Where Things Stand Today (October 2012)

[ellitor 32,147]

Quarterback

Both Jeremy Johnson and Jason Smith are strongly committed to Auburn and are having excellent seasons. They both play for powerhouse schools in Alabama class 6A and their schools (Carver and McGill-Toolen) appear to be on a collision course for a mid-to-late round playoff matchup. Jason Smith projects as a talented wide receiver in college but will get his shot at QB first as that is his desired position. There has been a development within the past month of Auburn looking at a juco QB. Auburn was looking at Clay Chastain from Georgia Military College but have since moved on from him.. ...And literally as I was typing up another juco QB popped up with Auburn interest Jake Waters from the #1 juco team in the nation in Iowa Western. Auburn has contacted Jake but as of now has not offered. Jake has picked up offers from K State and NC State the past 2 days. Interest in a juco QB is due to Kiehl's slow start on the season. Even though Kiehl did not play great versus LSU, he did show progress by not playing scared and having a deer in the headlights look after he made a mistake. If Kiehl continues showing progress from that point it is unlikely Auburn offers another QB.

Running Back

Auburn looks like it will take 3 backs if things go well with Jovon Robinson. The last we heard was Jovon was going to go to prep school and hopefully be ready by the fall of 2013. That was nearly a month ago and there strangely has not been any updates since. Derrick Green is the #1 uncommitted back on Auburn's board. Auburn holds a solid lead over Michigan and Tennessee for the 220-pound bruiser from Virginia. I expect him to take another trip to Auburn before he commits. He has not seen a game on the Plains but IMO when he does it should be the nail in the coffin. He recently had an OV to Tennessee for the Florida game and enjoyed the trip. He has an upcoming OV to Ole Miss scheduled for October 13th which ironically will be against Auburn and will be the second time he has seen the Tigers play as he was at the Auburn/Clemson game in Atlanta. He then has an OV scheduled for Michigan on October 20th to see them play Michigan St.. At this point I expect he will OV Auburn in November and make a decision shortly thereafter. The other RB Auburn is heavily after is Greg Bryant. This is just my opinion so do not quote it as Gospel since I do not get paid for this as a profession but I believe Auburn has set it sites squarely on Derrick Green and wanting Greg Bryant to wait to see what Green does. I say this because when Greg found out an Auburn coach was going to see him last Friday he was very excited to want to show out for the Auburn coach. I believe Bryant is content for now in waiting on a spot for him at Auburn to open up. If Green does choose Auburn Bryant will likely choose between USCe, UGA, and Oklahoma has gotten back in the picture.

Tight Ends

Arshad Jackson is solidly committed to Auburn but Florida State is starting to show strong interest. As for 5* standout TE OJ Howard, Auburn's chances are slipping by the week. Auburn needs multiple visits with OJ to have a chance at flipping him from Bama and since he is an EE there are only 7 visiting weekends left to get him on campus so the chances are not good.

Wide Receivers

Auburn has a top 2 of Isaiah Jones (FSU commit) and Lequan Treadwell. The staff is in frequent contact with Jones. Treadwell seems to be a bit of an enigma when it comes to the tigers. There are recent interviews where he says he will take an OV to Auburn and there are others whre Auburn is not even mentioned. Either way it is safe to say Michigan and Ole Miss are the leaders for Treadwell. The tigers want to sign 1 more receiver to go along with Earnest Robinson and Jaquay Williams. JaQuay has been added to the 2013 commit list on 247 and is rated as the #3 pverall Prep prospect. JaQuay is attending Fort Union Military Academy and expects to enroll at Auburn in January of 2013. Another wide out to keep and eye on is Dijon Pascal, a 3* speedster and track standout from just down the road in Tallassee. Wide receiver is a position were it is easy to make a big impact so do not be surprised if the other wide receiver is someone we have not talked about yet but has a big season. Auburn may also look to to the juco route to fill the last receiver spot. For those of you wondering about Jayron Kearse Auburn has apparently stop recruiting the former Auburn commit.

