Let's Grade the 2018 Recruiting Class

[NorthGATiger 1,801]

2 hours ago, Zeek said:

Look at Mohamoud Diabate...in our own backyard and no offer. The kid leans towards us even though we haven't offered SMH

We must really have some studs lined up.

[aujeff11 6,243]

Gus knew he needed OT’s going into this cycle and failed to reel them in. I give this class  a B.

[AuburnNTexas 7,150]

I am in the B to B+ camp and I like that.  One thing I did do is compare how many bama, UGA, and Auburn recruited from in our general region.  for UGA  I included NC and SC because of their proximity.

bama - 0 from GA, 2 from AL, 4 From Fl, 1 from Ms,  Balance national

UGA - 13 from Ga, 0 from Al, 4 from FL, 2 NC, 1 SC balance outside of these areas

AUBURN - 8 from GA, 9 from AL, 5 from FL, 1 MS, 1 Australia

bama did not do that well in its normal areas national helped them a lot. If they have a couple of bad years they will lose some of their national appeal and will b e hurting in their normal regions as won't have the same level of contacts and current players from those areas talking them up.

Georgia cleaned up in Georgia but we still pulled in 8 really good players from that state and we cleaned up in Alabama and we did better than both bama and UGA in Fl. We even matched bama in West Alabama (Miss) with 1 each.

 

 

[AUApostle 7,651]

Looks like we went global.  boom.

[Mikey 16,614]

Quoting @McLoofus from above: " The Justin Fields thing happened a long time ago but it's entirely possible that we could have had him if we'd played our cards right. "

 

How did we not play our cards right? This was a Georgia kid, with a sister playing on the UGA softball team and a mom that was adamant about him going to UGA so both kids would be at the same place. Fields didn't even stay in Auburn for his visit, left before nightfall in order to get to some function at UGA. The few people who I believe to be credible and were close enough to the situation to have an informed opinion say we were never a serious contender. He'd have gone back with Penn State before coming to Auburn, or that's what was said.

Not trying to argue, just interested in what makes you think we ever had a legitimate shot with Fields once UGA offered?

[WFE12 9,191]

9 hours ago, lionheartkc said:

I agree with everything you wrote except for this:

I think Joiner is going to make one heck of a TE and was actually my favorite TE prospect going back to last year (even if he never considered himself a TE). The fact that he can be so versatile plays into how both Gus and Chip like to run their offenses. Imagine being able to drive the field with no substitutions, and when we need hard yards, shifting our back out wide or into the QB slot and shifting our TE/HB in as a power back.

That makes too much sense for us to actually try it.

[WFE12 9,191]

8 hours ago, McLoofus said:

I'm not putting any eggs in the Joiner basket. Not sure I can remember a guy getting tagged with the "look like Tarzan, play like Jane" rep quite like he has. And we had previously cooled on him, and then suddenly came back around on him after a couple guys declared for the draft. Similarly, he had previously refused to entertain the possibility of playing anything other than RB, but once it got late in the cycle and he didn't get whatever offer he wanted- LSU completely cut off contact with him out of the blue- he's suddenly the TE hybrid we've been looking for. 

I'll buy the "we don't use and don't need a TE" line- it's rational, even if I don't agree- but I'm not buying that Joiner's our answer. That's some serious sunshine lean IMO.

We tried and failed to get a lot of big time OLs. Say what you want about how badly we actually did or didn't need them and what's available in the next cycle, but we swung and missed. Not ideal. If we somehow land Anderson, I'm good here. 

The Justin Fields thing happened a long time ago but it's entirely possible that we could have had him if we'd played our cards right. Gatewood has star written all over him but we wanted 2 QBs in this class.

LOVE Shivers and Martin. Wish we could've added Teague to that mix. 

Definitely won WRs and kickers. Pleased with just about everything on defense if McReary (sp?) can play CB. 

