Auburn Football Recruiting: Looking Ahead to 2017 Class
Recruiting never stops, especially at a powerhouse program such as Auburn.
In order to get a streak of top-10 classes like the one Gus Malzahn and his staff has, coaches must get started early on recruiting the stars of tomorrow far in advance.
Case in point: In the first few minutes of his signing day press conference last Wednesday—a day when the entire college football world was focused solely on the class of 2016—Malzahn mentioned he had talked to dozens of 2017 recruits that day.
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"Today was a really good day," Malzahn said. "They got me on the phone with close to 50 guys coming up and I think that’s a great thing. I'm excited to recruit those guys, and I know our coaches are, too."
Now that everyone's focus has started to shift toward the 2017 cycle, let's take a look at who Auburn currently has committed and who its biggest blue-chip targets are for the next several months.
The current commitments
| Calvin Ashley | OT | 6'6", 305 | Orlando, Florida | No. 4 | No. 2 |
| Alaric Williams | ATH | 6'0", 195 | Gadsden, Alabama | No. 111 | No. 8 |
| Carlito Gonzalez | S | 6'2", 190 | Stone Mountain, Georgia | No. 332 | No. 26 |
Compared to the likes of Ohio State, Alabama and Miami, Auburn is off to a slow start in the 2017 cycle with just three commitments so far.
But the Tigers didn't have a huge number of commitments for most of the 2016 cycle, and they still finished with yet another top-10 class. Gus Malzahn and his staff aren't new at this.
Auburn's trio of 2017 pledges are high quality, though, beginning with 5-star offensive tackle Calvin Ashley. The Orlando, Florida, native is the nation's No. 4 overall recruit and the No. 2 offensive tackle, making him one of the biggest early pledges Auburn has had in quite some time.
Ashley committed to Auburn all the way back in May of last year during "Big Cat Weekend," and he's made a pair of additional unofficial visits to the Plains since then—including last November's Iron Bowl.
In-state schools Florida and Florida State are still chasing after Ashley, who participated in The Opening last summer, but he remains "100 percent committed" to the Tigers.
"I’m 100 percent," Ashley said last month, per Hank South of 247Sports. "(Auburn) has really nice coaches; it’s a nice place to be, nice facilities … I love it. They’ll have a pretty good season next year. I mean this year there were just ups and downs, but next year it’ll be a pretty good season."
Auburn picked up a pair of offensive tackles in the 2016 class to help replace the losses of Shon Coleman and Avery Young to the NFL. The Tigers have great depth at the position for the future, but Ashley looks like he could play early and often at Auburn.
Four-star athlete Alaric Williams is Auburn's other blue-chip commitment for the 2017 class at this moment. The in-state product committed to the Tigers last July and is still receiving plenty of attention from Notre Dame, Alabama and Georgia.
Auburn is recruiting Williams to play running back, a position the Tigers will need reinforcements at starting with the 2017 season. Jovon Robinson's eligibility expires after 2016, and Auburn will have Roc Thomas, Kerryon Johnson and Malik Miller left on campus.
Williams looks like the ideal fit to join the other Alabama running backs at Auburn, but he also has the ability to play wide receiver or defensive back down the road. According to Keith Niebuhr of 247Sports, Williams could be an early enrollee in 2017.
Three-star Georgia safety Carlito Gonzalez rounds out the current commitment crop, as he pledged to the Tigers last August.
While Gonzalez remains committed to the Tigers, South Carolina is a team to watch in his recruitment. Gonzalez was recruited by Will Muschamp and Travaris Robinson at Auburn—and both of them moved onto better positions with the Gamecocks.
The Tigers would love to keep Gonzalez, as both Rudy Ford and Josh Holsey are both entering their final seasons at Auburn.
Staying in-state
In Malzahn's first two full recruiting cycles, Auburn did a great job of not letting the bulk of the high school talent in Alabama sign with the Crimson Tide. The Tigers were able to snag a few Mr. Football award-winners and close the gap between the number of state blue-chippers heading to Tuscaloosa and Auburn.
Auburn didn't have as much success in-state in 2016 as it did in 2014 and 2015, but it managed to land two consensus 4-stars in defensive end Marlon Davidson and cornerback John Broussard.
The 2017 class currently has twice as many blue-chip recruits from the state of Alabama as the 2016 class did, with 14 players boasting 4-star ratings. The Tigers have already gotten off to a good start for several of them, setting up some big-time rivalry battles over the next few months.
Four-star outside linebacker Markail Benton is the state's No. 1 player, and Auburn has a number of factors working well in its recruitment of him.
