Mark Murphy is the writer for ITAT...Auburn's Scout site. These are his notes that he emailed me and some friends from the talk Mark gave. There have been a couple variations passed around from other people who attended and you guys and gals have probably heard most of it but I just thought I would pass along the info. Enjoy and WAR DAMN EAGLE.

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MARK MURPHY TALKS AU 2010 CLASS IN ATLANTA 2/5/10

* Shon Coleman ? Don’t believe everything you’ve heard. He was taking every single visit for a good reason. He was not sold on us and honestly probably still isn’t. He didn’t decide until midnight the day before signing day. Credit Jake Holland’s mom with the assist for this one. She made calls late to Coleman’s mom and Coleman’s mom basically told her son where he was going to go. Truth be told, he didn’t seem overly happy to be here… Its happened before, though. Some kids don’t fall in love with their school until they’ve been in the system a little while.

* Tunde Fariyike ? Started playing football very late. Dad did NOT want him playing college football at all. He was an obstacle in his recruitment for a while. Coaches had to keep working on him. Dad wanted him at an academic school concentrating on academics only. Duke was mentioned as his dad’s favorite. But once Tunde stepped foot on campus…saw the girls….it was over! He stood up for himself and told dad, “It’s decided and over. I’m going to Auburn!” Haa!

* Antonio Goodwin - Had Trooper Taylor extremely anxious over his commitment. He’s a hard guy to get a hold of because he couldn’t afford a cell. We didn’t have contact with him for days at a time and we never felt 100% until his signature came in. Georgia was always a huge player here. Apparently Troop went nuts when his letter came through. He likes his ability a ton and worked on him a lot.

* LaDarius Owens ? Was singled out as the one most influential player recruiting other players for this year’s class. Jake Holland was, too. But apparently Owens takes the award here.

* Trovon Reed ? Has been 100% to Auburn for a very long time. No question about his commitment. His announcement on his mother’s birthday was for a reason. He was solid! He was asked by Jason Caldwell at one point to describe the pressure he was going through from LA fans and he just said, “Well, sometimes you just gotta have some balls and do what you want to do” They like his mental toughness. He’s not afraid .… His high school coach was blatantly pressing him to go to LSU. Murphy said it was the most egregious display of pressure he had ever seen.

* Jeremy Richardson ? Incredibly sad story here. Apparently he’s lost his mom, dad, and one of his grandparents in just the last six months. Heard he is a great kid. Comes from absolutely nothing. Dirt poor. But Troop has made a promise among his circle of friends that he will take care of him on a very personal level. Even his wife has made the same commitment. Troop is saying he will take him into his own family if he has to. Mark Murphy seemed to choke up from talking about him. Sounds like a tough situation, but he should be ok at AU…provided he makes his grades. I believe he’s in a little bit of trouble there but working hard.

* Ed Christian ? Extremely mean son of a B***h!! And we love it!

* Jeffrey Whitaker ? Rock wanted this kid extremely BAD. Lemonier , too actually. Rock told Murphy that he doesn’t beg much but he begged Whitaker. And he begged Lemonier. He said you guys have no idea how BADLY we need you right now. Guess it worked. Whitaker is a character. Probably the best for sound bites in the class. He’s very smart. Natural leader. Can challenge very soon.

* Rozell Gayden ? Monster. Chizik desperately flew to Minnesota (where he’s actually from) to get there before he made a commitment to Cal. They had a terrible blizzard at the time and other coaches flights were cancelled. Chiz told the airline to just get him close and he’d drive the rest of the way. That’s what he had to do. He thinks that being there last among all the others may have made made the difference.

* Cameron Newton - Story here is just a little surprising. When asked if he’d be the man this year Mark said he “could” be. No definite. He did say he’s a gym freak. He’s bigger than listed. He’s always trying to get kids out to throw and catch. Malzahn has a man crush on him. He loves what he can do at the position but accuracy will be the main key. He’s a natural leader. Kids like him. But when asked which QB Mark Murphy liked he said Trotter. He said Trotter was smart. Could make plays with his legs and was accurate. Wanted all to remember he almost had the red shirt taken off him mid season. It was only his knee injury that held him back. Malzahn likes Trotter a lot, too. Tyrik is out of the dog house now. He sat for issues with going to class and not taking his business on the field seriously enough. Seems to be back on track now, though. Just needs to grow up a little.

* Jake Holland ? Thinks he could be the backup this year. Smart kid with great instincts. Heavy recruiter this year as all know. He comes from money so he would grab less fortunate signees and bring them down for visits. He did this for Jeremy Richardson a number of times. He was instrumental in getting these kids bonding early. His dad “The 90” was actually a bama football player. He turned on the tide when they showed no interest in him early like AU did. The 90 loves this staff and lets everyone he comes in contact with know what’s going on here. He’s going to be great for program building for 4-5 years.

* Cory Lemonier ? Coaches sweated this one til the last min, too. They promised him they would not sign another DE in the early going and then took Bonomolo. It just took staying with him and convincing. He’s another very smart kid. He was promised by FSU that he would play immediately and possibly start. Auburn told him they loved him but he’d have to compete just like everyone out there. He didn’t buy FSU’s $**t so here he sits with us.

