re: 2017 Football Recruiting Thread ["N$D Bryant" Edition]

Judging by the posts in here, will this be another 2012 finish where we miss on the majority of our big targets?

Auburn coaches take three key in-home visits on recruiting trail (SECCountry)

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The Auburn coaching staff set out on the recruiting trail with a couple signature moves in mind.

Top objective for the 2017 class: keeping Devan Barrett.

Auburn has a solid trio of running backs in place for the 2017 class. Alaric Williams took his official visit last weekend and isn’t entertaining other schools. His grades are close to being fully in order. Octavius Matthews still has an official visit planned to Tennessee after one to Purdue last weekend, but he said the Tigers are safe.

That leaves the highest-ranked running back commit of the bunch as the lone question mark. Question mark, no more.

Barrett hosted Auburn coach Gus Malzahn, offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey and running backs coach Tim Horton in his home as planned on Tuesday. It was Barrett’s first encounter with Lindsey. According to Barrett, it only helped reassure the “super solid” commitment he conveyed before and after the official visit to Tennessee.

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Recruiting War Room: Austin Troxell (SECCountry)

Video breaking down Troxell

Signing Day Preview: Auburn's top needs at running back, H-back (AL.com)

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Auburn has three running backs committed to its 2017 recruiting class and is still looking to add an H-back.

Devan Barrett is the gem of the group. The four-star prospect is ranked as the nation's No. 11 running back in the 247Sports Composite. He amassed 1,271 rushing yards and scores 11 touchdowns as senior at Tampa Catholic last fall and added 21 catches for 236 yards and two scores.

The other runners, Octavius Matthews and Alaric Williams are both considered "athletes" by most recruiting services. Matthews (6-1, 205) rushed for 645 yards and five touchdowns at Itawamba Community College in Mississippi.

Matthews did not enroll in January like Auburn's other junior college transfers, quarterback Jarrett Stidham and tight end Salvatore Cannella. Matthews took an official visit to Purdue Jan. 20 and Tennessee last weekend. If he stays true to his pledge with Auburn, he will aim to be a summer enrollee.

Williams, a standout at Southside-Gadsden, has remained solid in his 2015 commitment to the Tigers and will add depth to the rotation.

There's not an immediate boost needed at running back on the Plains. The Tigers have two starters back in Kamryn Pettway and Kerryon Johnson. They nearly became the first Auburn running back tandem to each have 1,000-yard seasons since 1979. Pettway emerged as a bruiser and led the Tigers on the ground with 1,224 yards and seven touchdowns despite not carrying the ball in four games. Johnson had 895 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Behind them is speedster Kam Martin, who was often used in motion, and Malik Miller, a North-South runner that got injured in this third appearance. Martin finished the year with 320 yards and three touchdowns while Miller had 44 yards and one score on 16 carries. Martin's role is expected to increase with the loss of Stanton Truitt, who announced his intentions to transfer shortly after the Sugar Bowl loss.

Then there's redshirt Stephen Davis Jr., who briefly saw time at running back in fall camp before Auburn announced he was injured and out for the season.

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that had we given him a committable offer for LB instead of trying to sell him on H-Back that he probably would've come to Auburn.

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We probably still can

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Judging by the posts in here, will this be another 2012 finish where we miss on the majority of our big targets?

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Depends how you look at it, in 2012 we had high hopes and were let down. This year we don't even have any targets to let us down.

Could be good or bad depending on how you look at it.

prediction - We sign JaTarvios Whitlow

God, your homer is thick. Average rating per recruit is lower now than it was in 2012 too. And we still have more backup plans to get.

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We got the major bulk of our class committed very early

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There is no such thing as major bulk in recruiting. Signing ten good ones and the others just being icing on the cake is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. I rather be sweating out recruiting battles right now to fill out the class than to have a boring NSD welcoming all the new 3* jucos and trying to convince myself all these 3* jucos are steals.
Not to mention we have Octavious and Barrett looking around and Alaric still fighting to make the grades. We haven't even hit rock bottom yet.

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F man, I might send my flag football film in to Gus. Decent chance I might be able to snag an offer at this point. I'm just as likely to help the team as some of these guys we're gonna end up with.

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I'd submit for long snapper but we already took one for this class.

But seriously Tanner and Shenker are questionable offers, can't shake it. This is the first year I'm anxious to get NSD over with.

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Yep. There is such thing as major bulk.

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Yeah it obviously exists only as an excuse for having a shitty recruiting classes

I submit to you that there are perennial teams on our schedule like UGA, LSU, and Bama that never let up after getting the bulk of their class committed. This continued practice would make a world of a difference between our team's roster and the above mentioned teams.

If or when Georgia or Bama outlasts and outperforms us in the second half( again), just remember that you thought our class was successful with 10 to 12 good recruits while our opponents were stockpiling 18 good ones or more.