Did Arik Armstead's Visit from Gene Chizik, Auburn Put the Tigers in Front?

National Signing Day is less than a week away, and players and coaches are doing their last bit of homework before the top recruits the country make their final decisions.

One of the top players that is currently taking in-home visits is offensive tackle Arik Armstead. Now, while he is capable of playing on either side of the ball, he will play on the defensive line for whichever lucky school he ends up with. He's currently looking at schools like Washington, Oregon, USC, Notre Dame, UCLA, Auburn and a few others.

While all of those schools are still in the running, Auburn may have possibly jumped out in front with an in-home visit that recently took place.

"It went really good," said Gus Armstead, Arik's father. "They just laid out the plan they have for Arik. Coach Chizik talked about Auburn and what Auburn means and what philosophies they have. He talked about the academics and also the spiritual aspect of it."

Armstead would fit in extremely well with this team, considering they are very young and have a lot of talented players returning, particularly on defense. They've also landed a few top defensive players in this year's class, including Tyler Nero, Josh Holsey and Cassanova McKinzy.

If it means having him play basketball as well to land the dual-threat athlete, Auburn is completely on board with that as well.

"We had a meeting with Coach Barbee and they have been very clear for their plan for him and him being a dual-sport athlete," said Gus Armstead. "We definitely, as a family, have a comfort level with that."

But the thing that may have impressed the Armstead family more than anything is how much interest they've shown in the young man.

"The coaches have done a really good job with Arik," said Gus Armstead. "They have been real attentive with Arik. They have been out here to see him more times than some schools on the West Coast. Coach Luper has been out here several times, as many times as he has been allowed."

Really, nothing means more to a recruit than to show him that you're really interested in him. All of this hard work that the Auburn coaching staff is doing could end up really paying off in the long run.

Oregon and Washington are both scheduled for in-home visits, and then Armstead will make his decision sometime on National Signing Day. While it appeared that Notre Dame, Oregon and USC were the front-runners, this recent visit by Auburn may have given the Tigers more than a puncher's chance.

Randy Chambers is a B/R Featured Columnist that covers College Football and the NFL. You can contact him @Randy_Chambers or [e-mail]