2023 Discussion Thread

[AUght2win 6,833]

I’m not trying to be a d*ck but is this the longest commitment drought we’ve ever had? I thought we’d get one during the last big weekend. Now idk when one will come. 

[toddc 13,194]

4.4 in the 40, um, yes please 

[Mikey 16,578]

8 hours ago, AUght2win said:

I’m not trying to be a d*ck but is this the longest commitment drought we’ve ever had? I thought we’d get one during the last big weekend. Now idk when one will come. 

This feels similar to previous Big Cat weekends. A ton of talent in Auburn but zero commitments. I'm not too concerned about comitts at this point anyway. A solid, winning season will help a lot. If we have another losing season any committed players will jump ship and look elsewhere anyway.

[Beaker 2,457]

28 minutes ago, Mikey said:

This feels similar to previous Big Cat weekends. A ton of talent in Auburn but zero commitments. I'm not too concerned about comitts at this point anyway. A solid, winning season will help a lot. If we have another losing season any committed players will jump ship and look elsewhere anyway.

Quite true, but let's get that big commit and let the commits start recruiting others.

From what I am hearing on podcasts, the chance of having another losing season sounds highly unlikely.  Lots of synergy and most of the undercurrents created by players who were not really bought in last year are gone.  I suspect player's leadership will help a lot.  Players have been more vocal and leading more this Spring than last it appears.

Lots of good things going on ....

[McLoofus 35,182]

Sadly, Harsin can still very much sell immediate opportunity in 2023 at several positions. That will loom as large as a stack of losses, should we suffer them. It won't be as effective a pitch as it should have been prior but it will still be a thing. 

[shabby 1,957]

10 hours ago, AUght2win said:

I’m not trying to be a d*ck but is this the longest commitment drought we’ve ever had? I thought we’d get one during the last big weekend. Now idk when one will come. 

I have been coming here waiting to see commitments start popping after the big weekend and its been tumbleweeds in here. I don't know why we were unable to close the deal with several recruits after a weekend like the one we had. Credit for getting the recruits here but meaningless if few sign down the road. 

[VAtiger12 112]

2 hours ago, Beaker said:

Quite true, but let's get that big commit and let the commits start recruiting others.

From what I am hearing on podcasts, the chance of having another losing season sounds highly unlikely.  Lots of synergy and most of the undercurrents created by players who were not really bought in last year are gone.  I suspect player's leadership will help a lot.  Players have been more vocal and leading more this Spring than last it appears.

Lots of good things going on ....

Uhh.. I mean I'm a positive guy but I wouldn't go that far. The depth and overall talent level on this team is a huge concern regardless of how bought in people are. 

[AUght2win 6,833]

5 hours ago, Mikey said:

This feels similar to previous Big Cat weekends. A ton of talent in Auburn but zero commitments. I'm not too concerned about comitts at this point anyway. A solid, winning season will help a lot. If we have another losing season any committed players will jump ship and look elsewhere anyway.

I’m officially concerned given the context of all that’s gone on and our history of swings/misses. We haven’t had a commitment in like what, 3 months? Not even the sporadic Junior or sophomore commit. Nobody, from any class, has pledged.

They say we have a silent commit. I no longer believe that. Because that bullet would have been strategically fired last weekend if we had it in our chamber.

[AUght2win 6,833]

2 hours ago, VAtiger12 said:

Uhh.. I mean I'm a positive guy but I wouldn't go that far. The depth and overall talent level on this team is a huge concern regardless of how bought in people are. 

Yeah I agree. Buy-in has a lot bigger difference when the talent is all relatively the same. That’s why it was an effective blueprint at Boise. But you’re going to need some amount of talent to compete in the SEC regardless of locker room culture.

[W.E.D 11,070]

19 hours ago, AUght2win said:

They say we have a silent commit. I no longer believe that.

I don't trust any "silent" commits.

I think most were assuming we'd have 4 or 5 commits by the end of March.  Doesn't look like it.  The next big test will be the spring game in a few weeks.  Can we get some by then?  I think if we roll through spring without getting near 4 or 5, then it's going to start looking shaky.

At some point this staff has to sell kids on their vision.  UT just got a top 10 player in the nation from across the country.  We can't get traction with kids in state or Atlanta.

[tinman1 485]

4 hours ago, W.E.D said:

I don't trust any "silent" commits.

I think most were assuming we'd have 4 or 5 commits by the end of March.  Doesn't look like it.  The next big test will be the spring game in a few weeks.  Can we get some by then?  I think if we roll through spring without getting near 4 or 5, then it's going to start looking shaky.

At some point this staff has to sell kids on their vision.  UT just got a top 10 player in the nation from across the country.  We can't get traction with kids in state or Atlanta.

