sees ample playing time as soon as next season on the Plains.

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Trojans’ secondary coach Doug Belk ‘silently’ stacking recruiting victories for USC

Doug Belk might got get as many headlines as D’Anton Lynn or Eric Henderson, but he is earning his place at USC.

Lincoln Riley added Doug Belk to the USC football staff during his 2023 defensive coaching staff purge. Belk was asked to improve and transform a USC secondary which did not evolve or get the level of player development it needed from Alex Grinch and Donte Williams.

It shouldn’t be ignored that Taylor Mays got a lot out of the USC secondary in the Holiday Bowl, but that was in an interim capacity. Riley needed a heavy hitter to come in and change the back line of the USC defense. We haven’t yet seen Belk coach USC on a college football game day — his big debut is against LSU in a few weeks — but while coordinator D’Anton Lynn and defensive line coach Eric Henderson might have grabbed more headlines, Belk has silently gone about his business and showed what he can do in recruiting and player acquisition.

USC just received a commitment from Kendarius Reddick, the 5-foot-11, 170-pound four-star safety from Thomasville, Ga. Doug Belk did a solid job  was able to flip Reddick from UCF, another instance of USC going into the Deep South and getting a highly-rated player.  Reddick is a great addition to current 2025 commits Shamar Arnoux and Trestin Castro.

Belk has been on a nice run since his hire late in 2023.  He hung on to the commitments of Marcelles Williams, Isaiah Rubin and Braylon Conley in the 2024 class. If he can hang on to current commits: Brandon Lockhart, Madden Riordan and Joshua Holland while closing on RJ Sermons in 2026, the Trojans secondary can be elite.

He is speaking softly but is beginning to make his mark for the Trojans, improving the quality of the USC secondary.

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Three-star CB Shamar Arnoux remains high on Auburn’s radar

Despite his pledge to USC, Arnoux still plans to visit Auburn before signing day.

Three-star cornerback [autotag]Shamar Arnoux[/autotag] plans to join his high school teammate, five-star quarterback [autotag]Julian Lewis[/autotag], in Los Angeles at USC next season. However, he has not officially shut down his recruitment.

In a recent interview with On3’s Chad Simmons, Arnoux says several schools are pushing to land his signature including Auburn. He says that his relationships with Auburn’s coaches are enough to keep the Tigers in the running.

“I was at Big Cat and I had a great time. I have some great relationships at Auburn. Coach Crime (Wesley McGriff) and other coaches are great and we just have real relationships,” Arnoux said in a recent interview with On3. “In the end, I will go wherever feels most like home. Auburn has a shot. It is a great place. I know a lot of guys there and I will be back.”

Outside of Auburn, programs such as Florida State, Kentucky, Georgia, and Colorado are challenging USC for the right to sign Arnoux. Arnoux plans to take as many visits as possible to enjoy the recruiting experience before ultimately making a decision.

“Every chance I get this season, I will be out at a game,” Arnoux said. “There is still some time until I sign the papers. I will know where the best place for me is in December and that is where I will sign. Right now, USC is that place and they are doing a great job, but I will continue to take visits and all that.”

Arnoux is a three-star cornerback from Carrollton High School (Ga.) for the 2025 class. He ranks as high as No. 16 nationally at cornerback and as high as No. 18 among Georgia recruits from the cycle.

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Shamar Arnoux could be a reputation-changing commit for USC football

Shamar Arnoux’s arrival at USC can be valuable on several levels.

The USC football program is trying to change perception and reality under the new defensive coaching staff. One thing which will help is that Taylor Mays now gets a more hands-on role with the coaching staff. New recruits such as Shamar Arnoux stand to benefit from what Mays can provide. We wrote about Mays and the new landscape he faces several days ago:

The NCAA Division I Council just approved the removal of limits on coaching staffs, both in terms of the number of coaches who can provide on-field instruction and in terms of allowing analysts and lower-tier staffers to be able to provide direct coaching. At USC, this is a huge story for a number of reasons. One is that this unshackles Taylor Mays, who has been a defensive analyst but has not been a position coach except for his interim role with the secondary in the Holiday Bowl before Doug Belk took over. Taylor Mays now gets to coach the secondary much more directly under Belk. That’s a big boost for USC and should instantly upgrade the secondary.

