AUBURN — Two things can be true.
On one hand, Auburn football’s group at receiver has talent. At least on paper.
The Tigers inked four receivers in the Class of 2024 in Cam Coleman, Perry Thompson, Bryce Cain and Malcolm Simmons. Coleman is the best offensive prospect to ever sign with Auburn in the modern recruiting era, according to the 247Sports Composite, and Thompson isn’t far behind him at No. 12.
Others such as former four-star recruit Caleb Burton III, who transferred in from Ohio State in 2023, and Sam Jackson V, a converted quarterback who caught 14 touchdowns in his lone season as a WR in high school, are on the roster, too.
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But on the other hand, the talent is incredibly inexperienced. Burton is the only one of the aforementioned six receivers who have seen meaningful collegiate snaps at receiver, as the four incoming freshmen haven’t even experienced a game environment yet and Jackson was a QB at Cal last season.
Auburn desperately needed experience. It got it with Penn State transfer KeAndre Lambert-Smith.
“We had to restructure that room,” coach Hugh Freeze said of his receivers at the Regions Tradition Pro-Am on May 6. “I hate saying it like that sometimes. But for what we want to do, we had to change that room. I feel like in the ’24 class, we did really well with the high school kids. Cam has a chance of playing early, Perry has the appearance that he could, but we haven’t coached him yet. You get a guy that has the experience that Dre has at the Power Five level to combine with those young kids, I thought was a home run for us.”
Lambert-Smith was Penn State’s leading receiver in 2023 with 673 yards and four touchdowns on 53 catches. His receiving grade from Pro Football Focus of 74.0 ranked 11th amongst all Big 10 receivers who had at least 10 targets in 2023.
Nearly half of Lambert-Smith’s production came after the catch. His 336 yards of YAC ranked No. 77 in the country.
“He’s quick-twitch, he’s long, he’s got length to him,” Freeze said of what he saw while evaluating Lambert-Smith. “He’s a natural ball-catcher. He’s a 50-50 guy that can make contested catches, and he can make runs after the catch. I think he’s a really complete guy.”
Auburn’s passing offense averaged 162.2 yards per game last season. That was the worst in the SEC by nearly 20 yards, as Mississippi State (181.8) and Arkansas (187.5) were the only other teams in the conference to throw for an average of less than 200 yards per game.
Against SEC competition, quarterback Payton Thorne averaged just more than 125 passing yards. The shortcomings can’t all be blamed on him, of course, but the receivers around him have certainly been upgraded. Assuming the offensive scheme is better under new coordinator Derrick Nix, as has been indicated by Thorne and others, the onus is on the QB to turn the passing attack around in 2024.
And now he’s got some experience to help him out.
Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsolva@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rich_silva18.
