Btiger1982 6 Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 E.J. Levenberry is a 2013 LB we are recruiting. He is 6'3 and 226. Our national exposure helped us on this recruit because his father, Eric Sr, was very impressed, but did not know anything about us before the championship. Levenberry did not have AU in his top 5 before the visit by his dad. He is a five star recruit and Auburn is now heavily in the mix in his top 5. Mr. Levenberry's son is being recruited by Tommy Thigpen. Mr. Levenberry described Thigpen as a pit bull in recruiting. E.J. and Kenny Bigelow have become good friends and Bigelow is a good friend of Angelo Blackson. Mr. L said that he does not want his son to get a cookie cutter degree and he wants his son to have the best education possible, which is good to hear as far as attrition goes! He is going to visit other schools, but plans on coming back to AU with his parents. Sounds promising! Will get back at you with more details soon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpain04567 0 Posted July 7, 2011 Share Posted July 7, 2011 Saw this article on TOS and I love it. If there is one position that we are not recruiting nationally as much it is at linebacker. I don't know if this if bc of the lack of talent there this year our what but this is good to hear. Can you imagine adding Bigelow and Levenberry to our VERY early 2013 class with Dee Liner?? That would be one heck of a solid core on D to help us start recruiting the next no. 1 class in the country. All we would need to add to that DL is the freak from GA, Nkemdiche (sp)!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpain04567 0 Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 Are w still going hard after this kid? seemed like he was high on us after his visit and other than foster and johnson I don't think that there is a linebacker I would rather have out of this class. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwmboom7 0 Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 I think Michigan and Florida State might be two of his favorites but im not too sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elephant Tipper 430 Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-E.J.-Levenberry%20Jr.-104478 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
around4ever 4,139 Posted March 10, 2012 Share Posted March 10, 2012 Well, that doesn't look good. He and his dad have visited Auburn but we are not on his list and he hasn't visited any of the schools on his list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave69 1 Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-E.J.-Levenberry%20Jr.-104478 According to this Auburn hasn't offered. Why is that? WDE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orange and Blue 17211345162833 0 Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-E.J.-Levenberry%20Jr.-104478 According to this Auburn hasn't offered. Why is that? WDE Character issues, how a prospect skills fit in with the design of the team among other things. I glad our coaching staff does their homework and just don't offer kids just because they are a 4 or 5 star. I'm not saying those are the reasons Auburn have not offered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auburn4ever 1,266 Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 From ESPN Recruiting Nation Football E.J. Levenberry Jr. 6'3'', 230 lbs. | Class of 2013 HometownWoodbridge, VASchoolC. D. Hylton High SchoolPositionOutside LinebackerStatus Undeclared Recruiting ActivityScouting ReportPlayer NewsSchool ListSchool Status Offer Visit Recruiter Auburn Florida State Odell Haggins Florida Brian White LSU Oklahoma Brent Venables Tennessee Peter Sirmon USC Notre Dame Maryland Michigan North Carolina State North Carolina Nebraska Rutgers Penn State Larry Johnson Vanderbilt Virginia Virginia Tech Alabama Georgia Last Updated: August 25, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orange and Blue 17211345162833 0 Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 247 and ESPN shows he has Auburn offers, Scout and Rivals do not show Auburn offers. At this point, it don't really matter because we are not in his top group and he seems to be a heavy Michigan lean at this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AU64 10,122 Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 I like that AU is going after kids in other parts of the country. For years we mostly put our eggs in the Ala and Ga basket and if we lost the hand full or 4* or 5* players to the "state" schools, we were often left with lesser talent. IMO there is no point in going head-to-head with Bama in state where most kids are Bama fans from the cradle. There are many good players in states where the people are not fanatical about college football and the good players are more open minded about where they might play. Chiz and his staff have been able to show them the benefits of the SEC and a great program. Again, JMO but AU has raised the overall level of it's recruiting mostly by getting top talent from out of state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orange and Blue 17211345162833 0 Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 I like recruiting nationally as well, but we are in the most talent-rich region in football recruiting. We should never turn our back on the region that has made Auburn Football what it is. The negative side of recruiting nationally is our coaches don't know the true character of these prospects because they are so far away. Our coaches can't learn the communities, families, and high coaches by popping in occasionally. It's not like it's a short drive to see these recruits play on Friday nights or get to know who their friends are. The key element about recruiting locally, is our coaches has formed relationships with high school coaches that goes back for years. Some of those high school coaches are still in places when Coach Dye and Coach Tuberville coached here. Those relationships that was formed way back when, still allows us to get our foot in the door today. We put ourselves back on the national map with our recent NC. We won our NC with Southern players and we shouldn't never forget that. We can pluck a player or two outside our region from time to time, but we should never forget where our bread is buttered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpain04567 0 Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-E.J.-Levenberry%20Jr.-104478 According to this Auburn hasn't offered. Why is that? WDE Character issues, how a prospect skills fit in with the design of the team among other things. I glad our coaching staff does their homework and just don't offer kids just because they are a 4 or 5 star. I'm not saying those are the reasons Auburn have not offered. A far as I can tell neither of those concerns apply to ej. There is really no reason not to offer this kid. We really need to turn up the heat on he and bigelow and we could have our best core recruiting class on D in a long time. I think coach BVG is due for an east coast trip to see these guys and the three from good counsel (diggs' teammates). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orange and Blue 17211345162833 0 Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/recruiting/player-E.J.-Levenberry%20Jr.