re: Class of 2018 Recruiting MEGATHREAD: So Long Old Friend Edition

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Asa Martin, RB, Austin

Martin has told some media outlets that Florida leads, but had more of an open approach with AL.com. Auburn is also coming on strong, and he'll visit there for A-Day weekend. He also wants to visit Michigan.

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Alfred Thomas, DL, Sidney Lanier

Last month, Thomas told AL.com that he would do whatever it takes to land at Auburn. He does not have an Auburn offer yet and he said Georgia was recruiting him the hardest.

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Harold Joiner, RB, Mountain Brook

Alabama offered the 6-foot-3, 218-pound Joiner on Wednesday, and they'll be in his top five with Georgia, LSU, Auburn and Ole Miss. LSU and Auburn had previously offered, and he expects a Georgia offer.

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Jacquez Jones, LB, Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa

Jones likes LSU a lot, and the Tigers have offered the physical outside linebacker. West Virginia and Georgia Tech recently offered. Mississippi State and Michigan are among other offers for Jones, who seems in no hurry to commit. Alabama and Auburn aren't coming quite as hard yet.

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James Foster, QB, Sidney Lanier

Foster earned his "dream offer" from Alabama, but says Missouri is still his No. 1 school.

He could commit to Missouri now if he wanted to, but Alabama coaches want to see him throw in person before giving him the go-ahead to commit.

The 6-foot-2, 210-pound Foster is a dual-threat passer with great pocket presence.

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AUBURN, Ala. — Larry Porter won’t shy away from anyone on the recruiting trail.

The new Auburn tight ends coach — and perhaps more importantly, the new recruiting coordinator — arrived on the Plains with a big-time reputation. Through stints at LSU, Texas, Memphis, Arizona State and North Carolina, Porter established himself as one of the nation’s best recruiters.

In his move to Auburn, Porter will go head-to-head with the nation’s most established recruiting program. He doesn’t see it that way.

“Well I don’t necessarily see it as a challenge. It’s my job. Whether it’s Alabama or USC or Michigan or whoever. It’s my job. I love my job, whether it’s recruiting, whether it’s coaching, it doesn’t matter. I never kind of approached it that way,” Porter said. “If it’s you and I versus a kid, I’ve got to find a way to win. I could care less of who you are. … but I’ve recruited against Nick (Saban) before. I was at LSU once. So this is not new to me. That doesn’t — I don’t get caught up in that.”

Porter has twice been named the National Recruiter of the Year by Rivals.com (2007 and 2009). That included his last season at LSU, which was the last time a non-Saban program held the No. 1 spot in the team rankings. He hopes to re-establish that elite-level recruiting at Auburn.

The Tigers aren’t hurting on the recruiting trail. Under the Gus Malzahn regime, Auburn has finished 10th, 6th, 8th, 9th and 9th. That’s consistent top-10 success despite the only real on-field production coming in the 2013 season (just before the No. 6 finish).

Porter saw that kind of recruiting production and felt Auburn was on the fast track to a national-title push, hence his decision to join the Tigers’ staff.

Now he knows the onus is on him to make the consistent top-10 finish a consistent top-5 finish.

“It’s my job. And so much of recruiting in terms of when it comes to kids is all about the presentation, you know? It really is. And so the most important thing for me coming here to Auburn is to figure out the things that I can sell that are real when they get to campus they can feel, they can see and they can want to embrace,” Porter said.

Porter’s recruiting hotbeds will be Florida, Georgia and Louisiana. Those states have been Porter’s bread and butter since he became a superstar in the recruiting circuit.

Porter will recruit where he feels comfortable — and where he has seen proven success.

“I feel totally comfortable with anywhere in the south,” Porter said. “That’s kind of natural to me, and just my background, my experiences throughout the world of recruiting. There’s certain places you go for certain types of players and we’re kind of looking at that as well. We’ll tap into different markets.”

What pushes Porter to recruit better than his counterparts?

“Well one I think the fear of just being outworked. You go to bed at night just always trying to figure out ways to always get an advantage on anybody you’re recruiting against,” Porter said. “Two, I think you’ve got to have great people skills. You also have to build trust with the people that you’re recruiting and the families you’re recruiting. And that just simply comes through communication and I’m not trying to go out and be someone that I’m not.”

At the end of the day, Porter knows recruiting the state of Alabama is what makes or breaks a class.

That brings the Saban element back into the discussion. With the Crimson Tide constantly at No. 1, there is a stigma out there that Auburn must wait to snag Alabama’s backup plans. Aside from the fact that’s a skewed reality, Porter said Auburn can’t think that way if it’s going to emerge as one of the top recruiting programs in the nation.

And he won’t.

“Alabama can’t sign but 25 of them, period. And I don’t quite know their recruiting footprint now, I just now that in the state of Alabama every player that’s available that we feel like will put us in position to win championships, we’re going to pursue them — regardless of who’s recruiting them,” Porter said. “Pressure is self-imposed. And the bottom line is regardless of where you are nowadays, if you don’t win, they fire you. Kind of how it works, right? So I’m going to go out and recruit.”

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Joiner talks Alabama offer and Tide’s chances

Harold Joiner, the state of Alabama’s No. 2 running back from Mountain Brook High School, picked up an offer from the Crimson Tide on Wednesday. But from the sound of it, the chances he goes to Alabama aren’t high right now.

There are two reasons for that.

