Making Sense of It All

First let me start by welcoming all of our new Auburn Tigers to the family. War Eagle ladies and gentlemen. Not only was today a banner day for our football program, other AU athletic endeavors signed new recruits today as well.

The official AU site has done me a huge favor and made a list of our new football players.

      Name               Pos.   Ht. 	 Wt. 	 Hometown (High School)
Will Adams          OT	  6-7	 280	 Tyrone, GA (Sandy Creek)
T.J. Davis 	    DB	  6-1	 180	 Tallahassee, FL (Godby)
Joshua Holsey	    DB	  5-11	 175	 Fairburn, GA (Creekside)
Darrion Hutcherson  TE	  6-7	 247	 Dadeville, AL (Dadeville)
Jonathan Jones	    DB	  5-10	 184	 Carrollton, GA (Carrollton)
Robert Leff         OL	  6-6	 270	 Fairhope, AL (Fairhope)
Ricardo Louis	    WR	  6-2	 210	 Miami Beach, FL (Miami Beach)
Cassanova McKinzy   LB	  6-3	 233	 Birmingham, AL (Woodlawn)
Tyler Nero	    DT	  6-2	 290	 Atmore, AL (Escambia County)
Ricky Parks	    TE	  6-4	 235	 Hogansville, GA (Callaway)
Gimel President	    DE	  6-4	 250	 Mt. Pleasant, SC (Wando)
Jovon Robinson	    RB	  6-1	 220	 Memphis, TN (Wooddale)
Jonathan Wallace    QB	  6-2	 205	 Phenix City, AL (Central)
JaQuay Williams	    WR	  6-4	 204	 Tyrone, GA (Sandy Creek)
Avery Young	    OT	  6-6	 292	 Palm Beach Gardens, FL (Palm Beach Gardens)
January Enrollees
Shane Callahan	    OL	  6-6    285	 Parker, CO (Chaparral)
Patrick Miller      OL    6-7    275     West Palm Beach, FL (Dwyer)
Javiere Mitchell    LB    6-2    209	 Leeds, AL (Leeds)
Zeke Pike	    QB    6-6    225     Edgewood, KY (Dixie Heights)
Jay Prosch          FB    6-0    250     Mobile, AL (UMS-Wright)
 

If you noticed there are 13 offensive players, and 7 defensive. The most glaring is the fact that only two are Linebackers. Auburn must make a push next season for a BIG linebacker class. To be fair, this was an unusual year, in that there were few quality LB's out there to be had. Auburn landing two 4* LB's can only be seen as a positive.

Offensive line depth improved leaps and bounds with this class. It should tell you that Jeff Grimes is one heckuva recruiter. That's three consecutive top 5 O line classes since Grimes arrived at AU.

On the opposite side of the ball, Tyler Nero earned high praise at the football camps during both the Under Armour game, and the Army All-American game. Looks like he may have started to peak and mature a little later, than some of the higher rated prospects. Auburn must have seen that coming. Kudos to Mike Pelton for knowing talent before most others did.

Two players that stand out to me are Jovon Robinson, and Joshua Holsey. Mark this day down, they will be special while playing at Auburn.

Overall, this is exactly the kind of class that Auburn needed. Our depth chart is starting to be filled with some high quality talent. It's Gene Chizik's third full class that he alone brought to the Plains. We will soon find out if Auburn is to remain among the best programs in the country.

Replacing both coordinators may cost us some games this year, especially early on, but when this group gets a handle on the new coaches game plans, AU will be a force in the SEC West.

Thanks to all who participated in the thread today, I had a blast.

WAR EAGLE!