‘Cruits on campus—the last episode

Cue the bassoons, Jeeves.

Nigel, let’s get that oboe section ready.

And please, William, don’t be shy on the high notes. John Bull loves him some sharp-sounding trumpets.

It’s a big weekend here on the Auburn ‘cruitin’ trail—the last official weekend of on-campus wooing, schmoozing and hefty dining before National Signing Day.

Looking at this weekend’s expected cluster of visitors, Mr. Bull and Gene Chizik share a similar philosophy in their respective recruiting efforts. They only want the finest prospective Division I college tackle football players in the country. Well, Mr. Bull wanted soldiers, but we heard his battalions had a mean 8-man team in between battles.

As has been the case throughout this time of heavy recruiting, which we are told never stops, our subscriptions to the trifecta of Auburn recruiting sites have helped us scrap together this list of 12 prospective Auburn tackle football players who will be on or around the Plain this weekend.

First, here are those fine Web sites. AuburnSports.com, AuburnUndercover.com and AUtigers.com. Again, they do this much better than us. Sources tell us that Mr. Bull very much appreciates the work they do, also. 

That means a lot.

On to the list!

- Reuben Randle – WR – 5-star - Bastrop (La.): Uncommitted, but flirting with all the big fish, particularly LSU and Alabama. It’d be a shock to the proverbial recruiting world if he sided with the Tigers of Auburn.
- David Oku – RB – 4-star – Midwest City (Okla.): Committed to Tennessee. Pretty much everyone wants this guy, too.
- Aubrey Phillips – OL – 4-star – Olive Branch (Miss.): Also committed to Tennessee, but it’s of the “soft” variety. Had a teammate commit to Auburn yesterday. Keep reading to learn his name.
- Johnnie Farms – OL – 4-star – Perry (Ga.): Committed to North Carolina, but has shown heavy interest in Auburn throughout the recruiting process.
- Taikwon Paige – DB – 4-star – Milledgeville (Ga.) Military College: Uncommitted and showing heavy interest in Auburn, though he does not have an offer from Chizik yet. UAB is also high on his list.
- Corey Gaines – DT – 4-star – Tallahassee (Fla.): Uncommitted and the beneficiary of a number of offers from big schools, including Auburn.
- Clint Moseley – QB – 3-star – Leroy: Committed to Auburn. Alabama’s Mr. Football will likely redshirt next year.
- Nick Fairley – DT – 3-star – Wesson (Miss.) Copiah-Lincoln C.C. (formerly a Mobile product): Committed to Auburn, but was unable to enroll for winter semester.
- Greg King – LB – 3-star – Memphis (Tenn.): Uncommitted with offers from a number of schools, including Auburn.
- Daren Bates – S – 2-star – Olive Branch (Miss.): Committed to Auburn yesterday, bringing the total up to 24.
- Mike Eargle – ATH – 0-star - Scranton (Pa.) Lackawanna C.C.: Uncommitted
- Charlie Knipper – DS – 0-star - Whitefish Bay (Wisc.): Uncommitted with no offers. Considered one of the top deep snappers on the marker.

It’s Wrasslin’ Time

The Auburn High Fieldhouse is hosting the Class 6A-Section 1 wrestling tournament tonight and tomorrow. Eleven teams (Auburn, Opelika, Smiths Station, Central, Benjamin Russell, Lee-Montgomery, Prattville, Jeff Davis, Stanhope Elmore, Russell County and Wetumpka) will be there. But no Mickey Rourke.

The top four in each weight class move on to the state tournament in Huntsville on Feb. 5-7. The others…well…they don’t. As Auburn High coach Ross Reed said: “There’s going to be a lot of desperate wrestling this weekend.“

The sectionals start tonight at 6 p.m. and continue Saturday morning at 9, with the finals starting around 3 p.m. Read more about the tournament here.

Of note: Prattville’s Hayden Countryman will be there and he is a beast at 152 pounds. He comes from a long line of wrestling Countrymen, has won four straight state titles and has signed to wrestle at Virginia Tech next season. I imagine most of his matches will be over in a matter of seconds, not rounds.

That’s Auburn’s Michael Jordan tossing around Opelika’s Austin Baker at the top of the page. Jordan’s the top seed at 112 pounds and qualified for states last year. But, at about 5’4”, I don’t think he’ll be doing any of this anytime soon.

Photo credit: Vasha Hunt/Opelika-Auburn News

House cleaning

As you may have seen already, esteemed new preps reporter David Morrison is as disheartened by my scooping him on the hiring of Auburn High athletic director Clay McCall as he will be when my Braves outpace his Marlins for third in the NL East this year.

Outside of that, I don’t have as much to report as I initially planned. Big post coming Sunday or Monday. I promise this time. In a wedding this weekend, so no more fantastic reporting from your desker extraordinaire.

Auburn finds a new AD…no, not that Auburn

Amazing what happens when you hang around the Atlanta Braves.

Tim Cottrell, the one-stop desk and page design shop of the Opelika-Auburn News, doesn’t get out of the office much. But when he does, he’s a scoop magnet.

Tim was hanging around at Auburn High during the Braves visit today when he offhandedly asked departing athletic director Chuck Furlow, who is retiring at the end of this school year, if the school had found his replacement yet.

Turns out they had. About two weeks ago.

Clay McCall, a former assistant coach with the Tigers’ football team and current assistant principal at the school was named Furlow’s replacement in a Jan. 13 board meeting.

Here’s McCall on his new post: “I’m really excited to take this position. We’ve got a great group of coaches that I’m looking to working with. ... I feel really blessed to take this role on.“

Here’s Furlow on his successor: “He has more integrity than anyone you’ll find. He can make a decision. His people skills are good. I think he’s going to do an excellent job.“

Read Tim’s story in tomorrow’s paper for more about Auburn’s new AD.

Auburn women’s unbeaten run ends in Georgia

It’d be cliche to say it had to end sooner or later, because really, it didn’t HAVE to come to an end.

But end it did, as the Auburn women’s basketball team dropped to 20-1 after its 67-58 loss at Georgia on Thursday.

“Hey, it’s a loss, but Coach (Nell) Fortner had prepared us for this,” DeWanna Bonner said. “We’re not down. Really. This is a tough place to play. It’s a road game, and it’s tough to play on the road. We just didn’t keep our composure.”

Bonner was your leading scorer with 27 points and nine rebounds. The rest of the Tigers barely mustered more than half that. Sherell Hobbs had 11 and Whitney Boddie had six with just four assists. Alli Smalley was 0-for-6 on 3-point attempts.

Auburn shot a season-worst 33.3 percent (21-of-63) from the field. The Lady Dogs took command of the game with a 15-4 run in the second half.

“You can’t win if you can’t shoot,“ Fortner said.

Auburn has another tough one Sunday at LSU.

(Photo credit: Todd Van Emst)