Ricardo Louis has decided to open his rescind on his commitment to Florida State, after a recent visit from Scot Loeffler (new Auburn OC), Trooper Taylor and Gene Chizik. It appears that Auburn is absolutely in the driver's seat for this one. Jimbo Fisher will have an in house visit with Louis on friday to try to sway him back, but I believe that his relationship with Trooper Taylor will get Louis to recommit to Auburn and sign on NSD with Auburn.
He might be announcing his commitment on ESPN on Wednesday, NSD.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Friday, January 20, 2012
Countdown to Signing Day (1/20)
Well well well, here we are again. Another signing day and another potentially huge close the Chizik and Co..... but there's more! This could also be the first time that this staff has essentially fallen on their faces on NSD and get "left at the altar" so to speak.
Never, since I've followed recruiting for 5-6 years, have I seen Auburn have this many big fish left on the board AND the space available to take them all! That is a fun, yet dangerous, game to play. We'll get to the list of guys at the end.
The Hurdles
Now, we've had our share of tough breaks on the recruiting trail this year that has hindered Auburn at least a little bit from taking advantage of the proverbial "National Championship bump". It's my personal theory that the enhanced social media cycle actually has advanced so far that the National Championships actually now pay off THAT year (2011 class) as opposed to the next year like it used to. Most kids have completely forgotten that Auburn had won the title because a year ago might as well be 10 years ago to an 18 year old. Anyways, that's my theory on the bump.
In addition to my theory, we also lost both our offensive and defensive coordinators. In my opinion we've done a fantastic job of keeping everyone on board that was actually planning to come to Auburn (Yeldon was always going to Bama), other than the recent decommitment of Ricardo Louis (which I'll address as well). Those relationships that the coordinators formed with the recruits and the uncertainty it causes makes it tough on the long-time commits to Auburn, but we've kept most of them and had a VERY good start to recruiting this year, which was different than usual.
We didn't have an OC for 40 days, but it's better to make the right hire than make the wrong and easy hire to save a recruit or two. Ricardo Louis was just a casualty of Auburn and Chizik being unwilling to settle on a decent hire and swing for the fences, in my opinion. As a result of making a successful hire, it appears that Auburn has a better than average chance of getting Louis BACK on board with the 2012 Auburn signing class. Multiple places have confirmed there's at least a chance.
Finally the NCAA stuff gave other staffs more ammo to negatively recruit against Auburn while it was out there. Thank God that the NCAA decided to publicly exonerate Auburn of any wrongdoing so we could get out from under that shadow!
The Potential positive
Now, Auburn did a phenomenal job with the hiring of Coach Brian VanGorder, former DC of the Atlanta Falcons and former Broyles Award winner as the DC at UGA. He is as brilliant of a defensive mind as you'll find, and yes that includes Saban, and will make the transition to a more balanced pro-spread offense that much easier. This was huge because many of the guys left on our board are defensive guys, and it's pretty obvious we could use a great talent infusion into our defensive roster.
The list of guys that our final 9 could potentially come from is:
5*WR- Stefon Diggs
5*WR- Cordarelle Patterson
4*WR- Ricardo Louis
4/5*OT- Avery Young
4/5*OT- Jordan Diamond
4* OT- Menelik Watson (JUCO)
5*DT- Eddie Goldman
4*DL- Leonard Williams
4*LB- Kwon Alexander
4/5*DB- Ronald Darby
4*DB- Deon Bush
3*DB- Jordan Moore
4/5*ATH- Arik Armstead
In case you didn't know, that's a TON of talent left on the board, but the issue is that we're not the only team(s) that feel good about these guys. Usually AU fans know more than likely who we're gonna get and who is a legitimate longshot. This year is different. We could absolutely close with NINE off of that list and it would propel us right up to the top 5 of every site out there and provide us with a HUGE influx of talent......BUT, we could also lose on all but 1-2 of those guys and be very, very disappointed with how we close. Then we have to be hopeful on our plan B guys......
