The War Eagle Reader Auburn's Daily Meta-Memoir
Dyer: is that a wrap? Phillip Marshall drops some news on Michael Dyer’s commitment plans:
Dyer, 5-foot-9 and 200 pounds from Little Rock (Ark.) Christian Academy, will announce where he wants to go to college in about three weeks, during Week 10 of his season. An exact date or time has not been announced.
Unless that announcement winds up delayed for whatever reason, it’s hard to see how Dyer would end up committing to anywhere but Auburn. He’s been saying Auburn for months in capacities both official and unofficial. This is the firmest information we’ve gotten about an announcement date yet. We’re looking good, folks.
Just as a reminder of why this good freaking news (careful with the audio, as always):
Dyer also made headlines last week when he set the new Arkansas career rushing record, passing the 7,122-yard mark with a typical 18-carry, 175-yard performance for Little Rock Christian.
Reed: could that be a wrap? From J.C. Shurbutt’s blog at ESPN:
ESPNU150 wide receiver Trovon Reed (Thibodeaux, La./Thibodeaux) told ESPN affiliate EyeontheTigers.com over the weekend that he plans to announce his decision on Nov. 13, which is his birthday. He was in Baton Rouge for LSU’s 31-10 win against Auburn. Both teams are among his finalists and are considered the top two contenders with Auburn being the big favorite to land him.
So: Reed–a top 50 national prospect to basically everyone–has made up his mind. And Shurbutt hardly seems to be the only person who believes that mind is made up in Auburn’s favor–the Internet winds have been blowing in Auburn’s direction here for a while. (Shurbutt also recently said Auburn is in “excellent shape” for Reed.) But: it’s a little bothersome that it was LSU’s ESPN affiliate that broke the news, of course it’s not like Auburn was exactly impressive in that visit to Baton Rouge Reed had the “pleasure” of witnessing, and that the announcement comes directly on the heels of a visit to LSU is most worrying of all. I’m cautiously optimistic, but I don’t think this is a done deal just yet.
Mack. More from AuburnUndercover:
“It is a tie between Auburn and South Carolina for me now,” [Eric] Mack told us. “I am still committed to South Carolina, but I like Auburn a lot” …
Mack said he does not have a list of things Auburn, or any other school, would have to do to get him to sign.
“That is just something I have to figure out in my head,” he said. “Wherever I feel like I am the most at home is where I want to go.”
If you really want to squint at it, that last tiddly-bit might favor Auburn since Mack’s previously described Auburn as being more like “home” than his other suitors, but the story here is pretty much the same since the last time we touched on Mack’s recruitment: he clearly likes Auburn a lot, but has plenty of reasons to stay at Carolina, too. I’m not thinking we’re getting a decision from him any time soon.
Etc. Apparently Georgia’s telling recruits that Willie Martinez is sticking around. As the Dawg fans I’ve talked to would rather eat nails dipped in Robitussin than have Martinez return, I’m surprised this hasn’t made more of a stir.
Photo via.
AU 2009; It is not so much the cards you draw, as it is the way you PLAY the hand you are dealt.
It’s nice to get some great recruits. The more headlines we make the more good players we attract . But, the picture of Langner reminded me of something. I played on the same freshman team with Langner and of all the top notch recruits from that year, he was about the only one that I remember excelling. I remember the 6-7 guys that they brought it that were busts. I can’t recall many of the names but Kent Higdon was one (supposedly the next Joe Namath)-only thing he had was a fur coat and white shoes. He lasted about a year. There was another all-star QB name Bucky Phillipi-all world-never played a down at Auburn. One linebacker we had-can’t recall his name-top notch dude from Atlanta-couldn’t have started on my high school team.
All the while, several un-sung guys developed into pretty good players. Rusty Dean, came in as a QB, left as an all-SEC defensive end. Heck, I remember the Thomas Gossom days. He was a flat-out nobody, no where near the depth chart. How in the world he made it onto the field, I’m not sure I know but he turned out to be a pretty good weapon agains Bama.
It’s great to kid the 5 star kids, but get the good athletes and coaching em’ up is a good thing too.
JB
This is where the new coaching staff can earn their keep this year. Sell early PT to as many blue chips as possible and refill the coffers back up to 85 SEC level schollarship players. Play a BUNCH of true freshmen next year and see how grizzled you can make them by 2011-2012.
This 74 schollarship nonsense bings another point to mind…. My dad and I have always joked about bama’s ridiculous luck. Like in the South Carolina game when McElroy threw a pick just to have it fumbled and recovered by bama for a first down. Even when they F up, they still come out roses.
With that in mind, can you think of anything luckier than having your players commit schollarship fraud by selling text books but you receive no meaningful punishment. At the same time, your blood rival just plain doesn’t bother to fill open scholarships?
If you want to say we are incredibly lucky, then feel free, but at least come up with a better example than the South Carolina interception / fumble.
McElroy tried to throw it away but couldn’t get enough arm on it, and thus it stayed in bounds. The South Carolina defender made a great move on the ball, and Julio did a great job of ripping it out. Likewise, Hanks was paying attention the whole time and raced in to recover the fumble. Bottom line, that’s not luck… that’s a lot of hard work, effort, and skill being put on display by two wide receivers.
OTS,
No doubt in my mind that whatever example I used, your reply would be the same.
Alex,
Really? I would like to think of myself as objective enough — even with the obvious biases in play — to be able to discern skill from sheer luck, at least on some level.
And to that end, we’ve clearly had a lot of luck in a lot of ways. We were lucky as hell that the UT kicker strained his quad in pre-game warm-ups. Or that Garcia, under no pressure, threw a ball to our star safety. Or that Tubby’s regime fell apart at the right time. Or that Rita did whatever she did to keep RichRod in West Virginia.
On the other hand, I can also come up with you a million ways in which bad luck has bitten us in the ass. It was bad luck last year that we go undefeated and draw arguably the best team of our generation as an opponent in Atlanta. It’s bad luck that the Dome is perfectly suited to Florida’s style of play. It’s bad luck that we went into the ’04 Iron Bowl with a 3rd string QB, a 5th string tailback, and true freshmen starting at wide receiver and tight end. And on and on and on.
The point is that luck happens in both directions. You take the good with the bad and you move on. But all of that stuff equalizes out in the long-term, and to contend that over the course of many, many years that some teams are just “lucky,” is just absurd. The only way you can reach that conclusion is by selectively remembering only the good luck they enjoyed, and not the bad that they suffered.