Previewing Auburn football's wide receivers for the 2024 season (2024)

Let’s be honest, there isn’t much that hasn’t been written or said about Auburn’s new-look wide receiver room heading into the 2024 season.

After Hugh Freeze and the Auburn coaching staff secured a brilliant class of wide receivers from the 2024 recruiting cycle, in addition to three wide receiver transfers, the Tigers’ room of pass-catchers has been one of the hottest topics — not just on The Plains, but in the entire college football world.

Nonetheless, here’s a quick rehash of what Auburn has in its retooled wide receiver room:

The returners

Auburn returns just two wide receivers from last year’s team in junior Camden Brown and sophom*ore Caleb Burton III.

Burton, who transferred in from Ohio State ahead of the 2023 season, was good for 16 receptions for 226 yards last fall and was Auburn’s leading receiver in the Music City Bowl.

Meanwhile, Brown contributed 10 catches for 105 yards.

Together, Burton and Brown bring program experience to a position room that lost five guys at the conclusion of last year.

And while their actual roles on the field are to be determined given the how different Auburn’s receiving corps looks, Freeze knows he got two guys that bring intangibles to the group.

“Camden Brown is an incredible teammate and solid player in that room that you can depend on. Same with Caleb (Burton III),” Freeze said on Aug. 9.

The rookies

Four of Auburn’s new faces in the wide receiver room come from the high school ranks as Freeze and wide receivers coach Marcus Davis successfully landed what many have dubbed as the “Freeze Four.

The quartet of rookie receivers is made up of five-star Cam Coleman, five-star Perry Thompson, four-star Bryce Cain and four-star Malcolm Simmons.

And as of right now, fans should expect to see a bit of all four of them once the rubber hits the road and the 2024 season gets underway later this month.

In the case of Coleman, a product of Central-Phenix City, there was little question about whether he’d see the field this spring.

Rated as the second-highest prospect in Auburn program history, Coleman enters the season with lofty expectations, but even loftier levels of belief from those around him.

Back in April, Freeze called Coleman a “different cat.”

“He’s very, very good and we’ve got to do a great job of bringing him along and making sure he understands techniques and the system more and more, but he’s so coachable that’s going to be easy and he just continues to make plays,” Freeze continued. “He’s got to go as a freshman.”

Thompson, on the other hand, didn’t enroll early and is only now going through his first series of practices at Auburn. Because of that, Freeze says Thompson is a bit behind his five-star teammate in Coleman.

However, based on the reviews from Auburn offensive coordinator Derrick Nix, that may not be the case for long.

“Ultra talented, tremendous size, great speed,” Nix said of Thompson. “I think the No. 1 thing is just a lack of experience so far. He hasn’t been here very long. Only time will tell. All the necessary tools are there for him to go be the receiver we’d like to have here.”

Then there’s Simmons, the four-star addition out of Alexander City who also opted not to enroll early as he was too busy adding more high school track and field championships to his trophy case back home.

Since arriving at Auburn, however, Simmons has steadily improved his stock and doesn’t appear far from being a household name — just like Coleman and Thompson.

“He’s a sleeper,” Auburn tight end Rivaldo Fairweather said of Simmons.

And during Saturday’s scrimmage at Jordan-Hare Stadium, while most eyes were looking to Coleman and Thompson (who saw limited reps anyways), it was Simmons who stole the show with a pair of touchdown grabs.

“Obviously, you look at the high school tape, and it’s translating,” Nix said of Simmons. “Malcolm is fast, he’s fearless, and he doesn’t have any worries out there. He just plays the game.”

Rounding out the “Freeze Four” is Cain — another speedy slot guy out of Mobile who arrived in the spring.

“He can really move,” quarterback Payton Thorne said of Cain in the spring.

However, as is the case for a lot of freshmen, the game was coming at Cain a bit too fast during the spring. But he has since started to find his footing.

“He’s gotten way better since the spring. When he first got here, his hair was on fire, he didn’t know what to do, the tempo was crazy,” wide receiver Robert Lewis said of Cain. “He got really adjusted with all the 7-on-7s we did in the summer, you can tell he was starting to pick up on the plays and getting real comfortable.”

The transfers

As comforting as it probably was for Freeze and Co. to know they had a historic haul of freshmen wide receivers coming, there was also the obvious fact that they were just that: freshmen.

So in an effort to add a bit of experience and maturity to the wide receiver room, the Tigers hit the transfer portal and first landed Georgia State transfer Robert Lewis.

During his 2023 campaign at Georgia State, Lewis tallied a team-leading 70 receptions, 877 yards and seven touchdowns — and he did that all while lining up both in the slot and out wide.

“When you watched his film and break down his film once he entered the portal, he a guy that had the value to play both outside and inside receiver,” said Auburn wide receiver coach Marcus Davis. “So you know he had position flexibility.”

The Tigers also took a gamble on adding Cal transfer Sam Jackson V, who, prior to coming to Auburn, had played quarterback in college.

But between his raw athleticism, his relationship with Thorne from their days at Naperville Central and his high-school background of playing receiver at a high level, Freeze felt the risk was worth it.

Auburn’s wide receiver coach says Jackson’s previous experience as a college quarterback helps too.

“The knowledge of the game helps him, just from an overall quarterback standpoint. He sees the bigger picture naturally,” Davis said. “So, when it’s time to sit in the zone, he kind of does that more naturally than a guy who hasn’t been in that quarterback room.”

The Tigers then went on to shore up its room of receivers in April with the addition of Penn State transfer KeAndre Lambert-Smith, who was the portal’s top-available receiver at the time of his commitment.

Lambert-Smith’s arrival to Auburn came on the heels of a 2023 campaign that saw him lead the Nittany Lions in receiving with 53 catches for 673 yards and four touchdowns.

And while Auburn will look to benefit from Lambert-Smith’s play on the field in 2024, they also plan to lean on him in the locker room.

“He’s done a great job, besides his athletic ability and being a great receiver, but being more of a veteran guy and a leader in that room with all those young wideouts of how to do things the right way,” offensive coordinator Nix said of Lambert-Smith.