Offensive Line

Auburn is still heavily recruiting the top Guard in the nation in Khaliel Rodgers. Mr. Rodgers plans to OV Auburn, hopefully with his high school teammate and Auburn pledge Jahmere Irvin-Sills. There has been some strange and interesting developments with Khaliel's recruitment. Auburn wants to get Khaliel down for a game with Jahmere but for some reason their high school coach wants Khaliel to only visit USC during the season so it will be interesting how that plays out. Rodgers does plan to visit USC this season 1 or 2 times with fellow USC commit Kenny Bigelow. I had said before that with USC's scholly restrictions I thought Khaliel was expendable for the Trojans. Then came the Stanford game where the interior of the USC offensive line imploded. It now appears that if Auburn is going to get Khaliel they will have to flat out beat USC for him. Another interesting part of this puzzle is a very prominent national recruiting analyst in the Mid-Atlantic area who has a great track record the last few years of predicting correctly who recruits sign with has been linking Khaliel with Auburn recently. Khaliel's recruitment will be a very interesting watch the next few months. Another guy to keep an eye on is 3* OT/OG Roderick Johnson the high school teammate of the previously mentioned Greg Bryant. If Bryant does indeed choose USCe, OU, or UGA then FSU would have to be considered the favorite to land Johnson. Auburn O Line coach Jeff Grimes was in attendance Friday night to watch Rod play and evaluate him. He came away impressed. 2 other names to keep an eye on are Wilson Bell and David Gross. Neither one has an Auburn offer at this time. This is another position where Auburn may sign a player that comes on late like Will Adams did last season or even looks at the juco level. Auburn plans to sign 1 and maybe 2 O Linemen.

Defensive Line

Auburn has assembled an AUSOME D Line class to this point and they are not done yet. The Tigers lead for the #1 DT in the nation in Montravius Adams. Auburn's biggest competitor for this stud is Clemson and Georgia. Monty visited the Dawgs this past weekend for their game versus Tennessee. While UGA did well for themselves they apparently did not knock it out of the park as Monty said the visit was “a 7 or 8 out of 10.” The Bulldogs have gotten solidly in the mix however as Monty has said he will be back for their game versus Ole Miss and bring his mom for her first visit on the hedges. Monty and Ms. Adams will be in Gainesville this weekend to see the LSU/Florida game.

Linebackers

Auburn has a very good class of LBs committed led by th #1 LB in the country in Reuben Foster. He will take a couple of Ovs, 1 being to Washington but he is solid to Auburn. The recruitment of 4* standout Trey Johnson picked up recently. He has chosen not to enroll early at Auburn and will take all 5 of his Ovs. He will visit Ohio St. for the Michigan game and the rest of FSU, Penn St., and Auburn all in January. The good news is Auburn will get his last OV and he remains committed to Auburn. He say he wants to take official visits to be sure and will attend an Auburn game this season.

Defensive Backs

There has not been anything new on the 2 standout Cbs Jalen Ramsey and MacKensie Alexander since their names popped up last month with Auburn. Ramsey (USC commit) could not make the Auburn/Clemson game that he was scheduled to attend. He is from high school powerhouse Brentwood Academy in Tennessee and distance might be becoming a factor in his recruitment as Auburn, Bama and Florida have picked up interest. However, since I have been able to watch a few interviews with Jalen I feel I have a good read on him and believe he is a stand up guy. I think he sticks with USC. Alexander is a former Tennessee commit and according to austudnt23 Auburn was a finalist before he chose the Vols. The schools most people are talking about the most with MacKensie are Notre Dame and Clemson. At Safety, Auburn appears to be losing ground with the standout 4* Tray Matthews (Georgia commit). Things have gone quiet with his recruitment and Auburn will need to get Tray on campus at least 1 more time to flip him from UGA. There are no visits for Tray scheduled on the plains at this time. Another indication that Auburn may be losing ground with Tray is Auburn has evaluated at least 2 other players they are looking at as a safety. Chris Carson is a running back/safety from Parkview High in Georgia. The other safety prospect is TJ Green from Sylacauga, Alabama. Carson appears to be higher on the coaches' board and may be offered soon.

On a final note, nearly all of Auburn's commits have had a very good senior season to this point.

[wardon 0]

Unfortunately most of the post is unreadable due to most print being dark w/dark background. Please Ellitor, hope u know how much we look forward to your updates-

[ellitor 32,147]

Unfortunately most of the post is unreadable due to most print being dark w/dark background. Please Ellitor, hope u know how much we look forward to your updates-

refresh. I probably removed the format problem as you were typing.

