New faces abound for Auburn

AUBURN — A number of the highly touted prospects who may sign with Auburn today were by no means on the radar under Tommy Tuberville’s watch.

Most might have been considered total longshots, especially after the Tigers’ 5-7 2008 season, which resulted in a complete overhaul of the program. That, of course, included Tuberville, who will be analyzing other schools’ recruiting classes today on ESPN instead of sweating out one of his own.

But new coach Gene Chizik said recently he doesn’t think of any one player in the entire country as an unrealistic snag.

“We’re at Auburn. I think that says it all,” Chizik told the Montgomery Advertiser last Thursday after a meeting with members of the Alabama Football Coaches Association in the capital city.

“We’re going after the best in the country — no matter when, what, where, how. That’s how we’re going to do it. We’re going to work really hard to try to get that done every year — including this one.”

That work has already paid dividends for the list of commitments Auburn expects to fax in their National Letters of Intent throughout today — National Signing Day.

“With these players that were committed to other schools or the high profile national-type recruits, it is a good sign that this staff is going to recruit very well nationally,” said Bryan Matthews, recruiting expert and publisher of AuburnSports.com.

Auburn’s list of commits heading into today stands at 26 when counting Daphne quarterback/athlete Robert Cooper, who said Tuesday he will accept Auburn’s offer to grayshirt next year, according to AuburnSports.com. He will not enroll until January and will not be allowed to participate in football-related activities until then.

Before Tuberville’s resignation, Auburn’s list of commits was also at 26, but that number dropped to as low as 19 and has fluctuated up and down.

Some of the players to commit in the past month were previously recruited by Tuberville’s staff, but players such as four-star quarterback Tyrik Rollison and three-star defensive end Nosa Eguae emerged and committed abruptly thanks to connections made by Auburn’s new assistant coaches at their former employers.

Even if none of the on-the-fence recruits choose Auburn today, it won’t be considered as devastating as last year’s Signing Day shutout.
Auburn went 0-for-6 with prospects who were still considering the Tigers on last year’s Signing Day, all of which were pursued much longer than this year’s crop.

“I don’t think there is any doubt that these guys have hit the ground running in the past month,” Matthews said. “They’ve made tremendous ground on guys that weren’t mentioning Auburn even a few weeks ago.”