Why the hell anyone was expecting 4 or 5 commits by the end of March is crazy.  Auburn powers that be put Harsin and the entire football program thru hell trying to find some reason somewhere to fire him.  Who's to say it won't happen again.  If I'm a recruit I'll come to Auburn for a visit but I'm going to take a wait and see approach through at least 1/4 the season to make a decision.

And I don't trust silent commits either

[AUght2win 6,833]

4 hours ago, tinman1 said:

Why the hell anyone was expecting 4 or 5 commits by the end of March is crazy.  Auburn powers that be put Harsin and the entire football program thru hell trying to find some reason somewhere to fire him.  Who's to say it won't happen again.  If I'm a recruit I'll come to Auburn for a visit but I'm going to take a wait and see approach through at least 1/4 the season to make a decision.

And I don't trust silent commits either

Part of the reason they tried to fire him was he couldn’t finish with recruits. The PTB made things worse but let’s not act like this wasn’t a preexisting problem. We NEED to start getting some commitments. 

[DAG 33,980]

I don’t understand why this concept is so hard, but I highly doubt we will see anyone pull the final trigger to commit until they see the on field results. Why would any decent recruit commit right now after the tumultuous last 3 months unless they are just a die hard auburn fan? I sure as hell wouldn’t commit at this point that is for sure. Good for the coaching staff jumping ahead of the curve and establishing meaningful relationships. That will do wonders down the line. 

[W.E.D 11,070]

3 hours ago, DAG said:

I don’t understand why this concept is so hard, but I highly doubt we will see anyone pull the final trigger to commit until they see the on field results. Why would any decent recruit commit right now after the tumultuous last 3 months unless they are just a die hard auburn fan? I sure as hell wouldn’t commit at this point that is for sure. Good for the coaching staff jumping ahead of the curve and establishing meaningful relationships. That will do wonders down the line. 

If we're waiting for commits to start rolling in late September, then it's already too late.  Tenn is in a very similar state, 1 W/L different and have 5 commits and 1 is a top 10 player in the nation from California.  They've been making relationships with these kids for the last year.

Also, 247 had an article in the last day or so from a 7v7 camp in Atlanta and the hosts/coaches essentially said the "investigation" was a blip and isn't having an effect.  All the top kids have Auburn as an option.

I don't think anyone is expecting to have countless 5* kids right now, but we need to start building recruiting momentum and it can't wait until mid to late September.

[abw0004 10,110]

31 minutes ago, W.E.D said:

Also, 247 had an article in the last day or so from a 7v7 camp in Atlanta and the hosts/coaches essentially said the "investigation" was a blip and isn't having an effect.  All the top kids have Auburn as an option.

Maybe I am overreading this, but does that mean we are gaining ground or are in a good spot with these kids (from the Atlanta camp at least)?

[W.E.D 11,070]

18 minutes ago, abw0004 said:

Maybe I am overreading this, but does that mean we are gaining ground or are in a good spot with these kids (from the Atlanta camp at least)?

We are an option at least and being considered.  Damage control was done and it's not a huge negative or anything.

[DAG 33,980]

1 hour ago, W.E.D said:

then it's already too late

Why would it already be too late? Tennessee is not in our situation. Tennessee nearly the tumultuous drama that we had in the last three months. I don't see any kid committing to us unless we show we can win and CBH will stay. I mean half this fanbase just knew this guy was going to get fired about a month and half ago and now they are wondering why people won't commit? This is a marathon. not a sprint. This kid Tennessee got so early on, might not even keep his commit come next December. 

Edited March 25, 2022 by DAG

[W.E.D 11,070]

9 minutes ago, DAG said:

Why would it already be too late? Tennessee is not in our situation. Tennessee nearly the tumultuous drama that we had in the last three months. I don't see any kid committing to us unless we show we can win and CBH will stay. I mean half this fanbase just knew this guy was going to get fired about a month and half ago and now they are wondering why people won't commit? This is a marathon. not a sprint. This kid Tennessee got so early on, might not even keep his commit come next December. 

If we start the season with 1 commit, we'll be absurdly behind the 8 ball.  UT has had more drama around their program in the last 10 years than nearly any program.  1 investigation by Auburn doesn't really compare, especially considering kids are saying it's not a factor and how many kids we're going on campus right now.

I agree with you winning will help, but if we can't sell kids our vision and get them on board until we win a lot Harsin is going to get fired quickly.  

FWIW, we had 9 kids committed before the 2021 season started.  Near zero relationships, no wins.