-104478 According to this Auburn hasn't offered. Why is that? WDE Character issues, how a prospect skills fit in with the design of the team among other things. I glad our coaching staff does their homework and just don't offer kids just because they are a 4 or 5 star. I'm not saying those are the reasons Auburn have not offered. A far as I can tell neither of those concerns apply to ej. There is really no reason not to offer this kid. We really need to turn up the heat on he and bigelow and we could have our best core recruiting class on D in a long time. I think coach BVG is due for an east coast trip to see these guys and the three from good counsel (diggs' teammates). I was not implying that EJ has character issues. Auburn has offered according to some recruiting websites. I know nothing personal about the kid. What i do know is that he don't have Auburn on his top list of schools. By his comments, Michigan appears to be his top school with FSU a distant second. I don't want to get caught up in another situation where i felt we over-recruited Arik Armstead and should have concentrated on some kids closer to home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpain04567 0 Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 I agree on the Armstead situation, but we didn't even start recruiting him hard until after the season. So why not try to get in on these guys early, gauge their interest, and then decide whether we have a good enough shot to actively pursue them? I think that just because a kid (who is one of the top 3 or 4 at his position in the country) doesn't have us high on his list 11 months before signing day, doesn't mean we throw in the towel. If he is just another solid recruit that we could find another of in this region, I agree with you, look local. This guy on the other hand, is pretty much a one of a kind in this recruiting class. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orange and Blue 17211345162833 0 Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 I agree on the Armstead situation, but we didn't even start recruiting him hard until after the season. So why not try to get in on these guys early, gauge their interest, and then decide whether we have a good enough shot to actively pursue them? I think that just because a kid (who is one of the top 3 or 4 at his position in the country) doesn't have us high on his list 11 months before signing day, doesn't mean we throw in the towel. If he is just another solid recruit that we could find another of in this region, I agree with you, look local. This guy on the other hand, is pretty much a one of a kind in this recruiting class. I agree that we should go after the best players in the country no matter where they are. They must be a good fit for Auburn and the community. Test the interest level of these prospects and decide to continue or walk away. I disagree with AU64 about conceding the Southern prospects to bama, uga, and etc. I'm not one for throwing in the towel or running away from any challenge. When we recruit Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and etc. We are recruiting against some the winningest football programs in college football in ND, Mich, Ohio State, and Penn State. Recruiting top players is going to be a struggle anywhere when we are going up against top programs like these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
criscomilk 0 Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 I like that AU is going after kids in other parts of the country. For years we mostly put our eggs in the Ala and Ga basket and if we lost the hand full or 4* or 5* players to the "state" schools, we were often left with lesser talent. IMO there is no point in going head-to-head with Bama in state where most kids are Bama fans from the cradle. There are many good players in states where the people are not fanatical about college football and the good players are more open minded about where they might play. Chiz and his staff have been able to show them the benefits of the SEC and a great program. Again, JMO but AU has raised the overall level of it's recruiting mostly by getting top talent from out of state. I would not say most kids are bammer fans from the cradle. I will say they can be easily swayed to the dark side. The NYTimes article actually stated we had more fans than bammer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AU64 10,122 Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 I'm not saying concede anything but on the other hand, spending all our time trying to convert Bama or UGA leans is not good use of time or money either. We got lucky with Jovon Robinson IMO....we thought we had TJY locked up and ended up almost being shutout for RBs last season. In 2008 we had 9 in-state recruits and by their junior year, all were gone I think. Look back over the past several years and I think you will see that in-state kids have not been signifcant factors in the team's success....some exceptions like NickF but that was for one season. Generally we were not getting the best in-state players. Maybe that's changing a bit but we still are in the minority and that's a fact. The current coaches have contacts away from Alabama and I'm really glad to see them making the most of those contacts out west. As for the concern about "character issues" with kids from out of state...think back over the years where our "problem children" came from and I think Florida leads the way...but also Ga and in-state kids too. Time will tell, but one thing I'm pleased about is that virtually all of the out of state kids seem to be good students. The challenge to recruit out of state kids is to get them on campus...to meet the coaching staff and players. AU is a special place and kids who want to accept the SEC challenge can see the difference between AU and (and the town of Auburn) and most other universities in the west and midwest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orange and Blue 17211345162833 0 Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 When we got Blackson from Delaware, i thought we was on to something until i thought about USC getting a commitment from a QB at the very same school that was 15 years old at the time. USC picked up Bigelow from Red Lion Academy in November when i thought he was our's. We are recruiting Max Browne and Cooper Bateman fom non-traditional football states, but so are virtually everyone else. My point is, there is going to be competition for these top prospects no matter where we go. We just can't run and hide from it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
criscomilk 0 Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 I would have to agree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BirdofPrey76 0 Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 Auburn runs and hides from no one!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpain04567 0 Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 Auburn runs and hides from no one!!!!!!!! That's what I'm screaming! We need to make this kid a priority if he isn't already. Could you imagine a LB core with Trey in the middle and Kris and EJ on the edge? Then we would actually average over 210 lbs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbird 60,567 Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 Auburn runs and hides from no one!!!!!!!! That's what I'm screaming! We need to make this kid a priority if he isn't already. Could you imagine a LB core with Trey in the middle and Kris and EJ on the edge? Then we would actually average over 210 lbs. we do already, but his addition would be nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tpain04567 0 Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 Auburn runs and hides from no one!!!!!!!! That's what I'm screaming! We need to make this kid a priority if he isn't already. Could you imagine a LB core with Trey in the middle and Kris and EJ on the edge? Then we would actually average over 210 lbs. we do already, but his addition would be nice. Well with evans and bates and eltoro starting last year their listed (evans and eltoro are probably given a couple lbs) average was 217 so yeah by a big mac or two, but that is a safety at most sec schools. however the point remains we need to move away from 5 11 215 lb backers and get more physical in the front 7. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabern57 0 Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 If BVG can turn the Defense around then we won't have any problem getting even more top defensive players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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