We talked about the Shamar Arnoux commitment, the Julian Lewis angle to his recruitment, and how this can begin to change reality for USC in the secondary and on the defense as a whole. The discussion on Arnoux is at 4:40 in the video below on our recent USC show at The Voice of College Football:

https://www.youtube.com/live/eEclHR7DrUA?si=MNFNvJuZy8ZMgMF1&t=280

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Has USC just secured Julian Lewis, or will the Trojans get ambushed again?

Shamar Arnoux’s previous commitment to Tennessee didn’t mean anything, so don’t get comfortable, USC fans.

USC earned the commitment of Shamar Arnoux, a three-star cornerback from Carrollton, Georgia, on Wednesday. Arnoux is a high school teammate of Julian Lewis. Arnoux had mentioned a number of SEC schools as possible destinations, but he has pivoted to USC. Wait a minute: This all feels very familiar. Justus Terry and Isaiah Gibson are from Georgia, and they committed to USC as well. That did not hold up. We are led to an obvious question: Has USC increased its odds of securing Julian Lewis as a future Trojan, or is the house going to fall down in a few months and leave the Trojans in a worse position? Commitments, as we keep seeing in college sports these days, don’t mean nearly as much as they used to. They feel so temporary, especially because athletes make commitments but still continue to take official visits to other schools. That reality — visiting other schools after having “committed” to one school — distorts our perception of what a commitment actually is, and it prevents fan bases from thinking they have truly won a commitment until the moment the recruit actually signs with a school. We wrote this about Arnoux before he committed to USC:

“He was previously committed to Tennessee from April of 2023 through February of 2024. Outside of the schools mentioned previously, USC, Clemson, Texas A&M and LSU are also contenders for Arnoux.

“The Peach State native is rated a four-star prospect in the 247Sports Composite as the No. 369 overall prospect and the No. 31 cornerback. He had 15 tackles in eight games with a tackle for a loss and a pass defended.”

You can see that Arnoux’s previous commitment to Tennessee didn’t mean much. Will this USC commitment mean as little? It’s hard to ignore the past.

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USC football lands three-star cornerback from Georgia

Does this commitment mean USC will actually hold onto it this time?

USC football has a commitment to announce. Three-star cornerback Shamar Arnoux from Georgia has declared his intent to be a Trojan. We wrote about Arnoux days ago, underscoring the point that he is a high school teammate of Julian Lewis, the elite 2025 quarterback recruit who is still committed to USC. This should relieve pressure on USC in terms of retaining Lewis’s commitment to the Trojans. One would think this will solidify Lewis as a Trojan. We wrote about Arnoux:

“Julian Lewis going to USC should open the door for a lot of Lewis’s teammates and friends to join him at USC, which could provide a sorely-needed recruiting boost to the Trojans. USC needs this kind of recruiting lift after a bad week in which two elite defensive linemen decommitted to head to (most likely) SEC schools.

“Arnoux, a 6-foot-2 and 180-pound elite cover corner, says Auburn is up there with Florida State, Georgia and Kentucky as his current top schools so far. He plans to visit Florida State next weekend and then Georgia and Kentucky during the season.”

We have to wonder: Will Arnoux change his mind and decommit from USC in much the same way that Isaiah Gibson and Justus Terry did? Commitments don’t really mean much these days until players actually sign on the dotted line. However, this would still seem to be a moment which suggests that Julian Lewis is pulling recruits to USC. Which is the real truth, or at least is closer to reality? We’re not done discussing this subject, that’s for sure.

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Kentucky football gets an unofficial visit from a three-star cornerback

Class of 2025 cornerback Shamar Arnoux paid an unoffical visit to Kentucky football on Friday.

Kentucky football is in the midst of a push for their 2025 recruiting class. They have a number of visits schedule in June with targets they hope to lure to Lexington, but got an unscheduled one on Friday when cornerback Shamar Arnoux came to town.

