Cam Coleman didn’t make it easy on Auburn’s coaching staff.
But then again, what 5-star football prospect does — or should — in this day and age.
“It wasn’t only me, it was Coach Freeze, it was everybody that was involved in his recruitment,” Auburn wide receivers coach Marcus Davis said of recruiting Coleman. “We never stopped.”
Auburn’s staff never stopped because they couldn’t stop.
Between Coleman spending a good amount of time committed to Texas A&M, then decommitting after the firing of Jimbo Fisher, if it wasn’t the Aggies the Tigers were battling, it was other programs that were pursuing the 5-star wide receiver like Florida State.
“The biggest thing was just never stopping,” Davis said Wednesday during his first media availability since Coleman’s signing during early signing day on Dec. 20 — just 19 days after Coleman delivered the good news.
Coleman officially flipped his commitment from Texas A&M to Auburn on Dec. 1 and never looked back.
According to Davis, it was he and Auburn’s staff relentlessness that made the difference down the stretch.
“Even when things went down, he was like, ‘Coach, you guys never stopped. Every time I came, it was still the same. I never felt bad for committing because when I came to campus it was always the same,’” Davis said, echoing Coleman. “So I think just the consistency of the entire staff recruiting him was key to how things went down at the end.”
And the successful addition of Coleman ended up being one of the biggest keys to Auburn’s highly touted recruiting class, which finished ranked seventh in the country when all was said and done.
Now that Coleman is on campus, it’s also expected that he’ll be a key in improving the Tigers’ offense.
“Cam Coleman just makes us look different,” Freeze said in his first press conference of spring camp on Feb. 29. “Can’t tell you how excited I am about him… When you watch him run around out there, we’ve improved ourselves. He’s naturally gifted.”
Spend a few minutes out at one of Auburn’s football practices and you’ll see just what Freeze is talking about.
First, Coleman’s 6-foot-3, 190-pound frame makes him hard to miss among the rest of Auburn’s receiver corps.
Then you’ve got his sheer athleticism.
Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne said it himself: Coleman can “jump out of the gym” and “runs a 4.4 — maybe less when he gets to the combine in a couple years.”
“There’s no question whether he’s talented or not,” Davis said of Coleman.
But the 5-star wide receiver’s talent isn’t even what’s stuck out to Davis.
“The best thing I like about Cam Coleman is he wants to be coached. He’s super coachable,” Davis said. “He’s going to try to do exactly what you tell him to do. He loves football, so it’s easy coaching him because he wants the feedback. He’s coming to you before you can even get to him in terms of what he needs to do to get better. So it’s been a joy, so far, to coach him.”