Auburn isn’t alone; the SEC loves to plan ahead when it comes to landing commitments

By Andrew Gribble
Auburn University Beat Reporter
Published: February 8, 2010

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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