The first reason is Alabama’s scholarship offer to Joiner was as an athlete. While talking to SEC Country on Wednesday night, Joiner was adamant about wanting to play running back in college — something LSU is pitching. While talking to Nick Saban on Wednesday, the five-time national champion mentioned running back, H-Back, wide receiver, linebacker and safety as potential positions he could play if he were to commit to the Tide. Saban compared him to Tim Williams, who obviously didn’t carry the ball for Alabama.

“I want to play running back,” Joiner said. “I want that to be my primary position. The only position I would think about switching to would be wide receiver, but I want to play running back first.”

Because Joiner is set on being a tailback in college, Alabama doesn’t present the greatest opportunity for an easy path to guaranteed early playing time. The Crimson Tide are loaded in the backfield. Bo Scarbrough, Damien Harris, Josh Jacobs, B.J. Emmons, Najee Harris and Brian Robinson make the case for the deepest position at Alabama. Those guys were all blue-chip prospects as recruits.

Joiner was honest about his feelings when asked if that depth would impact Alabama’s chances at getting a commitment from him, which he says could happen in December or National Signing Day.

“Yes, that is something that would hurt their chances,” Joiner said. “All of those guys are really good. They have a ton of depth and they may bring in some more. I’m willing to compete anywhere, though.”

That doesn’t sound like someone whose recruitment dramatically shifted after picking up a scholarship offer from the in-state power. The only thing that changed in his recruitment: Alabama is now planted in his top 5, but it’s clear the Tide are no higher than third.

Just last year, however, another highly touted recruit told SEC Country that he was concerned about depth: freshman linebacker Dylan Moses. Moses told SEC Country last summer that he was ‘iffy’ about Alabama because of the amount of linebackers Alabama already had on campus and the ones they had committed. He eventually changed his mind about that, which is something Joiner will have to do as well.

LSU appears to be the frontrunner to land Joiner’s services primarily because the Tigers are pitching to the 6-foot-4, 218-pound prospect to be their lead back in the Class of 2018 and the chance to play as a freshman. LSU running back Derrius Guice will likely leave for the NFL draft after this season because he’s expected to be a first-round pick next year, so a starting spot will be open. The Tigers didn’t sign an elite running back in the Class of 2017, so the chance to play early is real at LSU.

While visiting Baton Rouge, Joiner said he’s had that sense of seeing himself wearing the purple and gold one day. He hasn’t felt that anywhere else.

“I’ve had that feeling at LSU,” Joiner said. “They have great coaches who are ready to compete for championships. They said I would see the field my freshman year. They have a downhill offense, which I like.”

Auburn, which is where he’ll be this weekend for the Tigers’ spring game, is also associated with Joiner because, like LSU, the Tigers want him to play running back and a little wide receiver. But it’s clear that Auburn’s plan for him, if he did commit there, doesn’t exactly match Joiner’s wishes.

“Those are the two schools — more so LSU — that tell me that I can play running back there,” Joiner said. “They also communicate with me every day. LSU strictly wants me at running back. The coaches there told me that I could switch positions only if I wanted to.”

Now, compare that to Saban’s message to Joiner on Wednesday and you’ll see why it’s currently unlikely he chooses Alabama.

“He was telling me that I need to come to camp to see which position I could play later on,” Joiner said. “He doesn’t know which position I would play right now if I went there.”

Alabama already has a commitment at running back from 4-star prospect Dameon Pierce, but he hasn’t visited Tuscaloosa in several months. It’s very possible he eventually departs the class as other schools pursue. But, unlike Joiner, when Pierce committed to the Crimson Tide, the one thing he wasn’t concerned about was depth.

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JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — For some recruits, the prospect of playing in the SEC is just too much to resist. Add 4-star running back Harold Joiner to that list.

You don’t have to talk to the Birmingham, Ala. product long to get that sense. When the list of favorite schools comes, it’s nothing but SEC — Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss, South Carolina, pretty much any SEC school that’s shown interest.

“It’s the best conference, I think,” Joiner said. “It gives me a chance to show what I can do in the best conference.”

In late March, Tennessee added itself to the list of seven other SEC schools that had extended an offer to Joiner and immediately vaulted itself into the discussion of his favorite schools.

“[Receiving the offer] was awesome,” Joiner said. “It’s an SEC school so they have to be in the top five.”

But before anyone gets too excited on the “top five” classification, pumping the brakes is necessary. For Joiner, calling Tennessee a “top five” school is more descriptive than an actual numerical slotting because Joiner doesn’t have an official list at the moment.

His top three schools have been Auburn, LSU and Ole Miss with schools like South Carolina and Tennessee slotted into the second tier of schools he’s interested in. But that was before he received his ninth SEC offer on Wednesday from Alabama. As he told Drew Champlin of AL.com, that automatically vaults the Crimson Tide right up into the forefront of consideration, and Georgia is also in that mix as he anticipates an offer soon. That leaves Tennessee likely just outside his top five schools looking in.

But that all could change soon. Joiner said that he hopes to make a visit to Knoxville soon, potentially as soon as this weekend, although he admits he has a penchant for making decisions at the last minute.

Tennessee does have one recruiting advantage over several of the other schools, however, in its history with big running backs. Listed at 6-foot-3, 218 pounds, only 12 pounds separate Joiner and former Tennessee running back Jalen Hurd when he was a high school senior. This has been one of the talking points of linebackers coach Tommy Thigpen, who’s been Joiner’s primary recruiter.

“He talks to me like every other day,” Joiner said. “He’s just telling me how I would fit in to the offense because at my high school, we run a pretty similar offense.”

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