WarTiger 3,910 Posted May 31, 2006 Share Posted May 31, 2006 Link Chatman is Pre-Season #1 Running Back By: Brandon Huffman JCFootball.com Contributor Date: May 31, 2006 Fullerton (Calif.) College running back Joe Chatman (6-2, 200) has gone to school all throughout the United States and after graduating from Towson (Md.) High, he matriculated to Orange County in sunny southern California. The move to the O.C. turned out to be a good one for Chatman, who in his freshman season at Fullerton, was named the Co-Player of the Year in the Mission Conference and finished the season just three yards short of winning the state rushing title. Opposing coaches repeatedly cited Chatman as the best back they faced all year. Having firmly established himself with the Hornerts, Chatman is focusing on an encore performance which he hopes leads to bigger and better things. “Recruiting is going alright,†said Chatman. “I’ve gotten some letters from Oregon State, Washington, Washington State, Illinois, Auburn and Florida. It’s been a long road.†A long road indeed. Chatman has played football in Texas, Nevada and Maryland and when he arrived at Fullerton College, he sat out his first season. “I came to Fullerton, greyshirted and let the other guys to their things. Then I displayed my athleticism and it got me onto the field,†said Chatman. All he did was rush for 1,560 yards and 16 touchdowns and accumulated 1,760 all-purpose yards during the MVP season. On track to graduate in December, Chatman is hoping to sign with a school then and be ready to play spring football in a little less than a year. “I’ll have three years to play two. Truthfully, from all the letters that I’ve gotten, I would love to go to Auburn. They have put a lot of guys in the league, they use their running backs and it’s a good school,†said Chatman. There's a good chance Chatman will be a pre-season JC Grid-Wire All-American and could be the nation's most coveted JC running back next fall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metafour 4,969 Posted May 31, 2006 Share Posted May 31, 2006 Unfortunately I doubt we offer him, you sign JUCO guys for immediate help. With Irons and Lester, and Tate and Smith, we dont need a RB to step in right away. Since we're likely only taking one RB, you can bet its going to be a HS kid who we can groom to team up with Tate after Irons and Lester graduate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcgufcm 4,107 Posted May 31, 2006 Share Posted May 31, 2006 irons and smith are gone after this year. carl stewart will be a senior the next season. you always need depth, and you rarely turn down nfl caliber talent. i'm not saying we'll be dying at running back with lester/tate/fannin/next year's signees; i'm just saying this kid could have a shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auskull 239 Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 Appears there are some really good backs this year that are considering AU. Hope some of them meet Tubbs' standard and come on down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vatz22au 142 Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 Unfortunately I doubt we offer him, you sign JUCO guys for immediate help. With Irons and Lester, and Tate and Smith, we dont need a RB to step in right away. Since we're likely only taking one RB, you can bet its going to be a HS kid who we can groom to team up with Tate after Irons and Lester graduate. 237801[/snapback] Wrong... Hes got 3 years to play 2. He'll sit out his first year.... So if he came next year Lester would be a senior and if Ben Tate plays this year, he'll be a junior when this guy is able to play. Alot of things can happen between now and then. We all know Auburn has ALWAYS played the best runningback available (see Caddy during his freshman year). It wouldn't hurt to have this guy on our side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metafour 4,969 Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 It wouldn't hurt to have this guy on our side. But it would hurt to have an Enrique Davis, Caleb King, Bo Williams, or Jonathan Dwyer on our side...guys who are likely more talented and provide NEEDED future depth instead of immediate help? If we sign only 1 RB, you can almost guarentee that it wont be Chapman unless this kid is totally unreal, and that doesn't seem to be the case as this is the first I've heard of him...I havn't read anywhere that we're even recruiting Chapman AT ALL. Just telling you straight up, if we only sign one RB (which is what is being reported) it will be a HS stud that will be used to hopefully form a combo with Tate/Fannin in the FUTURE. You can almost guarentee that we wont ruin our chances on getting one of the Top 4-5 RB's on our board on a guy who will be here for what? 2 years? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vatz22au 142 Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 It wouldn't hurt to have this guy on our side. But it would hurt to have an Enrique Davis, Caleb King, Bo Williams, or Jonathan Dwyer on our side...guys who are likely more talented and provide NEEDED future depth instead of immediate help? If we sign only 1 RB, you can almost guarentee that it wont be Chapman unless this kid is totally unreal, and that doesn't seem to be the case as this is the first I've heard of him...I havn't read anywhere that we're even recruiting Chapman AT ALL. Just telling you straight up, if we only sign one RB (which is what is being reported) it will be a HS stud that will be used to hopefully form a combo with Tate/Fannin in the FUTURE. You can almost guarentee that we wont ruin our chances on getting one of the Top 4-5 RB's on our board on a guy who will be here for what? 2 years? 237832[/snapback] Remember Rudi Johnson? He was a juco transfer.... All I'm sayin is that if we recruit this kid, it'll be another 2 seasons before we see him on the field. Let the freshmen/sophmores at that time learn something and let this guy and Tate run the show and we'll have plenty of depth for Tate and his senior year. I wouldn't worry about RB depth if I were you.... AU is known nationwide as RB University, there are kids SCREAMING to play for AU at the rb position. How do you think we got Tate? He basically recruited himself! