A look inside of Roc Thomas's recruitment...

The staff knew they were behind when they came in at Auburn, but they made a decision to make Roc their priority.

Lashlee visited his school four straight weeks just to say hello when he first started recruiting Roc, to send a message that Auburn is very interested. Roc made an early visit and also went to JR day in Feb 2013. (If I recall correctly wasn't he also at Auburn visiting when the Dismukes/Foster argument took place?)

A source said that Auburn stuck with their message "we run the ball, we think you are the best RB in the country and we want you at Auburn."

He finally committed on an unofficial to Auburn and said he would be taking officials, but actually only took one to Jacksonville State.

Kiffin came onto the scene and Roc agreed to see Kiffin, but only as a courtesy. He already had chosen his school. Bama kept calling and trying to get him to come on an official, but Thomas did not take anymore of their calls.

Staff knew he was an independent thinker and had no worries of him flipping. They could tell when he gave his word he would stand by his commitment.

The staff felt it was the trust and getting Roc to feel more and more comfortable with AU, the staff, and the other commits with each call and visit that finally helped them turn the corner in getting him to AU.

Source said Roc never wavered, not even one time.



I will admit when we did our "who will be the one to worry about flipping to Bama" in Feb of last year, I chose Roc. I got more comfortable with him as time went on, but there was always a sliver of doubt hanging over him for me. Glad we got him and feel he can do special things here should he reach his potential.