Great vibes on the quality of human being we continue to recruit. It may be hokey, but I give Gus a ton of credit for bringing good people into the fold, on his staff and on his roster. It's part of what can make 4* Auburn better than 5* bama/uga on any given day IMO. (While, yes, also being part of why we might lose certain recruiting battles and surrender 20 pt leads.)

Have to admit to a relativity problem. Judging our class without thinking about our rivals is hard to do. And I'm not sure to what extent I should try to avoid it. I mean, some folks seem to think that it's okay to judge this class against our prior classes and against the rest of the SEC, so maybe we should also focus on what 25% of our annual schedule is doing when evaluating our own performance, too. Against that backdrop, it's a B-, but probably better than that under remotely normal circumstances. 

Edit: Back to Joiner, I said very early on in the cycle that he looked like exactly what we supposedly signed him for. Just everything about his recruitment after that led to him not being an attractive get for me. FWIW, it's my intent to focus on his recruitment and not him. Just a lot of weirdness. 

 

I completely agree about Joiner...I don't feel good about this experiment. I won't get over it...I wanted Alaimo. I picture Harold on the sideline frustrated at how he's being used and Gus having that same stupid befuddled look on his face when it's not working as he planned. I hope I'm wrong.

[augolf1716 21,202]

B to a B- grade

[aujeff11 6,243]

9 hours ago, lionheartkc said:

I agree with everything you wrote except for this:

I think Joiner is going to make one heck of a TE and was actually my favorite TE prospect going back to last year (even if he never considered himself a TE). The fact that he can be so versatile plays into how both Gus and Chip like to run their offenses. Imagine being able to drive the field with no substitutions, and when we need hard yards, shifting our back out wide or into the QB slot and shifting our TE/HB in as a power back.

Joiner really can compare to Gus’s former hybrid TE Charles Clay ( a very good NFL TE before injury this year; I would know because he was on one of my fantasy teams this year.) Joiner does have X factor appeal.

[McLoofus 35,182]

2 hours ago, Mikey said:

Quoting @McLoofus from above: " The Justin Fields thing happened a long time ago but it's entirely possible that we could have had him if we'd played our cards right. "

 

How did we not play our cards right? This was a Georgia kid, with a sister playing on the UGA softball team and a mom that was adamant about him going to UGA so both kids would be at the same place. Fields didn't even stay in Auburn for his visit, left before nightfall in order to get to some function at UGA. The few people who I believe to be credible and were close enough to the situation to have an informed opinion say we were never a serious contender. He'd have gone back with Penn State before coming to Auburn, or that's what was said.

Not trying to argue, just interested in what makes you think we ever had a legitimate shot with Fields once UGA offered?

I haven't heard everything you have, but you've heard everything I have. I could be wrong about him but a 2nd QB in this class was wanted.

[doc4aday 1,887]

I do not think we needed another QB in this class whatsoever. Gatewood is going to be special and I think the coaching staff see this in him. Now that Bo Nix is on board, we are sitting pretty at this position. Stidham very well could come back for 2019. We are fine with having Willis in the bullpen if needed for 2018. We are in better shape than a lot of SEC schools with the QB position. All of us would have loved landing another OL, but nabbing Johnson was a smart move and we are getting a lot of quality with him. Joiner could very well make an excellent TE. I would not rule out him being a solid RB either. He has some fundamentals that need correcting, but once these have successfully been addressed, he could turn out to be special.

I give this class a grade of B+ without hesitation. UGA was the only class in the SEC that I feel comfortable with giving a grade of A. Bammer would get a grade of B+ as well. If you listen to their fan base, you would think they are hanging on a ledge of C+ to B-.

[Mikey 16,614]

53 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

I haven't heard everything you have, but you've heard everything I have. I could be wrong about him but a 2nd QB in this class was wanted.

Sure a second QB was wanted in this class. That doesn't mean it was ever going to be Fields. From following the QB situation, apparently we wanted a second 4* QB or just skip it. We couldn't get one of the necessary quality, so we skipped it.

