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

quote:

---

If Gus is going to be the CEO, then he needs to stop being so cowardly on game days. He has to be the most conservative coach in America.

---

quote:

---

4-star DE/LB Markaviest Bryant (Crisp Co. High School/Cordele, Ga.)

National ranking: No. 4 WDE and No. 181 overall

Also considering: Georgia, LSU, Alabama and Arkansas

The skinny: Bryant has been Auburn’s top option at Buck defensive end for quite some time. “Big Cat” is quite familiar with Auburn and its campus. He lives two hours away, has taken a handful of unofficial visits and is cousins with Auburn graduate Montravius Adams. Georgia has been the perceived favorite to land Bryant for a while because of the in-state pull. Bryant officially visited Athens to start the month. LSU’s push has been late, but massive. He went to Baton Rouge a week ago, which led a source close to Bryant to say people should get ready to “expect a surprise.”

Auburn has the last official visit, however, and that matters. It’s expected several staffs will make face-to-face contact with Bryant following his OV to the Plains, but Auburn will be included in that too. According to people close to Bryant, the Tigers have been one of the favorites since the end of summer — even at times Bryant was leaving them out of his top 6 in the fall.

This will likely be a National Signing Day decision. The fact he hasn’t publicly announced a decision is a good sign for the last suitor. That’s Auburn.

---

quote:

---

Alaric Williams isn’t a quarterback or a wide receiver, but he is excited about the future of Auburn football with the arrival of offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey.

Lindsey’s hire placed a lot of attention on Auburn’s passing game over the past week. But Williams, a 4-star recruit, likes what Lindsey will bring to Auburn’s rushers.

“I was actually really happy,” Williams said after his official visit last weekend. “Played against him, coached against him, something like that. … I was really happy about that. I knew they would find somebody good whether it was him or not.”

Auburn recruited Williams, officially listed as an athlete, at running back. The relationship between Williams and Auburn running backs coach Tim Horton is arguably the strongest in the entire 2017 recruiting class.

“Coach Horton, how could you not want to play for him?” Williams said. “Honestly, it’s the coaches and the relationships I’ve built with them in the past four or five years. I have been getting recruited by them since my eighth grade year.”

---

quote:

---

What was one of Auburn's biggest areas of concern this time last year has turned into one of the team's strengths heading into 2017. The Tigers lose only T.J. Neal, a graduate transfer from Illinois who appeared in 12 games last season, while returning their core of starting linebackers: Tre' Williams, Deshaun Davis and Darrell Williams.

After signing just one linebacker in the 2016 class, Tre' Threat, Auburn was looking to add three or four linebackers this time around to help bolster depth at the position and develop the next wave of linebackers under position coach Travis Williams and defensive coordinator Kevin Steele.

Auburn currently has three linebackers committed to the 2017 class, with two of them already on campus for spring semester. Four-star linebacker Kenney "K.J." Britt and three-star outside linebacker Chandler Wooten are both early enrollees and will have the benefit of spring practice.

The team's prized linebacker signee won't be arriving until the summer. Four-star Jackson-Olin linebacker Tadarian "T.D." Moultry is the Tigers' second-highest-rated high school prospect, ranked as No. 103 overall recruit nationally in the 247 Composite rankings. Although Moultry is a linebacker, he said Auburn will likely use him often off the edge in pass-rush as the team tries to replace Buck end Carl Lawson, who declared early for the NFL Draft.

While Auburn is satisfied with its current haul of linebackers, the Tigers are hoping they're not done yet this recruiting cycle. Auburn hopes to add four-star linebacker Tyler Taylor, a 6-foot-2, 230-pound prospect out of Lanier High in Buford, Georgia -- where he was teammates with current Auburn defensive lineman Derrick Brown. Taylor took an official visit to Auburn last weekend and said his decision was down to Auburn and LSU, and that he would inform the coaching staffs this week before going public with his commitment.

If Auburn can add Taylor to an already impressive haul of linebackers, it would be a big win for Williams and Steele in their first full recruiting cycle on the Plains.

---

quote:

---

4* CB Jalyn Armour-Davis

---