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasTiger 12,961 Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 Auburn sent him a letter so their at least open to the idea. Tubbs signed Brandon Jacobs with Ronnie and Caddie coming back as Juniors. If the guy is the real deal, you take him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metafour 4,969 Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 Rudi Johnson was a totally different situation, when we recruited him we had no depth at RP nor did we even have a solid starter. Rudi was brought in to contribute from day one, which is what you get JUCO guys for. If Chatman isn't going to contribute right away then that defeats the point of signing a JUCO, might as well sign a HS kid who is: younger, will play for more years, and probably has more talent. I still say that we dont offer Chatman unless: a) He is an unreal talent, doesn't look like it. WE decide to take more than 1 RB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metafour 4,969 Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 I wouldn't worry about RB depth if I were you.... AU is known nationwide as RB University, there are kids SCREAMING to play for AU at the rb position. How do you think we got Tate? He basically recruited himself! 237834[/snapback] Obviously, we'll get our RB's, but to me its much more important to develop EXPERIENCED depth. Thing about it, if we sign say a Caleb King or Enrique Davis this year, we can have them redshirt their first year (when Tate and Lester are the 1 and 2 backs) and then step into the rotation as experienced players who have had time to develop physically. If we take a JUCO RB, he ends up graduating early (because he cant stay 4-5 years) and we end up relying on undeveloped freshmen kids. Whatever, I'm done with this...you dont build your team with JUCO signings, thats all I have to say. We're at a point now when we can STOCKPILE talent because we've garnered national attention, when we have the luxury to add to the FUTURE DEPTH of a position (like in this case RB) we should do it with stud HS kids, not JUCO guys who will not only make an impact for a short period of time, but who also have a high bust rate. Theres no problem with taking a JUCO guy when you need immediate help at a position (enter Greg Smith @ DT), but when you have the luxury of being able to recruit top-flight RB talent I dont see why we should be targetting JUCO guys at all, unless they are super-talents. Nothing against Chatman, but I'd easily take the top 3-5 HS prospects that we're currently targetting over him. They have the ability to not only help the team in the longrun (this way we have a CONSTANT stream of developed players taking over in the future) but they also have more potential. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vatz22au 142 Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 I wouldn't worry about RB depth if I were you.... AU is known nationwide as RB University, there are kids SCREAMING to play for AU at the rb position. How do you think we got Tate? He basically recruited himself! 237834[/snapback] Obviously, we'll get our RB's, but to me its much more important to develop EXPERIENCED depth. Thing about it, if we sign say a Caleb King or Enrique Davis this year, we can have them redshirt their first year (when Tate and Lester are the 1 and 2 backs) and then step into the rotation as experienced players who have had time to develop physically. If we take a JUCO RB, he ends up graduating early (because he cant stay 4-5 years) and we end up relying on undeveloped freshmen kids. Whatever, I'm done with this...you dont build your team with JUCO signings, thats all I have to say. We're at a point now when we can STOCKPILE talent because we've garnered national attention, when we have the luxury to add to the FUTURE DEPTH of a position (like in this case RB) we should do it with stud HS kids, not JUCO guys who will not only make an impact for a short period of time, but who also have a high bust rate. Theres no problem with taking a JUCO guy when you need immediate help at a position (enter Greg Smith @ DT), but when you have the luxury of being able to recruit top-flight RB talent I dont see why we should be targetting JUCO guys at all, unless they are super-talents. Nothing against Chatman, but I'd easily take the top 3-5 HS prospects that we're currently targetting over him. They have the ability to not only help the team in the longrun (this way we have a CONSTANT stream of developed players taking over in the future) but they also have more potential. 237851[/snapback] Well, I disagree... AU has always benefitted from alot of its JUCO transfers. Alot of other high profile teams also take use of recruiting in the JUCO leagues (LSU, USC, etc). I do see your point though and I do agree to some extent. But I guess all I'm saying is why choose one or the other if you can have both? If AU goes out and recruits a top JUCO back I dont think it'll have as much of an effect on the current recruits who want to play RB for AU. They know our history of great RBs and they also know the best RB will play, no matter if they are JUCO or a true freshman. Runningbacks across the board love that about AU. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcgufcm 4,107 Posted June 1, 2006 Share Posted June 1, 2006 i was also not disputing that the best way to build a consistent winner is through high school recruiting. what i, and i think vatz, was saying is that you take a talented high school guy AND this kid, give the high schooler MORE time to develop plus the added bonus of a guy that's ready to play when he gets here. auburn has had luck with juco guys at the running back spot (jacobs was recruited for depth and talent, rudi for a need... but our coaches admitted they didn't expect what they got) so i'm not against bringing in another. my prediction: one way or the other we bring in at least two running backs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKCAUB 0 Posted June 7, 2006 Share Posted June 7, 2006 There's always room for a juco or two...BUT they have to be really good! So I guess the bottom line is, we'll see. As usual, the coaches will make that call, and we will marvel at their brilliance if they do what we say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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