When LaDarius Owens arrived on campus with a bevy of other highly touted prospects for the infamous Big Cat Weekend, he didn’t know exactly what to expect.
When he found out that a home run derby and a pie-eating contest was on the agenda, and football wasn’t, he was relieved.
“We did nothing football,” Owens said. “That’s what made it so great.”
Auburn is hoping this year’s crop of recruits will have the same experience when it hosts Big Cat Weekend II on the weekend of May 28.
Approximately 25 of the Tigers’ top targets will be on campus for the invite-only weekend, according to AuburnSports.com.
Ten of Auburn’s 32 signees were present for last year’s event, which focused less on football and more on fun. They were: Owens, OL Eric Mack, OL Shon Coleman, WR Trovon Reed, LB Jake Holland, LB Jawara White, DT Kenneth Carter, WR Jeremy Richardson, WR Shaun Kitchens and LB Jessel Curry.
“It was a stress-free weekend,” Owens said. “Just being down there, even though we were atAuburn and we were being recruited, we were just having fun.
“It’s way better than a camp because you get to have fun all weekend.”
Last year’s events didn’t go without consequences, though.
Auburn was flagged with six NCAA recruiting violations, was forced to halt its recruiting of six prospective student-athletes for six weeks, six
Auburn assistants received reprimands and assistant coach Trooper Taylor was prevented from recruiting off-campus from July 31 to Nov. 30.
Three of the six players (Curry, Mack and Reed) still signed with the Tigers despite the six-week contact ban.
The controversy centered on an impromptu rolling of Toomer’s Corner with hundreds of fans, most of whom heard of the event on Auburn scouting Web site message boards.
Auburn will seek to strike a fair balance between cutting edge and compliant this time around.
“We want to continue to be creative on the recruiting trail, but we know at the end of the day it’s really going to be about rolling up your sleeves and really working hard at it,” coach Gene Chizik said at his Signing Day press conference. “You can be as creative as you want, but if you don’t work hard, you’re not going to get these guys if you’re not going to build those relationships.”
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