Deangelo Benton Cleared to Enroll for Summer

[TigerEyes1914 1]

According to the Bastrop Daily Enterprise, WR Deangelo Benton was awarded his college eligibility by the NCAA Clearinghouse. He will enroll at Auburn on May 18th for summer semester and he will wear the #5 jersey like he did in high school. One down...one to go! Come on Rollison!

http://www.bastropenterprise.com/sports/x1...AA?popular=true

[TitanTiger 20,499]

Woohoo!

[Hoopie 6]

The chance to go through summer workouts with the team and acclimate to life at AU prior to Fall camp = A Good Thing.

[WarTiger 3,912]

whoo hoo... nice that the ncaa clearinghouse actually moved quickly on this and didn't hold a decision until late august like they've known to do in the past.

[IndyTiger 3]

This is huge

[WAR-GIGEM-EAGLE 4]

According to the Bastrop Daily Enterprise, WR Deangelo Benton was awarded his college eligibility by the NCAA Clearinghouse. He will enroll at Auburn on May 18th for summer semester and he will wear the #5 jersey like he did in high school. One down...one to go! Come on Rollison!

http://www.bastropenterprise.com/sports/x1...AA?popular=true

Rollison posted on his facebook awhile back that he was going to qualify and be in Auburn this summer.

[IndyTiger 3]

According to the Bastrop Daily Enterprise, WR Deangelo Benton was awarded his college eligibility by the NCAA Clearinghouse. He will enroll at Auburn on May 18th for summer semester and he will wear the #5 jersey like he did in high school. One down...one to go! Come on Rollison!

http://www.bastropenterprise.com/sports/x1...AA?popular=true

Rollison posted on his facebook awhile back that he was going to qualify and be in Auburn this summer.

Anyone can say they will qualify. I believe he will, but it's not official until he gets cleared by the NCAA. Who knows maybe he already has and w just haven't heard.

[AUman43 5]

I'm excited..this could be our version of Julio. Finally some receivers!

[mcgufcm 4,107]

Good for him. Hope he gets here ready to work.

I have a question for people and this seems like the place to ask it. A LOT of people have been bagging on our receivers/old staff saying we didn't recruit top notch guys or didn't bring in top talent or that the guys on the roster are not big time receivers. I think I disagree with all of that.

If you look at the "ratings" for most of the receivers we have (or had last year), there are a lot of HUGE recruits. Tim Hawthorne (4th nationally), Chris Slaughter (13th nationally out of high school), Montez Billings (21st nationally), and Terrell Zachery (21st nationally) were all 4 star recruits, and guys that could've gone almost anywhere they wanted. In addition, we brought in guys like Pierre-Louis, QCarr, Harry and Darvin Adams that we fairly big time. On top of that, we brought in Tommy Trott who by all accounts was the best receiving TE in the nation that year (routinely referred to as a "big wideout").

So on a surface level, we brought in guys that everyone thought had talent. Now you could use that as a way to say that star ratings are a terrible predictor of success. I would go another way.

I would argue that we haven't had that many "busts" from that group. Slaughter never seemed happy here and left. Tommy doesn't have the speed or the hands people thought he did. That's where I draw the line. Why? First because guys develop at different paces. It took CT two years on campus to really contribute. Ben Obomanu went from "solid receiver" to "All-SEC big play receiver and clear NFL player" somewhere between the start of his Junior year and the beginning of his Senior year. Some guys show up ready (Aromashodu was, Ronney Daniels was), but most guys take time now matter how much talent they have.

So for most of those guys (Billings is the exception), we haven't seen their best seasons. I would also point to events that were completely out of anyone's control for Hawthorne (the guy I think is going to break out). The car wreck was bigger than football and cost him AT LEAST one full year of development from a mental perspective. No one can be blamed for that.

The other thing I see is the lack of QB play and a bad system. The "big four" developed right alongside Jason Campbell. They brought out the best of them, and he could make every throw. So they had a chance to show everything they could do. The same cannot be said for these guys. We'd never know if one of them was a big-play field stretching receiver because Cox got so beaten up as a Junior that it basically ruined his Senior year as well. He never took shots deep. Then we bring in a "system" that never gets more than 10-15 yards downfield. We could have Frank Sanders on the sideline and it wouldn't matter. We wouldn't throw downfield. So the QB play (particularly the lack of arm strength/unwillingness to take the ball downfield by Cox and Todd) along with the Franklin System has limited our knowledge of what we have on the outside.

Moral of the this long diatribe? I think the old staff caught some bad breaks on a few big time talents (Slaughter, Trott, Hawthorne). I think our QB play/playcalling has inhibited our receivers. I think most of those guys are on the cusp of their best seasons (Jr/Sr years). I think the receivers are going to break out and everyone (erroneously) will say "this staff got it out of them when the old one couldn't." I think these guys were ready to break one way or the other, but I'm really excited to see them in a system that goes downfield and attempts a variety of routes/throws.

[rebdawg 5]

Good for him. Hope he gets here ready to work.

I have a question for people and this seems like the place to ask it. A LOT of people have been bagging on our receivers/old staff saying we didn't recruit top notch guys or didn't bring in top talent or that the guys on the roster are not big time receivers. I think I disagree with all of that.

