The Auburn Tigers have certainly put together a fine 2018 recruiting class. Here are all the high school prospects that have committed to Auburn for 2018.
It’s a good time to be the Auburn Tigers. Though they went 10-4 a season ago, the Tigers did win the SEC West for the first time since 2013 and beat their two arch rivals in the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Georgia Bulldogs at home during the regular season.
Of course, Auburn would lose to Georgia in the 2017 SEC Championship Game in Atlanta, as well as the UCF Knights in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta, but it was a great year for War Eagle Nation. The 2017 team had great balance with Jarrett Stidham quarterbacking the offense for head coach Gus Malzahn. The Kevin Steele defense was as menacing as it was a year ago.
Auburn is right where it should be in terms of recruiting, just inside of the top 10. According to 247Sports, Auburn has the No. 10 class in the county heading into national signing day and the No. 3 class in the SEC behind only Georgia and Alabama. This looks to be the sixth-straight top-10 class for War Eagle Nation.
Auburn has 16 four-stars and seven three-stars committed to its 2018 recruiting class. Eight of those 23 commits have early enrolled at Auburn. Another seven have already signed their national letter of intent during the early signing period. Seven more remain hard commits to the Auburn Program.
Here is Auburn’s 2018 football recruiting class.
2018 Auburn Tigers football recruiting class
Six of Auburn’s eight early enrollees are four-star recruits, including their best recruit in athlete Joey Gatewood out of Jacksonville, Florida. Gatewood was the No. 1 athlete in the country, the No. 9 player out of talent-rich Florida and the No. 49 player overall nationally. We have to expect that Malzahn, Steele or offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey will find away to get this guy on the field early. Enrolling early only helps in his quest for early playing time as a true freshman.
Other important enrollees for the Tigers include athlete Quindarious Monday (Atlanta) and defensive tackle Dequan Newkirk (Perkinston, Mississippi). Monday should get early playing time due to his positional flexibility. Newkirk’s playing time early is more promising than Monday’s mostly because he plays a position of need at defensive tackle and is coming over from junior college in Mississippi.
Overall, Auburn seems to have recruited well in terms of speed guys. They have a bunch of athletes and defensive backs. This could be good and bad for the coaching staff, as the positions some of these guys will play is very nebulous. Ideally, would have liked to have seen Auburn recruit better on the offensive line, but this is a position group that Malzahn usually coaches up anyway.
If Auburn can land one more elite player, that would have to be wide receiver Justin Ross from Phenix City, Alabama. He’s right in the hotbed of Auburn recruiting talent right across the Chattahoochee river from metropolis Columbus, Georgia. He is the No. 1 player from Alabama, the No. 9 receiver in this class and the No. 45 player nationally as a four-star.
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Adding Ross would certainly ensure that Auburn finishes with a top-10 class for the sixth-straight season, as he would be the best player the Tigers will have signed in this cycle. It seems that Auburn wanted to get quicker with this recruiting class and seems to have certainly done just that.
Grade: B+