2024 Miss St 4* Transfer OT Percy Lewis Commits To AU!

[toddc 13,194]

Auburn lands Mississippi State OT transfer Percy Lewis

The Tigers now have their first offensive line transfer of the cycle

Nathan King3 mins

Auburn hopes it's added a starting-caliber piece for its 2024 offense through the portal.

Mississippi State offensive line transfer Percy Lewis has signed with Auburn, the program announced Thursday. Lewis visited Auburn and Arkansas last week, and the Tigers now have their first offensive line transfer of the cycle.

A mammoth of an athlete at 6-foot-8 and 345 pounds, Lewis started the final seven games of this season for Mississippi State at left tackle, and much like Auburn did this season at a couple O-line spots, he appeared in the previous five games, too, while splitting time at left tackle.

According to Pro Football Focus, Lewis allowed only one sack all season on 235 pass-blocking snaps. Lewis was rated as the No. 5 JUCO player in the 2021 class from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, where he played two seasons.

Lewis said after he visit that he spent a lot of time during his visit not only with his new position coach Jake Thornton, but also strength coach Dominic Studzinski. Former Mississippi State offensive tackle Charles Cross, who was taken No. 9 overall in last year's draft, has trained with Studzinski, and Lewis has a good relationship with Cross. Studzinski has also worked with former Ole Miss offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil, who was drafted No. 13 overall in 2016 from Ole Miss.

"That kind of motivated me to lean more this way," Lewis said.

The Tigers are looking to add at least one offensive lineman through the portal, as they lose two starters: guards Gunner Britton and Kam Stutts. Left tackle Dillon Wade is expected to move inside to guard, thus Auburn and Thornton have targeted transfer offensive tackles to compete for that vacant spot.

Auburn has some young pieces, like redshirt freshman tackle Tyler Johnson, that it feels good about for the future. But the pitch to Lewis was that he can bridge that gap in 2024.

"(Thornton) was telling me that he’s got a freshman under me," Lewis said. "He needs somebody to come in that’s already been playing SEC ball. ... You’ve got to have your mind right when you come into SEC ball. They’ll come in and knock your head off if you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do."

Lewis has two years of eligibility remaining.

[CameronCrazy 1,062]

BOOM!! That’s big time!

[shabby 1,958]

thank you sweet baby jesus! big time need. big time player. big

[DAG 33,983]

We did it guys, we did it! 

[AU80cruiser 1,102]

Thought this guy was gone. Glad we pulled it off.

[BeatBama1972 11]

Welcome and War Eagle!   

[Tigermike 3,027]

Great pickup!  AU needs big experienced OL's. WAR EAGLE!

[Chaotic_zx 1,044]

[AUloggerhead 2,231]

Finally!  No news for the last few days & I thought he was gone.  OL shaping up nicely now!  

[Cardin Drake 1,828]

This is big (no pun intended).  I'd love one more solid OL.

[AuburnNTexas 7,148]

Looks like Freeze is better at Portal than many thought. Recently we have pulled in a TE, DL, and now an OT.

Great job at a position of need. Also has 2 years eligibility.

Edited January 12 by AuburnNTexas

[TAYLORKEETON 792]

Biggest get yet this portal cycle 

[weagl1 1,784]

Sounds like he’s big enough to get in the way if nothing else.  The fact that he wants to work with our strength and conditioning coach is a good sign that he is serious about his future.

[Potatooooooes!! 1,375]

Finally! Thank you Jesus!

[creed 1,635]

I believe we're building for long term success. If you build the LOS on both sides of the ball, the other skillsets will come. Initially, it's not always quick returns, but it lasts. Great teams teams are built with linemen.

Edited January 12 by creed

[AUGoo 2,664]

[alabastertiger 613]

Strength and conditioning coach name STUDzinski ... Love it.   One of the companies I use to work for had a VP name Dick Hammer, but Studzinski is so fitting!

[AUwent 3,748]

This should be our best OL since 2017...I realize that's not saying much but I'll take it lol.

Edited January 16 by AUwent

[HAPvsOA 287]

On 1/11/2024 at 7:09 PM, Chaotic_zx said:

[AUx 3,006]

On 1/16/2024 at 3:49 PM, AUwent said:

This should be our best OL since 2017...I realize that's not saying much but I'll take it lol.

[Rednilla 5,391]

How did I miss this pickup? This is freakin' MASSIVE!!! It's exactly the piece we had to have to be competitive offensively next season. 

I don't know, maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I think Thorne can be what we need to have a good season with a better supporting cast... and the WRs we signed should provide that for him. Lewis appears to be the beef we need to shore up O-line issues, and the return of all our RBs means we're stout there, as well.

Naturally, I always seem to overestimate Auburn's chances (though I had us with 7-8 wins last year preseason, and if not for two huge disappointments that should have been avoided...), but from where I'm sittin', I don't think double-digit wins is off the table for us this year. I don't know what Oklahoma has coming back, but UGA is the only team we play that should be clearly better than us, talent-wise, besides possibly the Sooners, so 10-2 isn't unreasonable **IF** I'm right about Thorne.

[Hank2020 3,199]

5 hours ago, Rednilla said:

How did I miss this pickup? This is freakin' MASSIVE!!! It's exactly the piece we had to have to be competitive offensively next year. 

I don't know, maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I think Thorne can be what we need to have a good season with a better supporting cast... and the WRs we signed should provide that for him. Lewis appears to be the beef we need to shore up O-line issues, and the return of all our RBs means we're stout there, as well.

Naturally, I always seem to overestimate Auburn's chances (though I had us with 7-8 wins last year preseason, and if not for two huge disappointments that should have been avoided...), but from where I'm sittin', I don't think double-digit wins is off the table for us this year. I don't know what Oklahoma has coming back, but UGA is the only team we play that should be clearly better than us, talent-wise, besides possibly the Sooners, so 10-2 isn't unreasonable **IF** I'm right about Thorne.

Bama starters should be higher rated than our starters in 2024 I believe.

[Rednilla 5,391]

10 hours ago, Hank2020 said:

Bama starters should be higher rated than our starters in 2024 I believe.

Maybe, I don't know, but does that mean they will be clearly better than us? For one thing, depth matters, but it's possible that DeBoer's system doesn't work out so well with the players that stick around. A head coaching change and the exit of about half the roster makes for a lot of questions in T-town.

[Mr Bad Example 126]

They were higher  rated in '23....but if we had a DC that had enough sense to rush more than 2 & give the turd qb 9-10 seconds to find a receiver we would have won....just sayin'