Recruiting Rewind - Def Front 7

[Deleted]

Because it has been brought up multiple times, Front Seven Krootin' Info:

2009:
Daren Bates - 2 - 4 year Starter (1 Saftey, 3 LB)
Nosa Eguae - 3 (RS SR - Major Contributor)
Terrance Coleman - 3 (Never Arrived)
Nick Fairley - 3 (JC, Elite Player)
Josh Jackson - 2 (Never Arrived)
Jamar Travis - 4 (Never saw the field)
Johnathon Evans - 3 (4 year player, solid contributor)
Dee Ford - 3 (RS SR - Best Pass Rusher, Injury problems)
Eltoro Freeman - 3 (JC - Erratic but fun to watch)
Harris Gaston - 3 (Transfered Out)

2010:
Joel Bonomolo - 4 (JC- Minor Contributor GONE)
Ken Carter - 4 (Minor Contributor)
Shaun Kitchens - 4 (Trailer Park incident, GONE)
Justin Delaine - 3 (RS JR - Starting to make an impact)
Corey Lemonier - 4 (Elite player, left early for NFL, GONE)
Craig Sanders - 4 (ST demon, just now contributing in the rotation)
Jeff Whitaker - 4 (solid contributor but injured this year)
Jessel Curry - 3 (Transferred, GONE)
Jake Holland - 4 (Has started 3 years but below league average)
LaDarius Owens - 4 (Minor contributor, shuffled around between DE and LB just now in the major rotation)
Jawara White - 3 (injuries ended his career, GONE)

2011:
Anthony Swain - 3(minor contributor, moved to LB)
Keymiya Harrell - 3 (hasn't done much)
JaBrian Niles - 3 (is in the depth chart)
Angelo Blackson - 3 (solid contributor, in the rotation)
Gabe Wright - 4 (underachiever)
Kris Frost - 5 (Starting to make an impact, could be elite)
Justin Garrett - 3 (Starting at WLB)
Chris Landrum - 3 (Not sure, injury?)
Devaunte Sigler - 3 (Dismissed, GONE)
Robensen Therezie - 4 (Starting at Star)

2012:
Gimel President - 3 (Nothing yet, RS)
Tyler Nero - 4 (Nothing yet, RS)
Cass McKinzy - 4 (Solid contributor)
Javiere Mitchell - 4 (3rd string DE)

2013:
Elijah Daniel - 4 (solid contributor)
Carl Lawson - 5 (solid contributor)
Mont Adams - 5 (solid contributor)
Ben Bradley - 4 (in the rotation, solid)
Mackenro Alexander - 3 (getting on the field)
Kenny Flowers - 3 (JC Not on the depth chart)
Cameron Toney - 3 (Not on the depth chart)

[Deleted]

Conclusions which can be drawn, LB was never a point of emphasis or we just sucked at recruiting the position, you tell me. We've moved a lot of guys from LB to the DL.

2012 - you have to sign more front 7 folks than they did that year.

I think Chizco did a bad job of developing the linemen we were able to sign.

The attrition from the first 2 classes was awful.

The best core of players we have up front was signed this year.

[Jet]

I'd disagree on your designations of "solid" on Whitaker, Blackson and McKinzy. They've been below league average. Some of your minor contributors should be "minuscule" contributors. The 2013s can't be called solid.

Lemonier -- Occasionally elite.
Egaue -- Peaked as a freshman

Frankly, front 7 recruiting has been a disaster area. Maybe we can get some recruiting money from FEMA.

[artvandelay NP]

Landrum's at Jack. State, where alot of the other players need to be.

[steve]

Owens has become a solid contributor. Landrum transferred at the same time of Gaston. McKinzy has looked pretty solid, and our best linebacker if you don't count Therezie. Frost is way to inconsistent to consider to be elite. He is great at getting penalties, sometimes make great plays, but often fails to play his assignment. Ben Bradley looks like the real deal. He has been a solid contributor. Brandon King is starting to step up. Hopefully he will become a solid contributor.

