Auburn assistants Curtis Luper and Trooper Taylor each earned some major props today, as both were named Rivals.com Top 25 recruiters in 2009.
Rivals.com is my go-to Web site for recruiting information, so I consider this to be major and validated praise.
After naming Cal assistant Tosh Lupoi Recruiter of the Year, the site then gave the next 24 in alphabetical order, so it’s tough to figure where Taylor and Luper truly ranked. Regardless, the gurus thought they did a heck of a job.
Here’s the full list. The following are the two blurbs that pertain to those strictly here for Auburn chatter.
Luper: He landed two five-star prospects for the Tigers: junior college QB Cameron Newton and RB prospect Michael Dyer from Arkansas. He also helped the Tigers with Louisiana four-star athlete Trovon Reed. Three-star offensive tackle Ed Christian was also Luper’s responsibility. Luper was also the primary mastermind behind “Tiger Prowl” and “Big Cat Weekend.“ Those two recruiting events helped create a great buzz for Auburn.
Taylor: Taylor had a big year for the Tigers. He went to Mississippi and landed five-star offensive line prospect Shon Coleman. Taylor went to Louisiana to sign four-star athlete Trovon Reed. Taylor helped Auburn get a big one on Signing Day with four-star defensive end Corey Lemonier. Taylor also got three from Georgia: four-star wide receiver Antonio Goodwin, three-star defensive back Demetruce McNeal and athlete Shaun Kitchens. Four-star defensive end Joel Bonomolo is a junior college transfer from California. Taylor also landed a big in-state commitment in four-star wide receiver Jeremy Richardson. Seven of Taylor’s eight prospects were from out of state.
When linebacker Jake Holland committed to Auburn in early April of last year, he was the second to do so, and, really, the first that was solely Gene Chizik’s doing.
(K Cody Parkey committed to Auburn during his junior season when Tommy Tuberville was still the head coach. Chizik and Co. honored that commitment.)
Fast forward about 10 months. Offensive lineman Spencer Region (Cullman) became Auburn’s second commitment of the 2011 class Saturday with 362 days until the next National Signing Day.
So what gives?
Honestly, I don’t think Auburn has changed up its recruiting philosophy by any means. I don’t think the Tigers would be so swift to change things after reeling in one of the best classes in the program’s history. Recruiting coordinator Curtis Luper, in an interview shortly after 2009’s National Signing Day, said the Tigers were still behind in their evaluations of talent, which is maybe why the first true commitment didn’t come until April.
You really have to slow the process down as much as we can to make sure we thoroughly evaluate the players because we can’t make any mistakes on character. We can’t feel any external pressure from other teams that get lots of early commitments. It really doesn’t mean anything for us. It just means that person may, at that point, be off the board. But it’s no big rush for us. The rush for us is to thoroughly evaluate players and know where they are and who they are and who fits into our program.
Though every SEC program probably applies this sort of logic, the early numbers indicate that there is a sense of urgency to avoid what happened to Georgia in the days leading up to this year’s Signing Day. The Bulldogs lost a number of head-to-head battles, had a few de-commitments and, by the end of the day, Mark Richt was being asked if he’d gotten complacent.
Only two SEC teams (Ole Miss and Vanderbilt) are without commitments for the 2011 class. LSU has seven. Here are the to-date tallies.
Alabama – 2
Arkansas – 2
Auburn – 2
Florida – 2
Georgia – 2
Kentucky – 2
LSU – 7
Mississippi State – 2
Ole Miss – 0
South Carolina – 1
Tennessee – 1
Vanderbilt - 0
Jerraud Powers was never short on words during his three years at Auburn, and the current Indianapolis Colts cornerback certainly hasn’t let a year at the professional level change his demeanor.
So it’s no surprise that there were plenty of leftovers from today’s feature story about Powers.
Let’s dig in.
