AU FOOTBALL: 'Tiger Prowl' rolls through Lee County

When the white stretch Hummer — Auburn flags waving on both sides and a big AU logo on both sides — pulled into Auburn High on Wednesday, Tim Carter didn’t need a mindreader beside him to figure out what was swirling through his players’ heads.

“What they’re actually thinking, I don’t know,” said Carter, Auburn High’s head football coach. “But the kids were definitely buzzing.”

Score one for the Tigers. That’s the point.

The third day of Auburn’s now nationally known recruiting experiment simply known as “Tiger Prowl” rolled into the driveways of high schools across the Lee County area Wednesday. The seven-man team of coaches, all of whom dressed alike in Carolina blue Bahama shirts and black pants, stopped by Smiths Station and Central before cruising into Opelika and Auburn in the late morning.

“I think they’re making an effort to really make a strong impression in-state,” Carter said. “Maybe they’re trying to put everyone on notice that Auburn is here and here to make some noise.”

Though the five-day trip has been confined within the state’s borders, the noise it’s stirred up has permeated in all four time zones.

Even during the midst of NHL and NBA playoffs, the topic was debated during a full segment of ESPN’S Around the Horn on Wednesday.

While opinion remained mixed among national pundits, the positivity it elicited around Lee County was unanimous.

“Hey, if it draws attention in a way and gets people talking, I think it’s worthwhile,” Carter said. “It’s within the rules and it shows innovation. I like it, and as an Auburn fan I like it.”

NCAA rules permit schools to send out seven coaches to high schools during a six-week interval known as the spring evaluation period. The coaches can be on the road for just four weeks during the period and head coaches are not permitted to be on the trips. During the visits, college coaches and players are not permitted to have any interaction beyond a simple “hello.”

The standard protocol is for the seven coaches to go their separate ways in hopes of maximizing their opportunities to evaluate prospective talent.

But this isn’t your standard group of recruiters.

“We want to concentrate all of our energy in one area at a time,” running backs coach/recruiting coordinator Curtis Luper told AuburnSports.com.

And that area is the home state — a place Auburn hasn’t done much with over the past few years.

Since Nick Saban took over at Alabama in 2007, the majority of in-state talent has sided with the Crimson Tide.

Of Auburn’s 14 in-state recruits in the class of 2009, only one, Brewton defensive tackle Jamar Travis, was rated a four-star or better, according to Rivals.com. Of the Rivals’ top 10 Alabama recruits of ‘09, Auburn signed none and Alabama locked up eight.

“You got to have a starting point and a home base and this state will be it,” head coach Gene Chizik said recently. “And then after that, we’ll move outside the state. We got to make sure we capture what we need to capture in this state.”

Luper said he will assign two coaches to the South, two to the North, one each in greater Birmingham, Huntsville and Montgomery and one in the Lee County region, which includes Columbus and LaGrange, Ga.

Under Tommy Tuberville, Auburn typically had about four coaches assigned to the home state.

“I think they have a purpose behind it in that they want the schools in Alabama to know that Alabama is going to be the top priority for them,” Carter said. “I don’t know if they lost that focus over the last couple years, but I do know that this staff is making a really good effort locally, and that’s exciting to our kids.”

The focus on Lee County appeared almost immediately.

Within months of Chizik and his staff taking control, Auburn locked up Auburn High offensive lineman John Sullen. According to a number of scouting service Web Sites, the Tigers are hard after Opelika’s Corey Grant for their 2010 recruiting class.

“We’ve had a lot of kids go to other places and be successful,” Carter said. “We’re just glad that they’re evaluating our kids and giving them a shot.”

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