If you look at the "ratings" for most of the receivers we have (or had last year), there are a lot of HUGE recruits. Tim Hawthorne (4th nationally), Chris Slaughter (13th nationally out of high school), Montez Billings (21st nationally), and Terrell Zachery (21st nationally) were all 4 star recruits, and guys that could've gone almost anywhere they wanted. In addition, we brought in guys like Pierre-Louis, QCarr, Harry and Darvin Adams that we fairly big time. On top of that, we brought in Tommy Trott who by all accounts was the best receiving TE in the nation that year (routinely referred to as a "big wideout").

So on a surface level, we brought in guys that everyone thought had talent. Now you could use that as a way to say that star ratings are a terrible predictor of success. I would go another way.

I would argue that we haven't had that many "busts" from that group. Slaughter never seemed happy here and left. Tommy doesn't have the speed or the hands people thought he did. That's where I draw the line. Why? First because guys develop at different paces. It took CT two years on campus to really contribute. Ben Obomanu went from "solid receiver" to "All-SEC big play receiver and clear NFL player" somewhere between the start of his Junior year and the beginning of his Senior year. Some guys show up ready (Aromashodu was, Ronney Daniels was), but most guys take time now matter how much talent they have.

So for most of those guys (Billings is the exception), we haven't seen their best seasons. I would also point to events that were completely out of anyone's control for Hawthorne (the guy I think is going to break out). The car wreck was bigger than football and cost him AT LEAST one full year of development from a mental perspective. No one can be blamed for that.

The other thing I see is the lack of QB play and a bad system. The "big four" developed right alongside Jason Campbell. They brought out the best of them, and he could make every throw. So they had a chance to show everything they could do. The same cannot be said for these guys. We'd never know if one of them was a big-play field stretching receiver because Cox got so beaten up as a Junior that it basically ruined his Senior year as well. He never took shots deep. Then we bring in a "system" that never gets more than 10-15 yards downfield. We could have Frank Sanders on the sideline and it wouldn't matter. We wouldn't throw downfield. So the QB play (particularly the lack of arm strength/unwillingness to take the ball downfield by Cox and Todd) along with the Franklin System has limited our knowledge of what we have on the outside.

Moral of the this long diatribe? I think the old staff caught some bad breaks on a few big time talents (Slaughter, Trott, Hawthorne). I think our QB play/playcalling has inhibited our receivers. I think most of those guys are on the cusp of their best seasons (Jr/Sr years). I think the receivers are going to break out and everyone (erroneously) will say "this staff got it out of them when the old one couldn't." I think these guys were ready to break one way or the other, but I'm really excited to see them in a system that goes downfield and attempts a variety of routes/throws.

You left out the biggest factor. We went without ANY coaching of the receivers for a decade. Most receivers came in better receivers than when they left.

[mcgufcm 4,107]

They really, really didn't. CT, Ben, Mix, McIntyre, Smith, and Cooper Wallace all left here MUCH better than when they showed up.

[rebdawg 5]

They really, really didn't. CT, Ben, Mix, McIntyre, Smith, and Cooper Wallace all left here MUCH better than when they showed up.

Sure wasn't because of coaching. You've named six receivers in 10 years. What's that 6 out of 70 that actually got better? And none of them left as good as they could have been after four or five years at a major college. I would take Mix off that list. He was a much better player coming out of Bay Minette than he was his senior year. If Ben or CT go to, say, UTK or Georgia then they are top 10 picks. Greg Knox .

[jptiger 481]

WAR EAGLE!!!!

[Ryan Sanders 123]

They really, really didn't. CT, Ben, Mix, McIntyre, Smith, and Cooper Wallace all left here MUCH better than when they showed up.

Sure wasn't because of coaching. You've named six receivers in 10 years. What's that 6 out of 70 that actually got better? And none of them left as good as they could have been after four or five years at a major college. I would take Mix off that list. He was a much better player coming out of Bay Minette than he was his senior year. If Ben or CT go to, say, UTK or Georgia then they are top 10 picks. Greg Knox .

Are you serious? Mix was really good... and thats against SEC defenses. He might have been great in highschool, but thats comparing apples to oranges when your trying to say that he was better in highschool than he was when he left Auburn for the NFL!

[WDE4 0]

They really, really didn't. CT, Ben, Mix, McIntyre, Smith, and Cooper Wallace all left here MUCH better than when they showed up.

Wasn't it CT that said he learned more in 1 week at the senior bowl than he did in 4 years from you know who. I know that one of our primary receivers in the last 5 years made that statement. I already knew CGK and knew that he sucked but that solidified it for me.

[WarTim 3,456]

I'm excited..this could be our version of Julio. Finally some receivers!

I hope AU's "version" has more class and is a better pass catcher.

[WarTiger 3,912]

I'm excited..this could be our version of Julio. Finally some receivers!

I hope AU's "version" has more class and is a better pass catcher.

and doesn't show up with a new vehicle....

[AU Cav 0]

I'm excited..this could be our version of Julio. Finally some receivers!

I hope AU's "version" has more class and is a better pass catcher.

and doesn't show up with a new vehicle....

Or in court wearing gear from another school...