[aublaise 191]

Thanks E, much appreciated

[wardon 0]

E- Really like the speed on the Tallassee WR, would you offer him over the 6'6" kid?

Do some of the recruits' moms still have negative feelings about their son attending AU after the shootings last summer?

Would you say that the AU-UGA game will be the most important recruiting weekend for the rest of the season??

As it looks like Mack may not come back (plus losing pike & Rose) would you now guess that AU signs a full 25 for 2013?? TIA

[ellitor 32,147]

E- Really like the speed on the Tallassee WR, would you offer him over the 6'6" kid?

Do some of the recruits' moms still have negative feelings about their son attending AU after the shootings last summer?

Would you say that the AU-UGA game will be the most important recruiting weekend for the rest of the season??

As it looks like Mack may not come back (plus losing pike & Rose) would you now guess that AU signs a full 25 for 2013?? TIA

1. Depends on the style of offense you have and the personel on the team. 2. I do not have access to the recruits or their families so I do not know. That would be a question better served for 23. 3. IMO I believe UGA will be the biggest recruiting weekend of the year during the football season. 4. We have 18 open spots right now. If Mack does not play again and Lemonier goes pro then we have 20. We could easily have 5 pieces of attrition to happen to get to 25 but the projected number now is 22 or 23.

[Mikey 15,858]

Thanks for all your hard work that went into that report!

I'm sticking with my prediction from June, saying we'll sign 3 early enrolles plus 22 regulars for a total of 25, which will leave us three extra slots for EE guys next year.

[ellitor 32,147]

Can a Mod change the title to 2012? TIA

[ellitor 32,147]

Thanks for all your hard work that went into that report!

I'm sticking with my prediction from June, saying we'll sign 3 early enrolles plus 22 regulars for a total of 25, which will leave us three extra slots for EE guys next year.

Figuring out 3 EEs for this year is a problem. Trey Johnson was the only 1 I was sure of 2 weeks ago but that has changed since he will now not be an EE.

[Guest jrljr]

I saw the real tall reciever at the LSU game I think. He was there wasn't he E? Looked like a good one. TM will regret going to UGA if he does. We need MA bad!

How about 2013 QB Jacob Park. I really like what I've seen thus far.

[wareaglebaby1345163024 0]

vonn bell????

[ellitor 32,147]

vonn bell????

Extreme long shot at best. We will need multiple more visits to have a chance with him.

[ellitor 32,147]

I saw the real tall reciever at the LSU game I think. He was there wasn't he E? Looked like a good one. TM will regret going to UGA if he does. We need MA bad!

How about 2013 QB Jacob Park. I really like what I've seen thus far.

He is a 2014 recruit.

[ellitor 32,147]

Can a Mod change the title to 2012? TIA

E, You can change the title yourself. When you open the edit screen, at the bottom next to "change" you will see " use full editing". Just click that and in that format it will allow you to change the title.

Cool! Thanks IM

[IronMan70 3,271]

Can a Mod change the title to 2012? TIA

E, You can change the title yourself. When you open the edit screen, at the bottom next to " save changes " you will see " use full editor ". Just click that and that format will allow you to change the title.

[ellitor 32,147]

Can a Mod change the title to 2012? TIA

E, You can change the title yourself. When you open the edit screen, at the bottom next to " save changes " you will see " use full editor ". Just click that and that format will allow you to change the title.

How is my reply now ahead of your post? lol

[Mikey 15,858]

Thanks for all your hard work that went into that report!

I'm sticking with my prediction from June, saying we'll sign 3 early enrolles plus 22 regulars for a total of 25, which will leave us three extra slots for EE guys next year.

Figuring out 3 EEs for this year is a problem. Trey Johnson was the only 1 I was sure of 2 weeks ago but that has changed since he will now not be an EE.

Finding three early guys for this year is on the coaches. They've known for a long time that they had three slots to fill there, use 'em or lose 'em. Failure to have three EE guys lined up would be, well, failure with a capital "F".

[autigeremt 6,166]

Nice work, ellitor!!!! Very nice! Thanks!

