Auburn football, Hugh Freeze pick up ECU center Avery Jones from the transfer portal

AUBURN — After spending the last three seasons at East Carolina, transfer center Avery Jones has committed to Auburn football.

Jones originally entered the portal Dec. 8 and committed to Illinois four days later, but flipped to coach Hugh Freeze and the Tigers on Tuesday. Jones, who is listed at 6-foot-4 and 290 pounds, started every game for the Pirates in 2022 and 11 of their 12 matchups in 2021.

He also made nine appearances in 2020, with eight of those being starts. He began his college career at North Carolina, where he spent two seasons before transferring to East Carolina.

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A four-star recruit coming out of Havelock High School in North Carolina, Jones was tabbed by the 247Sports Composite as the No. 285 player nationally in 2018 and the 12th-best recruit in the state. He had offers from Duke, Maryland, Virginia Tech and Vanderbilt, among others.

Jones is Auburn's eighth addition to the offensive line this offseason, as the new staff has already brought in two other FBS transfers (Dillon Wade and Gunner Britton), four recruits out of high school (Clay Wedin, Bradyn Joiner, Connor Lew and Tyler Johnson) and a junior college player (Izavion Miller).

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

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn football picks up ECU center Avery Jones from transfer portal