(What was your reaction when you got drafted by the Colts?) “Right away I knew this was a title-contending team. You just hear about all the things. Coach (Tony) Dungy set the foundation and you just hear so many great things about the Colts. You never hear any bad things about them. When I got drafted by them, I was extremely blessed. I put everything in God’s hands and I thank him for everything but once I got down here and got to meet all the people I’ve been looking up to for so many years, I just felt honored.“
(What made you feel ready to leave school early?) “It was one of the first decisions I had to make for me in a long time. I just thought I was ready for the next level. I thought I was ready to compete and take on new challenges and start a new career. I knew that I was making the right decision from the start. A lot of people thought I was making a terrible decision and I was only going to hurt myself, but I knew that I was going and I’m not surprised by the fact that I’ve been able to contribute right away because of the confidence that I had in myself. Not in a cocky way, but just the confidence I had in myself.“
(How’s Peyton Manning?) “Peyton didn’t pick on me in camp. Usually when you arrive in the NFL, you have the SEC bonds. You’ve still got your rivals, but once conference starts going, you’ve got all the SEC guys. He needed to stick up for me a little bit when guys used to pick on me a little bit.“
(Best moment of the season?) “An instant classic when we played the Patriots. Just lining up against Randy Moss and Wes Welker and playing against Tom Brady, three Hall-of-Famers, being able to make some plays on those guys. I’ll probably remember that more than anything this year and I’m pretty sure there’s one that’s coming up that will take over pretty soon.“
(How much do you follow Auburn?) “I keep up with all those guys. Aairon Savage and Walt McFadden, I talk to them almost every other day. I talk to Ben Tate and Antonio (Coleman), Big Jake (Ricks) and all those guys a lot. I keep up with everything that’s going on at Auburn just because of the love. You don’t just leave a place and act like you’ve never been there. I’ve been keeping up with the recruiting and everything. It looks like we’re heading in the right direction. Hopefully we can bring in a few more big time commitments and get us in the SEC championship next year, which I think can happen.“
Auburn’s recruiting machine kept on chugging Saturday, and, in this instance, threw a kink in Alabama’s.
More than 100 fans gathered at a Cullman sporting goods store to see big offensive lineman Spencer Region commit to Alabama, but left shocked when he announced his intentions to sign with Auburn in 2011.
As you can tell from the video above, it made for quite the awkward scene. Big props for the two or so people that finally clapped.
“Some stuff happened (Friday) night, and then this morning I chose Auburn,“ Region told AuburnSports.com. “There were a lot of Alabama fans (at the announcement) because I guess they took me for granted. They thought I was a lock.
“I felt like I was taken for granted even by the coaching staff at Alabama. That’s just not where I need to be. I’m not about to go into that kind of program.”
Region, at 6-foot-6 and 330 pounds, is expected to be one of the state’s top prospects when the 2011 recruiting rankings are released.
Region joins junior-college safety Izauea Lanier (East Mississippi Community College) as the first two Auburn commitments for 2011.
Auburn used a wacky final possession to send Saturday’s game into overtime, but Arkansas’ Courtney Fortson was just too strong in final 5 minutes, as the Razorbacks pulled out the 82-79 victory at Bud Walton Arena.
I wasn’t there, but I watched the game in HD.
The Tigers mounted a frantic rally at the end of overtime, turning a 7-point deficit into 3 with 4.2 seconds to play. Frankie Sullivan dribbled the ball off his foot while taking it up the court, which forced him to take a shot from half-court. Fittingly, he nearly made it, but it drew back rim and the Tigers are now 2-6 in the SEC.
Sullivan and Tay Waller led Auburn with 18 points apiece. Lucas Hargrove had 15 and DeWayne Reed had 13, but played poorly in overtime.
Fortson led all scorers with 24 points, scoring 7 of those in overtime.
How Auburn got to overtime was crazy in its own right. Trailing by 2 with 14 seconds to play, Waller attempted an awful, turnaround 3-pointer from about 27 feet, which caromed toward Auburn’s bench. Sullivan chased it down and heaved the ball to the hoop. Andre Malone was all by himself there, as he tipped the shot in to send the game into overtime.
Auburn (11-12, 2-6) returns home Wednesday against Georgia.
