It was two weeks till signing day, and all Auburn Twitter was stirring. Waiting to see what Santa Hugh would bring them in their stockings. This “What’s KrAUken” is going to not only update you on recruiting, but also prepare you weak-willed fans for what the next two weeks are like.
1. Let’s go ahead and address some things that could happen over the next couple of weeks. Don’t immediately freak out if a commit visits another school. It could be for leverage, or it could be bad, or it could mean absolutely nothing at all. These are kids, they will act like kids. So don’t go freaking out over every tweet, like, post, retweet, etc etc (looking at you, Perry flipping people).
2. Auburn will host many important players from both the portal and high school ranks. From the portal Michigan State DT Derrick Harmon will visit, Harmon was Top 5 in the Big Ten last season in stopping the run. Another big fella visiting is Southern Miss OL Gerquan Scott who most likely would play guard at Auburn. The final portal player visiting is Georgia State WR Robert Lewis.
Seth Wilfred, a OT from JUCO is taking his first visit to Auburn. He does not have a rank from some weird school issues, but the staff LOVES this kid.
Finally, for the BIG news, 5-star DL LJ McCray and 4-star DL Amaris Williams will be taking visits this weekend. LJ is a massive player to get back on campus, be on flip watch if it goes really well.
3. I asked around to get a feel of the staff’s strategy with the portal this season. This is the vibe I got: I don’t think Auburn is in the position to go empty the bank on the star players in the portal. By this I mean the ones that will take a million or two. Schools who have had multiple recruiting cycles to build talent and are stable can. Auburn will get there, but we are nowhere near that right now. It would be a bad investment to sacrifice other areas at this moment.
So, expect Auburn to continue to fill holes in the roster with experienced good players. Then maybe in a couple of years when the roster is up to par, Auburn can go after a homerun portal guy.
4. Finally, I would like to have this last part be an opinion piece based on talking to people close to staff the past couple months. This is about to be two really exciting weeks for the Auburn fanbase. I’ve been covering Auburn/working with Auburn since the Gus days and we have never had a staff this relentless on the recruiting trail. It’s new for fans, we are used to losing all these battles and now we are winning a lot of them. That’s why I don’t fully blame people worried about Perry flipping (even though I’m 99% sure he won’t). Maybe we will change for the better.
As I type this now, Coen Echols has decommitted from Texas A&M and trends towards the good guys. This staff never gives up and when Hugh wants a guy it just seems like he will not rest till he does. What I am getting at is please sit back and enjoy the ride. Don’t get too emotionally involved because I’m sure we will miss out on someone.
5. I’ll predict this recruiting class ends up Top 5. I could be dead wrong but that is my gut feeling.