I never will understand what ChizCo was thinking with linebackers. We were in need of them every season. I kept expecting them to go after some JUCOs to fill the void. It didn't happen. Even Bynes and Stevens weren't what I would call great linebackers, although Bynes has done well in the pros. They were solid, but not game changers.

[chipchip]

Harrell has been injured just about every year. This is the first year during a season I can recall him not being injured. However, he is still recovering from his second knee injury and unable to play in his third full season. He's closer to being healthy during a season right now than he has ever been.

You also have to remember $aban has made a point to recruit every LB in state to bammer or away from AU. See Kwon Alexander and a few others who sit the bench at bammer.

[Deleted]

Should have said this...

Solid contributor means they're on the field a bunch. I agree that our front 7 have been well below league average for a while. And you might not want to call the 2013 guys solid but they're all in the rotation and making plays. That's a huge indictment of the previous years' recruiting effort.

[bubbs]

Hasn't someone figured out an average success percentage for recruits? Like how many make it and contribute significantly ... What's sad is with the last staff the percentage would be below average, and the contributors below average production.

As far as one can tell this early, I think we did pretty well with the 2013 class.

[steve]

If Reuben Foster had come to Auburn, he would have soon been the starter at middle linebacker. He made a stupid move.

Tre Williams, come on down!!!

[Col. Frank Slade]

Can we make an unexpected early season trade like Indy did??? We'll take Kwon and fork over a decent young O Lineman.

Tre Williams has a huge upside, we never get kids from St. Pauls, UMS Wright (preppy schools that give expensive private school scholarships to kids like AJ Macaroon) or Vigor (bammer head coach, moved off to Sabans staff this past year).... but so far D Craig has already gotten pretty solid talent from those schools to verbally commit. The Mobile/Baldwin County complex is chock full of awesome talent, we can't keep losing these kids.

[Col. Frank Slade]

Sure the LBs are a train wreck, and i'm not sure any of them will pan out entirely, but we could become very competitive in the mean time if the damned Front just showed up for the first half of these games. We've given up very few points in the second half: 3 pts in the third quarter to Wazzu, 6pts in the third to ASU, 7 in the third to MSU, and 7 in both the third and fourth to LSU. Whereas we've put up 6, 17, 10 and 21 in the second half of those games. We've outscored our opponents 54-30 in the second half this year.

[chipchip]

Sept 22, 2013 18:17:46 GMT -6 steve said:

If Reuben Foster had come to Auburn, he would have soon been the starter at middle linebacker. He made a stupid move.

Tre Williams, come on down!!!

I maintain there is absolutely no way Foster would have ever been accepted into AU. Add Trey Johnson to the list of stupid decisions. He could have actually gotten in and be playing.

I wouldn't mind seeing AU recruiting focus solely on LB and DL from here out.

[steve]

The DL recruiting has been a bit more puzzling. Supposedly guys like Whitaker, Wright, and Blackson were good prospects. So far they haven't lived up to the billing. Whitaker has probably been the most disappointing. Wright and Blackson have occasionally shown potential. Hopefull coach Garner will bring these guys along.

[Deleted]

At this point, if he's up for it, I would see if the coaches could get a RS out of Whitaker. Wright plays too soft and Blackson is a pretty good player. The bottom line is these guys are just as good as they were in HS. We have to do a better job of taking these kids and developing them into SEC caliber athletes.

[steve]

Garner should be able to do that. Wright does make some good plays at times. The lack of consistency hints at poor technique, in my opinion. Garner should be able to correct that. Players that are relying on athletic ability aren't going to succeed regularly against SEC competition.

One of the things I liked about the LSU game is that our offensive line is coming along nicely. Their poor play last season wasn't as big of shock as the defensive line. Any time you start a lot of young inexperienced players on the offensive line, you can expect a down year. The difference is this year we have seen significant improvement on the offensive line.

So far, we haven't seen that same type of improvement from the defensive line. The returning experienced players don't look that far ahead of the incoming freshmen that are relying a lot on athletic ability.