[JDUBB4AU 5,121]

B- for me . I feel like we missed a lot, but we did get some good kids with no BS.  Losing herb hand didn’t help it maybe it did. You never know exactly how the class will turn out , but not the staffs best effort imo 

[fredst 9,064]

No second QB, big misses at OT, needed one more LB: overall, B.

[bigbird 60,560]

Misses on the OL and CB drop this to the B range for me. If we somehow land Anderson, then I would say B+ to A-.

JAD or McMichael should've been in the class, IMO.

 

[McLoofus 35,182]

10 hours ago, McLoofus said:

I haven't heard everything you have, but you've heard everything I have. I could be wrong about him but a 2nd QB in this class was wanted.

 

9 hours ago, Mikey said:

Sure a second QB was wanted in this class. That doesn't mean it was ever going to be Fields. From following the QB situation, apparently we wanted a second 4* QB or just skip it. We couldn't get one of the necessary quality, so we skipped it.

I'll be damned. We agree again!

[aujeff11 6,243]

14 hours ago, AUDevil said:

Looks like we went global.  boom.

We definitely put the AU in AUstraila.

[AuburnNTexas 7,150]

16 minutes ago, aujeff11 said:

We definitely put the AU in AUstraila.

Maybe we can use that as a slogan every 3-4 years and recruit another Aussie Punter.

[aufootball1 42]

C+... missed out on the OL that we needed desperately. And big gaps in the defensive back field. I thought for sure Coach Steele would get a few more studs there.  

[Zeek 16,656]

2 hours ago, aufootball1 said:

C+... missed out on the OL that we needed desperately. And big gaps in the defensive back field. I thought for sure Coach Steele would get a few more studs there.  

I think we got some really good players for the secondary.

[McLoofus 35,182]

9 minutes ago, Zeek said:

I think we got some really good players for the secondary.

We did. Clown town to say otherwise. 

[Eagle Eye 7 2,535]

Nice write up by the OP and I agree on most all of it. A couple of comments if I may. First folks don’t need to be too upset about the finish Wednesday for several reasons. A lot of teams didn’t do much including uat on Wednesday. That is probably the nature of the new early signing period. Over 80% decided back in January. Probably will be even less activity next February. While we did not get a true TE we did get HJ and he very well could move to that spot. I think our RBs are much better than some might think. I think Gus chose to run KJ more because that’s just how Gus is wired. I think the rest along with the new ones will be very good. Or OL is in decent shape. Gus made the comment that there was really none at the end that we really wanted that we had a chance to get. There was not a great crop of OL out there this year but hopefully next year we will do much better. Just a few years ago we picked up a great class of OLs and we will probably do that again. He may have to fill the gap with one or two JUCOs next year.DL , LB and WR were very good class this year. We got more than our fair share of good ones. DB wise I think we did well. The thing I like about this group is several can fill multiple positions. Depth wise it is always good to have those good enough to cover multiple positions. The punter was a bigtime step up I hope. I agree with the B+ grade overall. I think we filled our needs for the most part. No reason not to contend for a championship this year.

[SumterAubie 3,031]

Because I can, I choose to include Coaches Woodson and Grimes as part of this recruiting class. Since both will make Auburn a better football team in the future, I give this class an A.

[Eagle Eye 7 2,535]

16 hours ago, McLoofus said:

I haven't heard everything you have, but you've heard everything I have. I could be wrong about him but a 2nd QB in this class was wanted.

Was wanted if we found one that worked. Gus is not going to do like NS and sign a bunch of 5 stars at QB that are going to transfer as freshmen nor should he. We have quite a few backup QBs should we need them playing other positions. I believe in going for QBs you really want in a progression that you can really use them. JS this year with Malik as back up . Malik or JG text year with the other at back up then JG or Bo the next year with a new Freshman Redshirt. Since we recruit QBs at other positions it’s not really necessary to have a lot of project kids at that position.JMHO

[bigbird 60,560]

4 hours ago, aufootball1 said:

C+... missed out on the OL that we needed desperately. And big gaps in the defensive back field. I thought for sure Coach Steele would get a few more studs there.  

I don't see the gaps that you mention.