AUBURN — The sting won’t leave anytime soon. Maybe it won’t ever.

Auburn football was shocked 27-24 on Saturday, stunned by a fourth-and-31 touchdown from Alabama in the Iron Bowl. The Crimson Tide has now won two straight in Jordan-Hare Stadium, a venue that often lends its magic to the home team.

If there’s anything that can help alleviate the pain of a gut-wrenching loss, it’s recruiting wins. Some of those might be on the way after Auburn hosted a large group of visitors against Alabama.

“Wish we were out there celebrating right now together (as a team), but we do have a lot of good recruits here,” Freeze said postgame. “And hopefully they see (that) even in Year One we’re not — you know, we can close the gap pretty fast on the upper echelon of this conference.”

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Freeze also didn’t mince words about his confidence for the future.

“We’re going to be one of the elite programs in the country,” the first-year Auburn coach said. “I really didn’t have a vision for this year, other than to try to get us to a bowl game and improve us from week to week. Can’t say that every week that I’ve felt like that, and that’s why you’re hard on yourself as a coach. We’ve got to look at ourselves as coaches every single week, every single day, and are we demanding a standard that’s going to get us to that elite status.

“That, combined with recruiting classes that are comparable to the upper echelon — I mean, we can’t recruit (classes ranked) in the 30s and 40s and 50s and expect, all of a sudden, to walk out there and be great coaches. It’s a combination. You’ve got to coach to a certain standard, and you’ve got to recruit somewhere close to level (or) par to the way those guys and some others in this league are.”

A few of Auburn’s commits − 2025 four-star defensive lineman Malik Autry and 2024 five-star receiver Perry Thompson − hinted at a possible incoming flip. Thompson posted a video to social media after the game with 2025 five-star receiver Ryan Williams, who is committed to Alabama, and 2024 five-star receiver Cam Coleman, who is committed to Texas A&M.

Thompson’s post was accompanied with an hourglass emoji.

Early Signing Day for the Class of 2024 is Dec. 20. The Tigers currently have 18 players committed in 2024, a haul that’s rated No. 17 nationally by the 247Sports Composite.