* Lattimore- Truth be told, if it weren’t for Latt’s mom and Colemon’s mom, Shon would NOT be here and Lattimore would be. Mark Murphy knew he was a SC commit when he texted him the day before to find out if he should come in town to do a story and he got no response. He was always good about getting back to him within 30 min. Just not this time. He dodged the question. His heart really was with AU but his mom and Spurrier pressed him. He’s a super kid. No foul play…everything was straight up.

* Lache ? Hinted that it was true that some kids didn’t think his personality was fitting in. Coaches backed off of him, not the other way around. His heart was with AU but it just wasn’t going to be.

* Coach Thig ? One of the best coach personalities around. Bad ass recruiter. Maybe the best we’ve got to send in to any kid’s house. And that’s taking nothing away from the others.

* Funnny story about Troop & Loop (may have heard already) ? Luper said that even though they lived together for 5 months, he still had never seen him sleep. He said he’d get up at 3am for a glass of water and Troop would be up on the couch watching nat geo screaming, “man you seen these damn hump back whales?? “ Or he’d get up a 5am to work out and he’d already be up. He’s just got a freakish motor.

* Said our best recruiters were Troop, Luper, Thig, and Grimes (surprisingly to me)

** The story about Trovon Reed driving to Miss to fax his LOI was totally fabricated by the Inside the AU tigers staff just as in internal joke. Somehow it got out to local papers, like stories sometimes do. Murphy said, “I understand how the local and state journalists could have gotten it, but I never knew Sports Illustrated listened in on Inside the AU Tigers staff” …haa! Just patting themselves on the back a little with that joke. But SI did actually pick it up and run with it.

**Chizik’s comment about Michael Dyer and his practical joke was true. Dyer did call in the day before signing day to tell them he had a change of heart and was switching his commitment to another school. He's dead now, I bet. He'll be in the early morning workout group for a year...haa!

** Luper said expect another “Big Cat Weekend” this year and another “Tiger Prowl”….but they've got something else in mind to add this year. It’s not complete in details, but we can expect another similar original splash. Some of their ideas have to be tested well for Chiz to put it in motion but he is completely on board with all the creative recruiting. Don’t expect that to change at all.

** We should be somewhat worried about losing Malzahn when his time comes. He does want to be a head coach, BUT… he wants to go somewhere he can succeed. He’s ok with being patient and working his tail off here. Louisiana Tech was just one of those places he felt he could not succeed , so that was never a legit concern. Should he start getting real offers, he will most likely listen.

** Luper thinks Dyer is an absolute stud. Some think he's a good, solid back but Luper says he knows what makes a great running back and he's got it. He loves his durability. He said his thighs are massive, much like Rudi Johnson's were. Luper loves his ability to make the first guy miss and his ability to break tackles. Murphy said he should actually push for the starting role this year...whether he gets it or not is tough, but expectations will be high for him. -- One guy asked about "throw in's" in recruiting and how they worked. Murphy actually named a few in distant classes. Then he asked if Mosely was a Dyer throw in. I personally think he is just a little even though he has some talent. Murphy said "No, Mosely has his own set of skills, even though they don't know where they actually fit in yet."

** DJ Howard - Definitely was watching closely to see what happened with our recruitment of others. And it's understood. What happened here is that once he made his Clemson visit Auburn told him no more visits. It's getting too close to crunch time. He took a trip to Kentucky anyway after he promised not to visit anyone. Once he returned and AU got word that was it. We wouldn't promise him a scholly anymore. For days leading up to signing day, Howard called coaches frequently...actually begging for a spot back. We had already moved on. Ryan Smith got his scholly. Which works out better for us in Murphy's mind. Howard is a good RB but Smith is a better safety than Howard is a RB to Murphy. Higher need for his position as well.

** Aaron Savage - looks great right now. His problem has been that he actually goes too hard. He's a bit of a head hunter and needs to just make the tackle sometimes and not try to put their lights out. So far so good in that department. El Torro is in the exact same boat. But he's maturing as a person and as a player. Expect better things out of him to come

** Mike McNeil - Will actually push Bates pretty hard for that starting spot. Murphy thinks the competition is a very good thing. Everyone in the room laughed when the thought of Bates not starting was posed. But Murphy says just wait and see. It will depend on Bates improvement from year 1-2 because McNeil is pretty damn good. Will be one of the best battles in the spring and fun to watch in his opinion.

** This is one of the most unique classes in a little while. We could field two teams, Offense & Defense, with all these guys. They're calling it the Noah's Ark of signing classes. There is basically two of everything, then throw in a punter, kicker, and long snapper. So many guys can play more than one position very well and have. EX- Trovon Reed is getting enough attention as a DB that many are saying his highest potential lies there. Troop isn't going to give him up that easily though. He promised him he would have the chance to be explosive in this "O" because we can use him on the end-arounds, wildcat, slot, wide, etc.... But to repeat, this class is different because of so much versatility. Even with the line guys. One of the most impressive factors is how smart so many of these kids are. There's a low level of incompetency in this bunch. It's also full of leaders. And with the way so many have already bonded by spending time together, look for this class to set the example for how classes are to work and act in the future.