When a major program loses a key recruit, Rivals.com takes a look at how big of a blow it is to the respective school, analyzing it from a local and national level. To quantify the “sting” of each decommitment, we assign a score from one to 10, with one being no big deal and 10 being a catastrophic hit.
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THE STORYLINE
Karmello English committed to Auburn on July 4 and it was a major win for coach Bryan Harsin and his staff as the Tigers look to build back into a national contender.
English is an in-state prospect at Phenix City (Ala.) Central, one of the state’s top programs. He’s put up big numbers and is a talented playmaker and four-star receiver.
He picked Auburn over Kentucky, Michigan and others and recently visited The Plains for the win over Mercer and seemed to have a good experience.
But just days before Auburn’s big matchup against Penn State, English backed off his pledge to the Tigers, keeping them last in the SEC team recruiting rankings even after Thursday morning’s commitment of four-star receiver Adam Hopkins.
The pledge of the Thomasville (Ga.) Thomas County Central receiver is definitely big but Auburn could have used both Hopkins and English in the class along with three-star Daquayvious Sorey so far.
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LOCAL REACTION
Losing a commitment from English, who was the Tigers’ top-rated commit, is a massive step in the wrong direction for an Auburn program struggling to put together a competitive 2023 class. Auburn regained some momentum with Adam Hopkins’ commitment on Thursday, but that’s one step forward following two steps backward. Ranked last in the SEC in recruiting, this weekend’s game against Penn State with several top targets in attendance just became a lot more pivotal. - Caleb Jones, AuburnSports.com
Sting factor: 8
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NATIONAL REACTION
Hopkins was a nice addition on Thursday morning but Auburn still needs a lot of pieces to the 2023 recruiting class puzzle and losing English does hurt a lot because he has so much talent, he’s an in-state prospect and he had already decided once that the Tigers were the best team for him. That might no longer be the case although I suspect the Tigers won’t stop recruiting him with Kentucky, Alabama and possibly others now taking a lead in his recruitment. This weekend Auburn is expected to have a loaded group on campus and the stadium should be rocking. That could definitely help recruiting but the Tigers cannot sustain any more losses because they’re already playing from behind in this class. - Adam Gorney, National Recruiting Director
Sting factor: 8
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