But it goes so much deeper, seeing how some of you (you know you are!) are freaking out because for the first time since Nick Saban has been hired he’s done something right. So I’m going to quiet all the questions and concerns that you might have about recruiting and I’ll explain to you why Auburn is still awesome and Bama and-the-like still suck. Let us begin:

First off, I’m not going to declare that Alabama’s 2008 recruiting class isn’t spectacular. I could try to talk about how every single one of their players is overrated, but that most likely isn’t true. Secondly, I’m not going to declare that Auburn’s incoming class is terrible, because it most definitely isn’t. Those of you who say that this year’s recruiting class is a huge disappointment don’t really know much about football. Making the transition from high school to Div-I football is similar to the transition that college football players make into the NFL. There are some players that are brilliant in college but totally suck it up in the NFL, for instance: 4 out of the last 6 Heisman winners (before 2007). Similarly, a lot of the guys who could run over 150 pound cornerbacks with finesse in high school simply can’t do the same to the 225 pound linebackers that run a 4.5 forty in the SEC. Here are the last several players that Auburn has put into the NFL and how many stars they’ve received by scout.com (had to have been recruited by Auburn since 2002):

Devin Aromashodu: ****
Tim Duckworth: ****
Ben Grubbs: *
Marquis Gunn: **
Will Herring: ***
David Irons: ****
Kenny Irons: ***
T.J. Jackson: ****
Brandon Jacobs: *****
Stanley McClover: ****
Marcus McNeill: ****
Ben Obomanu: ****
Courtney Taylor: *
John Vaughn: ***

Breakdown:
*****: 1
****: 7
***: 3
**: 1
*: 2

So as you can see, almost half the players that we end up putting into the NFL received 3 stars or less from scout.com. Tubs is usually pretty good about picking players that he knows he can mold into killing machines, but it certainly is nice when we inherit a ready-made killing machine (Brandon Jacobs/Tray Blackmon/etc). So in summary, while most of the 4 and 5 star recruits actually turn out to be pretty great, there are also a TON of players that seem to slip through the cracks.

Now here’s my #1 reason why I’m not too concerned with our drop in recruiting rankings: hardly any of these players would play anyways.

This season we will have a vast majority of our starters being sophomores and juniors, with very little room for an incoming freshmen class to get opportunities to play against someone other than Tennessee-Martin. The only positions that really lack depth are wide receiver and D-Line, which Auburn got a buttload (approximately an entire load of butt) of each. Saban has the distinct advantage of being able to say: “My entire team sucks. The entire team you played for in high school would have started for my team last year. You will be on the field in Bryant-Denny wearing crimson in ‘Saban’ months.” This is what Tubs has to tell recruits: “Our entire starting lineup is coming back except for about 5 players, all of which had backups that are better than you will likely ever be. You will be on our practice field wearing crimson for at least one year and you probably won’t get a chance to start for another three years.”

I wouldn’t get too discouraged by the apparent ‘quality’ of receivers that we received this year either. Tony Franklin isn’t looking for what most other coaches are looking for. You might be wondering why we pretty much cut off Jarmon Fortson (rumor has it we deliberately stopped recruiting this guy even when he was verbally committed to Auburn), a 4-star/top-30 receiver in favor for much smaller receivers like Phillip Pierre-Louise and Harry Adams? Its because our new spread offense doesn’t use the type of receiver that makes dynamic catches in the end zone, the spread offense uses receivers that catch the ball short and then run with it. It would be nice to have tremendous athletes like Julio Jones, Deandre Brown, and Jarmon Fortson, but they aren’t ideal for our new system. Tony Franklin wants receivers that have the ability to quickly eliminate any green in front of them after they catch the ball. We are talking speed people. Phillip Pierre-Loise and Harry Adams are two of the fastest 18 year olds on the planet. Their 40 times are 4.28 and 4.30! That is roughly one-fortieth of the speed of sound! Am I saying that we would turn away Julio Jones if he wanted to play at Auburn? Heckno Techno! The guy is the best receiver in the nation! But he still wouldn’t be ideal for our system.

Another thing to take into account is that we had both of our coordinators replaced during the recruiting season, along with the complete revision our offensive philosophy which still hasn’t been completely proven. That’s practically a worst case scenario as far as variables go when regarding recruiting, except for possibly a vacant spot at head coach or possibly worse: Bobby Petrino. The last time we had both our coordinators replaced within a year of each other: 2004, Auburn was ranked 31st in the nation in recruiting.
So now do we have to start worrying about the apparent rising of the Tide? I don’t think so. First of all, Sarah Jessica Parker Wilson is still their quarterback, and he’s a choke artist. Secondly, Auburn had an incredibly beastly recruiting class last year, and that puts our studs a year ahead of Bama’s new flock of blue chips. I would think that it would take them about two years before they catch up and talent and experience are on an even level between the two schools. Thirdly, after our new offense puts on a bit of a show for the world to see, our offensive recruits will be back up to high standards, along with having all our coaches back.

I see both Alabama and Auburn recruiting in the top 10 next year. That means in a couple of years, this may become a significant rivalry again! Wouldn’t it be nice if people outside of Alabama knew and cared what the Iron Bowl was? In a way, it would be nice if Alabama would show a little retaliation outside their message boards. It’s fun declaring increasingly large numbers of consecutive wins against your rival, but at what cost? I mean, it’s not our fault that Bama sucks, we’ve been doing our part. It would just be nice to see a significant Iron Bowl that doesn’t get pushed into the early afternoon so ESPN can air their ice-skating pageant in prime time.

War Eagle!

E-mail Ryan at ryan@theauburner.com

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