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

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All-American week for Auburn commits and targets

Keep an eye on Orlando, Fla., and San Antonio, Texas, this week.

In Orlando, Fla., Under Armour will host its annual All-America Game. Several top Auburn signees, commits and targets will showcase their talents throughout the week at the ESPN Wide World of Sports. In San Antonio, the U.S. Army All-American Bowl will get started on New Year’s Day. There are plenty of Auburn prospects in that one, too.

SEC Country is stationed in both locations. A few of our best recruiting writers are down in Orlando and will assist with some Under Armour coverage (see Schwartz above). I’ll be in San Antonio to take care of the Auburn-related content, as well as lend a helping hand with a few of our other team sites.

Hang around SEC Country all week for recruiting updates.

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Most of the 10 prospects Auburn plans to fill its class out with fit into two categories: uncommitted or committed to Auburn but unsigned. There are a few, however, that fall into a third category: potential flip candidates.

As @JasonLinton55 asks, are there any Auburn targets who can legitimately be flipped? I have two names for you to keep an eye on — both committed to SEC schools.

The first is one we’ve talked about for nearly two years.

Alabama linebacker commit Quay Walker has been on Auburn’s radar for a while. The week before he committed to the Crimson Tide, Walker visited the Plains for Big Cat Weekend to tell the staff he would soon commit to Alabama. That didn’t stop defensive coordinator Kevin Steele and linebackers coach Travis Williams from continuing their push.

It has, to some extent, paid off.

Walker remains committed to Alabama, but as he told SEC Country Alabama recruiting reporter Chris Kirschner, he’s had his doubts since Jeremy Pruitt left for Tennessee. Auburn won’t be the only one trying to flip him. Georgia has made its efforts known already, and that’s only going to increase in the next month.

Walker’s close friendship with high school teammate Markaviest “Big Kat” Bryant can’t be underestimated here.

The other flippable prospect is Florida offensive tackle commit Richard Gouraige who, like Walker, decided to pass on the early signing period.

Gouraige has showed hesitations with the Gators throughout the recent coaching change. He visited Auburn for the Iron Bowl a few days before Dan Mullen was hired. Since then, Gouraige has been silent about his recruitment, save for a few surface-level comments about the new Florida staff.

This has a chance to be an interesting recruitment in January.

Auburn will work to get Gouraige on an official visit, as will a few other programs. He has created a bond with Tigers offensive line coach Herb Hand that should be beneficial for the Tigers down the stretch. Especially with the lack of commits/signees at tackle, Gouraige will be one of the priority prospects on Auburn’s wish list in the final month of the 2018 cycle.

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Kelvin Joseph ready to commit?

For weeks, elite Louisiana defensive back Kelvin Joseph has hinted that he could be ready to make his decision known. The one-time LSU commit could commit as early as this week in San Antonio.

LSU has been the top dog for Joseph even after he reopened his recruitment in October, but he named a top four of the Tigers, Alabama, Florida State and Auburn, and insisted that the entire quartet is even at the moment.

LSU was among a handful of schools to go in-home with the 4-star safety during last month’s in-home visits, along with Oregon, Florida State, Auburn and Alabama. During a visit with LSU defensive backs coach Corey Raymond, Joseph fired off a tweet that he could be nearing a decision as well.

LSU remains the favorite to keep Joseph in Baton Rouge. He has official visits planned to LSU on Jan. 20, Alabama on Jan. 27 and Auburn on Feb. 2. Joseph previously made an official stop at Florida State in October.

The Tigers have yet to sign a defensive back in their 2018 class, and Joseph has long been a priority for this coaching staff.

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SAN ANTONIO — LSU is expected to fill the final four spots in its 2018 recruiting class with a handful of defensive backs. One domino may fall way sooner than anticipated.

Kelvin Joseph, Louisiana’s top-ranked defensive back, has planned on announcing his decision on National Signing Day in February. Now, the 4-star safety is toying with the idea of committing on Saturday during the U.S. Army All-American Bowl.

“I’m thinking about it,” Joseph told SEC Country during U.S. Army bowl practice on Monday. “I feel like I’ll make the right decision. I’m trying to focus on football and keep the recruiting to a minimum.”

Joseph was committed to the in-state Tigers for two years, but dropped that verbal pledge in October.

The 6-foot-2, 190-pound defensive back maintained LSU as his leading school throughout the fall, but insisted that it’s now an even field of LSU, Alabama, Auburn and Florida State.

Should Joseph elect to commit this week, then he will choose from those four schools.

“It’s just about that time to get it over with and let everybody know instead of holding back,” he said.

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Good. Barrett has the quick swing pass play down as his only play he gets to be used on. Need a good wheel route play.

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SAN ANTONIO — For most of the 2017 calendar year, it didn’t look like Auburn had much of a shot with William Barnes.

The 4-star offensive tackle from Apopka, Fla., looked like a clear Florida lean. And despite saying in the spring he’d visit Auburn during the year, that visit never materialized. Barnes didn’t make that trip for a few reasons. He had his eyes more set on other programs at the time, and Auburn was in more regular communication with other offensive tackles.

After Auburn fell in the SEC Championship Game, offensive line coach Herb Hand restored his relationship with Barnes.

