Talk about a polar opposite of defense so far, for the most part.
Our offensive recruiting class so far absolutely rivals any 2012 offensive class out there. It has all of the symptoms of another elite group.
It has an elite triggerman in Ky. QB Zeke Pike, who made the Elite 11 recently, which was particularly impressive considering his skillset and "rawness" don't really translate to the "wow" factor in 7 on 7 or t-shirt and shorts summer football world. He has an insane amount of upside as a QB, and given a year to redshirt and work on his mechanics and learn the speed of the game, he could be special taking over after Kiehl Frazier has done his work at Auburn.
Running back.....WOW. Jovon Robinson, beast. Plain and simple. He's a premier every down type of running back that any pro-style offense would dream of. He's 6'1, 215-220 lbs and is grown man strong and has incredible cutting ability for a kid of his size. He was one of the very first guys that Alabama offered last year for the 2012 class, but grade concerns scared some teams off. He's fine in that department so it looks like any team that passed on him, he'll make pay later. Now on to TJ Yeldon. Plain and simple, he's the most dynamic back with the most upside in the 2012 class. Period. He's 6'2, 205 lbs with enough speed, great cutting and elusiveness, and the best set of hands that one particular analyst for Rivals had ever seen on a running back. He's in contention to receive a 5th star from Rivals during either their November evaluation (they will see him next month at Daphne) or during their final update after seeing him at the Army All American game and practices. With Dyer, McCalebb, Tre Mason, Mike Blakely, and Corey Grant (all 4 or 5*) all currently on campus, I don't think I will have ever seen a team with this much talent at RB (maybe someone could move to defense??) outside of maybe one of the USC groups in the mid 2000s.
Moving on to Wide Receiver.
Jaquay Williams is a monster. He's very quick out of his breaks and really "picks" the ball out of the air using his big hands. Jaquay didn't do much of the camps and 7 on 7s this summer, but at the one he did, he dominated DBs such as, Alabama commit, Geno Smith. Rivals is going to watch him friday night and if he has another night like he's been having all year, he should move back into the Rivals100.
Ricardo Louis is just an all around athlete. He needs to work on catching the ball better if he is to become a real contributor and stay on the offensive side of the ball. But, he's an incredible talent and one of the better overall athletes in the class.
Regarding who we pickup, I don't think we HAVE to take anymore WR, BUT I feel that we're in very, very good shape to land 5* Stefon Diggs from Maryland. Other possibilities are #1 overall JUCO prospect, WR Cordarelle Patterson, who is taking an OV to Auburn this weekend, and #1 overall HS prospect WR Dorial Green-Beckham. DGB is a longshot and recently released a top 5 that did NOT include Auburn, which surprised many AU fans considering most of the info we've heard was that he had informed our staff that we're getting an Official visit. We'll see how that plays out shortly I'm sure...
UPDATE: JC Shurbutt of 247sports did confirm to me just now that DGB does, in fact, have Auburn in his top 5 and we will receive an official visit from him!
Darrion Hutcherson and Ricky Parks make up the best TE duo of any 2012 class as well. Hutcherson has unlimited potential trapped in a rare 6'7, 245 lb frame. He could project a number of different positions. Ricky Parks plays QB for his HS at 6'3, 245 lbs, but he will likely play H-Back and TE/slot WR at Auburn. He is another guy that I'd consider as one of the premier pure "athletes" in the 2012 class. It would even shock me if Parks somehow ended up playing LB with his incredible blend of size and speed. His hands are so good though. He is another guy that fell out of the R100 recently, but only because he hadn't been re-evaluated. He is a top100 talent though.
Now to the trenches. Some believe that the OL is one of the bigger needs on the team. I'm not really in agreement of that. We have our LT of the future in Greg Robinson, a potential RT replacement for Brandon Moseley in either Chad Slade or Christian Westerman (whoever isn't RT will play OG), a TrFR Center in Reese Dismukes, and Eric Mack has a bright future as a current RsFR at OG. So, we're set for a good while on the OL. We do need depth though. Shane Callahan is vastly underrated and play with anger and has incredible work ethic. You can watch his workouts on YouTube, it's sick. Then we picked up some immediate depth with the top JUCO lineman in the 2012 class, OT Will Latu, who was a verbal to West Va. until Auburn came in and took him! Other than those, Auburn is in great shape to land Vadal Alexander at OG or OT and could also land DJ Reader and/or Matt Cochran (OG/C). Auburn will hold a spot on the OL for the likes of 5* Andrus Peat, Joshua Garnett, Avery Young, Jordan Diamond, and Ronnie Stanley. I think we will land 1 from that group along with Alexander and Cochran to round out our OL class.
All in all, we'll have (yet again) one of the most impressive Offensive classes in the country, which isn't unusual for this staff. On the brighter side, our 2013 class already is shaping up to be one that could be loaded, defensively for a change, which we be a nice change of pace and much needed.
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