But ya know what, lost in the potential meltdown of closing worse than we're accustomed to would be a very solid class based on all of the things I listed above. Even if we only get 2 off of that list we'll have 10-12 four star or better prospects in this class and will put us somewhere in the top 15. That's hardly reason to panic, and with better coaching on defense and maybe even offense, the future is bright no matter how we finish!
WDE!
Never, since I've followed recruiting for 5-6 years, have I seen Auburn have this many big fish left on the board AND the space available to take them all! That is a fun, yet dangerous, game to play. We'll get to the list of guys at the end.
The Hurdles
Now, we've had our share of tough breaks on the recruiting trail this year that has hindered Auburn at least a little bit from taking advantage of the proverbial "National Championship bump". It's my personal theory that the enhanced social media cycle actually has advanced so far that the National Championships actually now pay off THAT year (2011 class) as opposed to the next year like it used to. Most kids have completely forgotten that Auburn had won the title because a year ago might as well be 10 years ago to an 18 year old. Anyways, that's my theory on the bump.
In addition to my theory, we also lost both our offensive and defensive coordinators. In my opinion we've done a fantastic job of keeping everyone on board that was actually planning to come to Auburn (Yeldon was always going to Bama), other than the recent decommitment of Ricardo Louis (which I'll address as well). Those relationships that the coordinators formed with the recruits and the uncertainty it causes makes it tough on the long-time commits to Auburn, but we've kept most of them and had a VERY good start to recruiting this year, which was different than usual.
We didn't have an OC for 40 days, but it's better to make the right hire than make the wrong and easy hire to save a recruit or two. Ricardo Louis was just a casualty of Auburn and Chizik being unwilling to settle on a decent hire and swing for the fences, in my opinion. As a result of making a successful hire, it appears that Auburn has a better than average chance of getting Louis BACK on board with the 2012 Auburn signing class. Multiple places have confirmed there's at least a chance.
Finally the NCAA stuff gave other staffs more ammo to negatively recruit against Auburn while it was out there. Thank God that the NCAA decided to publicly exonerate Auburn of any wrongdoing so we could get out from under that shadow!
The Potential positive
Now, Auburn did a phenomenal job with the hiring of Coach Brian VanGorder, former DC of the Atlanta Falcons and former Broyles Award winner as the DC at UGA. He is as brilliant of a defensive mind as you'll find, and yes that includes Saban, and will make the transition to a more balanced pro-spread offense that much easier. This was huge because many of the guys left on our board are defensive guys, and it's pretty obvious we could use a great talent infusion into our defensive roster.
The list of guys that our final 9 could potentially come from is:
5*WR- Stefon Diggs
5*WR- Cordarelle Patterson
4*WR- Ricardo Louis
4/5*OT- Avery Young
4/5*OT- Jordan Diamond
4* OT- Menelik Watson (JUCO)
5*DT- Eddie Goldman
4*DL- Leonard Williams
4*LB- Kwon Alexander
4/5*DB- Ronald Darby
4*DB- Deon Bush
3*DB- Jordan Moore
4/5*ATH- Arik Armstead
In case you didn't know, that's a TON of talent left on the board, but the issue is that we're not the only team(s) that feel good about these guys. Usually AU fans know more than likely who we're gonna get and who is a legitimate longshot. This year is different. We could absolutely close with NINE off of that list and it would propel us right up to the top 5 of every site out there and provide us with a HUGE influx of talent......BUT, we could also lose on all but 1-2 of those guys and be very, very disappointed with how we close. Then we have to be hopeful on our plan B guys......
But ya know what, lost in the potential meltdown of closing worse than we're accustomed to would be a very solid class based on all of the things I listed above. Even if we only get 2 off of that list we'll have 10-12 four star or better prospects in this class and will put us somewhere in the top 15. That's hardly reason to panic, and with better coaching on defense and maybe even offense, the future is bright no matter how we finish!
WDE!
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