Edited March 25, 2022 by W.E.D

[DAG 33,980]

3 minutes ago, W.E.D said:

If we start the season with 1 commit, we'll be absurdly behind the 8 ball.  UT has had more drama around their program in the last 10 years than nearly any program.  1 investigation by Auburn doesn't really compare, especially considering kids are saying it's not a factor and how many kids we're going on campus right now.

I agree with you winning will help, but if we can't sell kids our vision and get them on board until we win a lot Harsin is going to get fired quickly.  

FWIW, we had 9 kids committed before the 2021 season started.  Near zero relationships, no wins.

You are talking about the last 10 years. I am talking about the last 3 months. It is just interesting to me some of y'all opined that if this guy stays it would totally destroy the ability to recruit due to the circumstances, now all of a sudden, it is not as big as a deal. The argument can't be both ways. Kids say a lot of things. Adults say a lot of things too. It really doesn't matter what a single person says unless action follows that verbiage. I am glad we got these young men on campus and that is a start. IMO I didn't expect for us to have several commits until we got on the field and have actual evidence of how CBH vision looks with his guys. I may be wrong. We will see how this whole ordeal plays out once again.

[DAG 33,980]

Another thing to consider is context. The #1 recruiting team right now in the SEC is Arkansas. A major reason for that is the fact that they loaded up on a bunch of three star recruits. I personally think, if we wanted to right now, we could load up on a bunch of three star recruits (Of course CBH would get heat for that). My guess is the priority is really getting that foundation of four and five star recruits early on, which again, IMO, are not going to commit to us until we see game results. You look at UF right now and they also are in the same boat. I can only imagine their fans are also going crazy. Be patient, it is a marathon not a sprint.

[wildlife alumni 304]

We also do not know how the money is changing the landscape. Good players may wait to see what the best offer is. I read somewhere that the Tennessee QB is rumored to be getting 2 mil a year. To many money may mean more than vision. Lower ranked recruits probably have less money thrown at them. Coaches can not talk money so some things may fall in the hands of boosters. However, when it gets closer to crunch time I would not doubt a lot of flips. They may be worth more at closing time. 
 

[toddc 13,194]

5 hours ago, DAG said:

Another thing to consider is context. The #1 recruiting team right now in the SEC is Arkansas. A major reason for that is the fact that they loaded up on a bunch of three star recruits. I personally think, if we wanted to right now, we could load up on a bunch of three star recruits (Of course CBH would get heat for that). My guess is the priority is really getting that foundation of four and five star recruits early on, which again, IMO, are not going to commit to us until we see game results. You look at UF right now and they also are in the same boat. I can only imagine their fans are also going crazy. Be patient, it is a marathon not a sprint.

I think we’re closer to getting some commitments than people think.

[AuburnNTexas 7,140]

2 hours ago, toddc said:

I think we’re closer to getting some commitments than people think.

I hope you are right. I liked Harsin since the day he arrived. I knew because he and a lot of his initial staff arrived late and also had not recruited this area from the beginning that we would not have a great class. I still wanted him because I wanted a more business like structure I thought and still think he can bring to Auburn. The way he started to build the behind the scenes recruiting staff confirmed what I thought. I really thought the coming class even with the swoon at the end of the year was going to be a great class. Nil changed some and Auburn was not as good as other schools that is not on Harsin but we seem to be improving on that front. Harsin hasn't been perfect there is some legitimacy to the way some players saw him, but he has learned from that. The problem is the way so many jumped on the bandwagon and so many false rumor's were treated as gospel that really put him behind the 8 Ball. Many on this board helped propagate the debacle some claiming that it should have no impact on this years class. 

Harsin may pull it out or he may fail. If he fails and to be honest if he fails he might have failed without the debacle but we will never know. One of the best things that could happen to Auburn it to have him succeed as one we all want Auburn to win but equally important it may help re-align the power structure so that Auburn athletics is run by professionals and not by some donors.  What is really sad is there are a lot of very good big time donors who donate with no strings attached because they love Auburn but the few who try to control even make those wonderful people look bad by association.

[W.E.D 11,070]

23 hours ago, DAG said:

My guess is the priority is really getting that foundation of four and five star recruits early on, which again, IMO, are not going to commit to us until we see game results

So IYO Harsin is setting out with a losing strategy??? Late Sept/Oct isn't early if that's the first time IYO we're going to get any commits

[W.E.D 11,070]

17 hours ago, toddc said:

I think we’re closer to getting some commitments than people think.

There are a few rumored to be silents. If true they need to be public by the close of spring or I'm going to doubt it.

I think we're doing well too. I think we'll have a handful of commits by close of spring and more this nummer.  We had 9 going into the start of last season and that was with only face to face recruiting for 75 days or so.

We've been putting in hard work for the '23 class since last year