Just a quick handful of links for you:
It might be so good we’re going to call it the “Primary.” The offensive line and wide receiver are so 2010. What’s really “in” for Auburn recruiting these days is the secondary. They’ve already got a high-upside safety prospect committed in Anthony Swain, lead solidly for two more Rivals100 prospects in corner Jonathan Rose and safety Erique Florence, and have as good a shot as anyone at landing safety Chris Jones, who recently picked up a Tide offer to go with his Florida, Notre Dame, Tennessee, etc. offers. In short: Auburn’s got an excellent chance at putting together an outstanding class of defensive backs.
This fact has not been lost on Rose:
“Auburn is my top school. My mind isn’t made up, but I have an idea though. I’m gonna take some visits in early July and just make sure it’s right,” said Rose.
“I have everything I need from Auburn. I just want to compare them to the other schools and match them up” …
When Chris Jones comes into the picture, so does Erique Florence (DB, Valley HS). Those three comprise the top secondary prospects in the state. All three have Auburn at or near the top, and Rose knows how special that would be.
“I think it’s definitely a distinct possibility that we could play together. Those two guys are great. They’d be a big asset, and we’d have the best secondary like ever. I talk to Enrique a lot and try and stay in touch with him,” Rose said.
I don’t know about “best ever,” but it’d be pretty gosh-darned good. There’s plenty more from Rose at that link, including the tidbit that the three schools that Auburn have to fend off are apparently Georgia, Tennessee, and Memphis (?!?). Forgive me for feeling good about Chizik and Co.’s chances.
Speaking of Florence … last weekend he found himself at the center of the sort of minor controversy/freak-out that only occurs in the offseason, as Scout’s ‘Bama writer Andrew Bone tweeted that he’d been booted from Valley’s football team, giving Tide fans just the juicy opportunity they’d been waiting for to claim–everybody, say it with me!–“WE DIDN’T WANT HIM ANYWAY. Nevermind that the original report wound up refuted by Auburn’s recruiting writers within a matter of minutes, of course, or that the original tweet was deleted. (It would be nice, wouldn’t it, if Bone bothered to apologize or retract his statement? Sorry, broseph. Same goes for some kind of update and/or correction at RBR, but we’re still waiting there, too.)
Two things:
1. Obviously there’s no reason for Auburn fans to worry that much about this incident, but that’s not to say there wasn’t some kind of friction between Florence and his coaches; OA-News preps writer David Morrison reported that Florence was in a “rough spot” last week and that Florence’s coach admitted there were “some problems.” Again, as long as Florence is good with Auburn’s coaches he’s good with me (and I have zero doubt a ton of recruits that aren’t on the Rivals100 radar have similar blowups we never find out about), but it’s something to, I dunno, “file away” nonetheless.
2. You think Bone would have gone ahead with his report or that Tide fans would be nearly so worried about Florence’s character if he was a Tide lean instead of an Auburn lean? Me neither.
RB watch. Free article on Mike Blakely from Rivals, and the news on a player that had previously isn’t good:
There’s been much talk that home state school Florida has taken over the lead for Blakely recently, but he maintains that any lead Florida, or any other school has at the moment, is minimal.
“Not really,” Blakely said about Florida. “They can be a leader, but Auburn, Florida, and South Carolina are so close to each other, it’s hard to say.”
While Blakely is having a hard time naming a true leader, he at least knows the three SEC schools that are atop his list right now.
“Auburn, Florida, and South Carolina are basically my schools,” Blakely said. “All three are real high up there, all neck and neck.”
Blakely says all three schools have appealing factors right now as well.
“Location is big,” Blakely said. “All of them are manageable to get to. I have a close, close friend going to South Carolina, so that’s nice. At Auburn, they treat you so nice up there, it’s crazy. It’s almost too good to be true how nice they treat you at Auburn. At Florida, they treat you the same way, I like them a lot.”
That’s not to say there aren’t positives: Blakely does finish out the article saying lots of nice things about Auburn and Jay Boulware. Chizik and Co. are still very clearly at or near the top of his list. But a couple of weeks ago Auburn looked like clear favorites to land him, and that’s no longer the case.
This is worrisome since running back is actually a position of need this go-round, but as you’d expect Chizik and Co. are covering their bases: Andrew Buie from Florida and Quan Bray from Georgia–both in Rivals’ top 120 nationally–both visited Auburn last week and both had nice things to say afterwards. Auburn will find someone who wants to play RB, and it remains extremely likely that person will be very, very good.
Etc. AuburnEagle has a comprehensive overview of Auburn’s defensive recruiting targets … One of those is Ga. safety and All-Name team nominee Kadetrix Marcus.
Photo via this February al.com piece on Rose, which is out-of-date of course as regards Rose’s recruitment but still very much worth a read.
Bone also wrote the Tuscaloosa News’ “Dewey Wins” piece on Spencer Region committing to Bama back in February.
http://www.thewareaglereader.com/2010/02/spencer-regions-commits-to-bama-oh-wait/
(‘Course it turns out that Dewey might actually really win, but still… )
Recruiting news has been kind of slow for us compared to last year. The only real buzz surrounds the DB prospects you mentioned…. and the Frost kid. I thought Blakely was a lock, but we have clearly regressed there. I just can’t get a read on our staff’s recruiting preferences beyond that (at least as it concerns recruits we’re still in play for). That’s either by design to keep rival recruiters in the dark, or our coaches have taken many trips to the proverbial drawing board. I hope its the former.
Marmot, let’s not forget about Kiehl Frazier! We’re talking about a top-5 quarterback with some serious athletic talent. I wouldn’t doubt it if he’s upgraded to 5 stars by the end of his senior year. There hasn’t been a Michael Dyer caliber yet, but we also have to factor in that not as many RBs and WRs are going to want to come play behind the likes of Dyer or Trovon Reed for 3 years before they get all the starts.
I think we’ll start rolling soon. Plus once we win the 2011 National Championship, it’s going to help recruiting in January & February next year a lot.
Seems to be that DT is also up their with secondary,,,Looks like we will be taking 4 DTs this class…We already have Blackson and everyone seems to think that Niles will be a DT….We are going hard after Wright and McReynolds….And according to Rivals we are also looking to take a JUCO DT (which we need to balance out the classes)…Tony Gillespie and Jonathan Jenkins seem to be the leading canadiates since both had recently had free Rivals articles….TG’s even had film-http://auburn.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1098163
JJs article-http://auburn.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1096062
I’m not worried about the class as a whole. Buzz, schmuzz. A lot of that last year came from two things: 1. the five-star RBs, which was a total one-time thing 2. the newness of the Limo Gambit, Big Cat, etc. I’ve said all along last year was probably the high-water mark, but I’ll be stunned if Auburn’s 2011 class isn’t a top-10 group.
WDR, thanks–you’re right, DT is also a major focus this time, as it should be, and it’s going to be a nice haul if they can pull Wright, McReynolds, and Jenkins.
Recruiting news has been kind of slow for us compared to last year. The only real buzz surrounds the DB prospects you mentioned…. and the Frost kid. I thought Blakely was a lock, but we have clearly regressed there. I just can’t get a read on our staff’s recruiting preferences beyond that (at least as it concerns recruits we’re still in play for). That’s either by design to keep rival recruiters in the dark, or our coaches have taken many trips to the proverbial drawing board. I hope its the former.