Arnoux is a 6’2″, 170 lb cornerback from Georgia and is rated four stars by 247sports. They rank him as the 370th overall player in the 2025 class, and he’s their 31st ranked cornerback based on the composite rankings.

Related: Every SEC team’s ranking in ESPN’s FPI ratings

A number of schools recruited Arnoux, but he committed to the Tennessee Volunteers. In February, however, he decommitted and has visits scheduled to the Auburn Tigers and Georgia Bulldogs scheduled for later in June. His visit to Lexington was not scheduled.

Coach Mark Stoops is certainly looking to add to his cornerback room next year. They have other corners visiting officially in June, but would certainly be interested in Arnoux if he were to choose them. They’ll wait and see how this plays out, but it bears monitoring.

Shamar Arnoux decommits from Tennessee

2025 cornerback Shamar Arnoux decommits from Tennessee.

2025 cornerback prospect Shamar Arnoux committed to Tennessee on April 7, 2023.

Arnoux decommitted from Tennessee on Saturday. He was the first commitment in the Vols’ 2025 recruiting class.

The 6-foot-1, 175-pound cornerback is from Carrollton High School in Carrollton, Georgia. He previously played at Milton High School in Alpharetta, Georgia.

Arnoux visited Georgia on Saturday and was offered a scholarship by South Carolina on Jan. 29.

“This visit hit different,” Arnoux said about his visit to Georgia.

The Vols have five commitments in its 2025 recruiting class: Cornerback Dylan Lewis, running back Justin Baker, cornerback Tyler Redmond, tight end Jack Van Dorselaer and quarterback George MacIntyre.

2025 defensive back Dylan Lewis discusses Vols’ recruitment, visiting Tennessee

2025 defensive back Dylan Lewis discusses Vols’ recruitment, upcoming Tennessee visit and his high school teammate Shamar Arnoux.

Defensive back Dylan Lewis has emerged as a top target for the Vols in the class of 2025.

The 5-foot-11.5, 180-pound cornerback is from Milton High School in Milton, Georgia.

Lewis unofficially visited Tennessee on March 25. He discussed visiting Tennessee and updated his recruitment with Vols Wire.

“Tennessee plays hard, fast, physical football and I want to be a part of that,” Lewis said. “The love I get from everybody in the program, it just gives off a different vibe.”

Lewis is the No. 378 overall prospect in the class of 2025. He ranks as the No. 39 cornerback and No. 35 player in Georgia, according to 247Sports composite rankings.

Tennessee secondary coach Willie Martinez is making a push for Lewis to be the Vols’ second 2025 defensive back commitment.

“I talked to coach Martinez right after one of my spring practices,” Lewis said. “He loves the way I look and he wants me to join him.”

Tennessee assistant coach Willie Martinez. Photo by Dan Harralson, Vols Wire

Lewis’ teammate Shamar Arnoux announced his commitment to Tennessee on April 7. Arnoux is persuading Lewis to join him in the Vols’ 2025 class.

Lewis will visit Tennessee in the summer and will return during the upcoming season. The 2025 prospect plans on making a commitment decision in the summer.

“Tennessee is in my top-five,” he said. “I’m committing sometime in the summer.”

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Twitter reaction to Tennessee landing two commitments on Friday

A look at social media buzz after Tennessee football lands two commitments on Friday.

Tennessee landed two football commitments on Friday.

2025 four-star cornerback Shamar Arnoux announced his commitment to Tennessee on Friday. Arnoux is the first commitment in the class of 2025 for the Vols.

Updated 2025 SEC football recruiting rankings

Three-star offensive lineman Jesse Perry announced his commitment to Tennessee shortly after Arnoux’s commitment. Perry is the seventh commitment in the class of 2024 for Tennessee. He is the Vols’ fourth 2024 in-state commitment.

Updated 2024 SEC football recruiting rankings

PHOTOS: A look at Tennessee football head coaches through the years

Following Friday’s two commitments for Tennessee, Vols Wire looks at social media buzz following Arnoux and Perry announcing their commitments.