“I wasn’t always in contact with coach Hand. Either I wouldn’t be texting him or he wouldn’t be texting me. It was an on-and-off kind of thing. It picked back up after the SEC Championship Game,” Barnes told SEC Country at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. “I’m hearing from coach Hand a lot now. He’s staying in contact with me, and so am I.”

To date, Barnes has only ever visited Auburn once.

The 6-foot-4, 320-pound offensive tackle took a trip to the Plains as a junior when he attended a late November game against Alabama A&M. That was his only experience at Auburn, but it was enough to draw his interest. His initial visit played a key role in why Barnes set up an official visit with the Tigers.

Barnes will use his last official visit to Auburn on Feb. 3. He’s looking forward to his return.

“I didn’t have a chance to go down there [this year]. This will really only be my second time going up there,” Barnes said. “The first time I went up there for a visit and a game, it’s just a wonderful atmosphere. The people around there are just great. It’s just a great place to be at. And then definitely, there’s a dog that Auburn players have in them. They all have it. It’s great seeing how much they want it.”

Florida has been the perceived team to beat since the beginning. The Gators are still in this, but Barnes cited that coaching change as the main reason he wanted to wait until National Signing Day rather than use the early signing period. The Florida State coaching change has had an effect, as well, but he’s heard much more from the new Gators staff than the new Seminoles staff.

Auburn and North Carolina are the other main programs to watch, and for now, those are the only two that have official visit dates specifically set. Barnes will go to North Carolina on Jan. 12 and Auburn on Feb. 3.

The message from the Auburn staff is clear.

“It’s definitely that they want me to be a part of their family. They want me immediately,” Barnes said. “Coach Hand just tells me it’s a great place and there’s no place I’d rather be than up there. He’s going to develop me the best way he can.

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SAN ANTONIO — As Auburn searches for defensive backs to fill out the class, Kelvin Joseph is the new starting point.

Joseph and the Tigers haven’t been linked much throughout his recruitment. He was committed to LSU for 18 months before de-committing. Even then, it was Alabama that garnered the most attention and likely possibility to lure him away from home-state Louisiana.

After the Louisiana-Monroe game, SEC Country reported Auburn would start to push for Joseph. Very little materialized publicly after that, but Joseph confirmed Monday that Auburn has picked up its communication heavily of late.

“They started recruiting me later on right before the early signing period. They’re recruiting me hard, maybe harder than others,” Joseph said. “It was out of nowhere. Coach just hit me up and stopped by my school and my house.”

Tight ends coach Larry Porter joined the staff as a potential asset for recruiting the Bayou State.

Joseph is a perfect example of that.

Porter’s familiarity with the Louisiana recruiting territory helped Auburn work its way into Joseph’s recruitment along with LSU and Alabama — the two favorites — as well as Florida State. After the SEC Championship Game, Porter went by Joseph’s school in Baton Rouge and visited him in-home.

Joseph has been impressed by his early conversations with Porter.

“Coach [Larry] Porter, he’s just kept on me more as a person than just being an athlete. He’s not even talking that much about football,” Joseph said.

With that said, the Tigers have a lot of work to do.

For starters, Joseph has never visited Auburn and has been to LSU and Alabama regularly. That’s going to change before National Signing Day when Joseph takes his official visit to Auburn the last weekend on Feb. 2.

An official visit date is a good place to start, but as SEC Country reported earlier, Joseph is flirting with the possibility of committing sooner rather than later. That would be negative sign for Auburn.

So what gives Auburn a realistic shot? According to Joseph, it’s one clear advantage.

“They have need at the position. I’ll admit that’s a big factor right there,” he said.

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1. Auburn is legitimate contender for William Barnes

You can read the more in-depth report on Barnes here.

He has visited Auburn once in his life. That was during his junior year for the Alabama A&M game. Since then, Barnes always has said he wanted to return, but that hasn’t happened yet. Now Barnes plans to take his last official visit — Feb. 2-4 — to Auburn.

So far, Barnes only has two official visits set up. Those are to Auburn and North Carolina, which should be a positive for the Tigers. With that said, don’t rule out official visits to Florida, Florida State or Georgia. Florida has been the perceived favorite since the beginning of his process, but the coaching change has altered that.

There is a long way to go in this one, but Auburn has made itself a realistic choice for Barnes.

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3. In-state running back Harold Joiner looks like star in pads — and there is a recruiting update

When you see Harold Joiner in pads, you think he has the freakish athletic potential to be one of the best prospects in the country. Time will tell how those physical attributes — 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds — translate to the college level.

There was an interesting recruiting update from Joiner on Monday afternoon.

For the longest time, LSU has been the place Joiner wanted to go, and it looked like the feeling was mutual. On Monday, he told SEC Country LSU reporter Sam Spiegelman that his original plan was to commit to LSU during the live broadcast of the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. That plan was thwarted when, strangely, the LSU coaching staff stopped returning his calls after he silently committed to the staff on an in-home visit in December.

Why do I tell you this LSU story about Joiner?

Well, he’s restructured his top list of schools, and it includes Auburn. It’s still too early to say where he stands among other running back targets, or if the Tigers even plan to take another.

Anticipate a deeper Joiner update from the Auburn side later in the week.

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Don't evaluate him on 'nothing eye popping'...

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