re: 2018 Football Recruiting Thread -- Final OP Update Edition

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Could be wrong but I doubt we take another. I think they have taken 3 plus the hybrid because they already knew what was happening, probably about a week ago or so at least. Yesterday was just the time Gus would address Carlito. The original plan was 2 Safeties & no mention of a Star/hybrid.

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What's worse is under the new recruiting rules signees who do not enroll count against the yearly 25 Initial Counter limit. 2 EEs from the 2018 class now can't count back to 2017 to replace Carlito & Alaric.

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Local star Seth Williams made his second trip to Alabama's campus within the past week on Monday.

The 6-foot-3, 208-pound Williams is a four-star receiver for Paul Bryant in Cottondale, just minutes from campus. He visited last Wednesday, but head coach Nick Saban was returning from interviews at ESPN.

Monday, he had a chance to sit down with Saban. That was the main reason he returned. Williams is coming off a school year where he earned all-state honors in football, basketball and track.

"He was telling me just how they're going to basically use me and how the system is good," Williams said. "The process, basically, how it always works.

"It's good. It's a winning process. There's not really much you can say or anything you can say bad about it."

Williams also visited with assistants Brian Daboll and Michael Locksley.

"We talked about how they're probably going to use me in the offense and showed me some video clips of receivers," Williams said. "I also went and watched some (voluntary team) 7 on 7."

This came off Williams' visit to Auburn for its cookout on July 22.

"Just sitting down with the coaches, it was pretty much the same thing," Williams said. "You hear the same stuff on all your visits. They broke stuff down with me and showed me how they would use me.

"Auburn, they want me to play in the slot, but motion some. Alabama wants to play me inside too."

On the day of his Auburn trip, Williams noted that "every time I come here, it feels like family. I just can't get past that."

Williams has only visited Alabama and Auburn this summer. He said he wants to get to some games at Ole Miss or Florida State as well, but doesn't have anything set in stone.

He's also not sure when he will commit. It will likely come after the season.

"I'm thinking about the season right now," Williams said. "I've got the recruiting still in my head, but it's not in the front right now. We're trying to win games, get to the playoffs and win a championship."

Williams will also play safety for the Stampede and said he wouldn't rule out playing it in college, though schools talk to him about receiver. Williams is also his team's punter and kickoff specialist.

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From one Hoover (Ala.) receiver to another

Who has been potentially overlooked in Auburn’s recent flurry of commitments? That would be George Pickens.

Most recruiting fanatics are all-in on the 2018 recruiting class, where Auburn has a dozen or so spots left to fill and plenty of big fish left out there to catch. It’s sometimes easy to gloss over a 2019 prospect during the heat of the 2018 cycle.

Pickens deserves a re-examination.

The 6-foot-5, 190-pound receiver is the No. 90 overall prospect in the 247Sports composite rankings. He’s the 20th-ranked wide receiver in the nation and the third overall player in the state of Alabama. Plus, he goes to Hoover High (Ala.), which has more championship pedigree than any high school in the state.

That means Auburn fans in the Birmingham area should swing by Hoover on Friday nights to get a double dose of future Tigers wide receivers. Pickens and Shedrick Jackson will both suit up for Auburn in the future. This season, they’ll show what they can do at the high school level.

Jackson thinks Auburn will love what it’s getting in Pickens.

“I knew [his commitment] was coming. We talked about it. I just didn’t know when he was going to do it, but I knew he was,” Jackson said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun. You get teams that usually focus on one player. Now you’ve got to deal with him and me and we’ve got running backs and other weapons.”

Jackson and Pickens bring different skill sets to the offense.

The 2018 commit’s body is already close to college ready, but he’s not a highly-ranked guy. Pickens’ lanky frame could use a little bit of work, but his projection his much higher than his older teammate.

Jackson has high expectations for his younger teammate.

“He’s really good, I’m telling you. He’s really long. His body type, he’s just another freak athlete, so it’ll be pretty good.”

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What does your scholarship offer look like?

On Aug. 1, NCAA rules allow college programs to send official written scholarship offers to 2018 targets.

That means all the verbal offers extended throughout the cycle lose meaning, and prospects find out how legitimate those offers are. Programs don’t hesitate sending out these offers. In the new media age, recruiting departments send out fancy, direct-messaged graphics that signify the official scholarship.

Check out Auburn’s and some of the other offer graphics from across the country.

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Secure a top pass-rush target

There are a few left out there for Auburn: Richard Jibunor, Andres Fox, Channing Tindall, JJ Peterson, Adam Anderson and others.

The Tigers remain in search of their top Buck position option in the 2018 recruiting cycle. They’ve missed on one recently when Caleb Tannor chose Georgia over Auburn. But the Auburn coaches look at a wide variety of options at the Buck, so there are plenty of uncommitted targets remaining who the Tigers would be glad to add to that spot.

But it needs to happen.

In the last recruiting cycle, Auburn might not have landed that Buck pass rusher until National Signing Day. That’s when Markaviest “Big Cat” Bryant surprisingly chose Auburn over LSU and Georgia.

But Auburn won’t want to wait that long to get a player for that spot this year.

On top of that, of the guys mentioned above, Jibunor and Fox have communicated that they’re the most ready to decide, though none of the pass-rush targets have explicitly stated their desire to commit this month, which could logjam the to-do list.

Either one of those would be a great option, but really, any addition of a potential Buck option would be a major win in August.

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Finish off with some late-summer momentum

Auburn had a successful close to July recruiting.

The Tigers hosted a camp and landed a 2018 commitment from defensive athlete Josh Marsh. During the same event, Auburn secured a 2019 commitment from wide receiver George Pickens. The next day, Auburn hosted its summer cookout, which resulted in two silent commitments.

On the Monday and Tuesday that followed, those silents went public when 4-star linebacker Michael Harris and 3-star safety Jamien Sherwood committed to the Tigers. It was a good stretch of momentum that Auburn hopes to carry over into August.

A source close to the program said the Tigers are shooting for 15 commits by the start of the 2017 season, which coincides with this to-do list. I don’t think it takes four more additions to be a successful August, as long the Tigers are able to check off one or both of the aforementioned to-do list items.

So this might end up having some subjective analysis at the end of the month based on who commits and what the momentum means.

But if Auburn heads into September with some recruiting steam, watch out. The Tigers might have more to gain than anyone once the season actually gets underway.

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Ha, they must hate him they've been recruiting everyone. I'm sure they'll start now and will take Coynis, Zakoby, and Fox and Bama will take Ross, Williams, and Martin and we will celebrate all our diamond in the roughs.

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