AUBURN — Auburn football coach Hugh Freeze is always going to want to build his roster through traditional recruiting.

That's how he's found his success in the past, convincing high schoolers to join him — whether it be at Arkansas State, Ole Miss or Liberty — and help his teams win games. In his 10 seasons coaching at the Division I level before he arrived at Auburn, Freeze pulled in a recruiting class tabbed by the 247Sports Composite as a top-100 haul on seven occasions, a top-50 unit in five instances and a top-20 group four times.

Freeze was inside the top 10 twice while at Ole Miss in 2013 (8) and 2016 (5).

But the game has changed. The portal exists, and talking to transfers is a whole other type of recruiting.

"Idealistically, I'd love to just sign a bunch of high school kids and build great relationships with them and never lose them," Freeze said in December during the first portal window of the offseason. "That may be in dreamland with the way the climate is of college football today. But that sure would be nice to do that."

'COMPLETE GUY': Why Auburn football needed Penn State transfer WR KeAndre Lambert-Smith

CAM COLEMAN: Is hype around WR warranted? What Hugh Freeze's history says about freshmen

The Tigers landed nine transfers in the first portal window ahead of spring practice. Some of those additions, such as receiver Robert Lewis, offensive tackle Percy Lewis and safety Jerrin Thompson, are poised to start come Auburn's season opener in August.

But the winter window came with some misses for the Tigers. They weren't always able to get some transfer targets in for visits: "You've got to try to prove to them, initially on a phone call, that they should look at Auburn," Freeze said of recruiting the portal. "We've done OK with that. But we've had many visits set, and they never even get to campus. They've already decided where they're going before we get to get in front of them, which is a bit different for me.

"Maybe I need to change our approach some to that. But before we get really serious with someone, I'd love to get in front of them and have some conversations. Who knows what's the best way to go about it right now?"

Auburn seems to have found a bit of an answer in the second portal window of the offseason, which opened April 16 and shut April 30. The Tigers brought in five transfers this time around, but the quality seems to have risen a bit despite the quantity not being as high.

The headliner is Penn State transfer KeAndre Lambert-Smith, who was the leading receiver for the Nittany Lions with 673 yards and four touchdowns on 53 catches in 2023. Auburn was able to beat out Texas A&M for him.

But others such as defensive linemen Philip Blidi (Indiana) and Isaiah Raikes (Texas A&M) were big recruiting wins, too. As was pass rusher Keyron Crawford (Arkansas State), who figures to be the No. 2 option at buck linebacker behind Jalen McLeod. Crawford's 39 pressures would've led Auburn last season, per Pro Football Focus.

Freeze may not like the process, but team building in 2024 is different than it was during his time at Ole Miss. It may have taken him awhile to accept that and adjust to it, but if the spring portal is any indication, he and his staff seem to have found something that works.

"The portal world, maybe we need to start trying to visit them as soon as you can instead of setting up for a weekend that never happens," Freeze said. "I don't know. It's been challenging to figure out."

Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rich_silva18.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn football: How Tigers got better portal results in spring window