[ValleyTiger 2,894]

Thanks for all your hard work that went into that report!

I'm sticking with my prediction from June, saying we'll sign 3 early enrolles plus 22 regulars for a total of 25, which will leave us three extra slots for EE guys next year.

Figuring out 3 EEs for this year is a problem. Trey Johnson was the only 1 I was sure of 2 weeks ago but that has changed since he will now not be an EE.

Finding three early guys for this year is on the coaches. They've known for a long time that they had three slots to fill there, use 'em or lose 'em. Failure to have three EE guys lined up would be, well, failure with a capital "F".

No doubt that would be a misstep by the coaches. E, what about Lemond Johnson as an EE?

[aupops2 7]

Excellent, excellent work ellitor, and many thanks for that. There are some very disturbing trends here that can be corrected, or magnified, by the game this weekend. The drop of M Adams and T Matthews probabilities is very troublesome, as is the interest in lower-rated DBs and QBs, and despite what the popular view of game and season performance not having an affect on recruiting says, our performance versus our recruiting rivals ( especially uga, utk, Clemson) is very, very important this year. Even "experts" like Bryan Matthews admit this weekend's outcome is critical to the 2013 class quality. I can tell you, without being specific, that there are going to be some very nervous stomachs Saturday in those skyboxes at JHS. It is a very dangerous situation, Arky has absolutely nothing to lose, while we have a tremendous amount at stake.

[WarDamnEagleWDE 12,694]

Excellent, excellent work ellitor, and many thanks for that. There are some very disturbing trends here that can be corrected, or magnified, by the game this weekend. The drop of M Adams and T Matthews probabilities is very troublesome, as is the interest in lower-rated DBs and QBs, and despite what the popular view of game and season performance not having an affect on recruiting says, our performance versus our recruiting rivals ( especially uga, utk, Clemson) is very, very important this year. Even "experts" like Bryan Matthews admit this weekend's outcome is critical to the 2013 class quality. I can tell you, without being specific, that there are going to be some very nervous stomachs Saturday in those skyboxes at JHS. It is a very dangerous situation, Arky has absolutely nothing to lose, while we have a tremendous amount at stake.

Yep.

[JFDTiger80 716]

Excellent, excellent work ellitor, and many thanks for that. There are some very disturbing trends here that can be corrected, or magnified, by the game this weekend. The drop of M Adams and T Matthews probabilities is very troublesome, as is the interest in lower-rated DBs and QBs, and despite what the popular view of game and season performance not having an affect on recruiting says, our performance versus our recruiting rivals ( especially uga, utk, Clemson) is very, very important this year. Even "experts" like Bryan Matthews admit this weekend's outcome is critical to the 2013 class quality. I can tell you, without being specific, that there are going to be some very nervous stomachs Saturday in those skyboxes at JHS. It is a very dangerous situation, Arky has absolutely nothing to lose, while we have a tremendous amount at stake.

Very interesting post Pops.

E thanks for the update.

[aucanucktiger 1,705]

The DB recruiting situation right now is very odd IMO for a couple reasons, our current and near future apparent lack of depth back there should attract recruits interest one would think (come on Coach Martinez) and the excellent shape we're in for DL and LB recruits on paper bodes well for us having a future defensive juggernaut. Why would DB recruits not want to be part of that?

[aupops2 7]

The DB recruiting situation right now is very odd IMO for a couple reasons, our current and near future apparent lack of depth back there should attract recruits interest one would think (come on Coach Martinez) and the excellent shape we're in for DL and LB recruits on paper bodes well for us having a future defensive juggernaut. Why would DB recruits not want to be part of that?

Actually, Coaches Martinez and Van Gorder are very high on Melton and Irvin-Seals ( as they are on Jarrad Davis BTW), and those three probably are poster boys for the two coaches' comments about recruiting rankings not being important. But at one point, we did have Ramsey and Alexander's attention, and many "insiders" thought Matthews was, in essence, a silent commit. Bell, IMO, has always been a long, long shot. If we could put a whupping on the Hogs this weekend, show a lot of aggressiveness, emotion, and team unity, this downward trend could be reversed overnight.

[WarAJEagle 5]

Really enjoyed reading this report, thanks for the time you put into it!