Linebacker is a position of great need for 2017, and Benton hails from Central High School in Phenix City—which is 30 miles away from Auburn's campus. Benton, who has visited Auburn three times since last summer, was teammates in high school with Broussard.
All 12 of the Crystal Ball Predictions on 247Sports for Benton have him signing with the Tigers in this cycle, but Alabama will always be a contender for a top prospect such as this one.
Other top targets from the state of Alabama include Austin Troxell, a 4-star offensive tackle from Madison Academy in North Alabama. The successful program has produced recent Auburn backs Kerryon Johnson and Malik Miller, so the Tigers could pick up Troxell as well for their uptempo offense.
Troxell has visited Alabama more often than Auburn, but the Tigers were the first ones to offer him a scholarship. According to his 247Sports profile of interests, this one looks like it will be a classic Auburn-Alabama matchup on the recruiting trail.
Auburn might have a better chance for 4-star defensive end Ryan Johnson. As Niebuhr noted earlier this month, Johnson grew up an Auburn fan, and he's located right in Auburn assistant Dameyune Craig's recruiting wheelhouse of Mobile.
Johnson is listed as a 6'4", 240-pound strong-side defensive end, but he has room to grow into a future force at the defensive tackle position. While he's keeping his options open, Auburn should be a top contender for Johnson.
"I talked to Coach (Kevin Steele), Coach (Dameyune Craig) and Coach (Rodney Garner)," Johnson said, per Niebuhr. "They’re definitely showing a lot of interest in me. They definitely want us to come up here and compete."
Other in-state names to watch include 4-star quarterback Jake Bentley, who is right down the road from Auburn at Opelika. Bentley had an incredible junior season quarterbacking the Bulldogs, and he's the son of former Auburn assistant Bobby Bentley—who is also now at South Carolina.
Bentley has good mobility, but he's still a pro-style quarterback. It will be interesting to see if the Tigers continue to pursue him in this cycle after signing two dual-threats in 2016.
Four-star wide receiver Nico Collins and four-star offensive tackle Kendall Randolph are both widely expected to sign with Alabama, but the Tigers will still track them in this cycle.
To the battleground states and beyond
Auburn went into its traditional pipeline of Georgia in the 2016 cycle and came out a big winner, netting three of the state's top 10 recruits.
Georgia will continue to be a high priority for Auburn in this upcoming class, with many of the Tigers' top targets hailing from the Peach State.
Five-star cornerback Deangelo Gibbs is the biggest one of those, as he's ranked as the nation's No. 9 overall recruit and No. 2 cornerback. Gibbs is from Grayson High School in Loganville, Georgia—the same school that produced Ole Miss star and former No. 1 overall recruit Robert Nkemdiche.
As Bleacher Report's Sanjay Kirpalani detailed last year, Gibbs has been one of the class of 2017's can't-miss recruits for quite some time. He won the defensive back MVP award at a Nike camp in Atlanta when he was a high school sophomore, beating out a number of eventual 5-stars from the 2015 and 2016 cycles.
Gibbs is a freakish athlete with incredibly polished skills as a defensive back, and he's picked up 33 scholarship offers so far. Georgia and Tennessee are said to be the early leaders for him, but he visited Auburn last November and is one of the Tigers' biggest priorities on defense.
Auburn is widely expected so sign 4-star athlete Tray Bishop from Dawson, Georgia. The high school quarterback will most likely play either receiver or safety at the next level, and he's visited Auburn three times in the past year.
The Tigers could snag 4-star defensive tackle Aubrey Solomon like they did with Derrick Brown and several other highly rated linemen from Georgia. The nation's No. 6 defensive tackle has garnered plenty of attention from Auburn as well as Georgia, Ohio State, Florida and Florida State.
Auburn continued to flex its newfound muscles in the state of Florida by signing several natives in the last cycle and picking up a commitment from Ashley.
Four-star inside linebacker Will Ignont could technically be classified as an Alabama recruit, but he transferred from Buckhorn High School to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Ignont is expected to become a Tiger, and Auburn would love to pick up a blue-chip from IMG for future recruiting purposes.
Other 4-star targets from Florida include running backs Colin Wilson and Devan Barrett. Auburn will have to battle the in-state Gators for these prized rushers, who could add to the great depth the Tigers love to have in the backfield.
Perhaps the biggest recruit to watch outside of the pipeline states of Alabama, Florida and Georgia has to be 4-star dual-threat quarterback Lowell Narcisse—a Louisiana native who was formerly committed to Auburn.
Narcisse committed to Auburn last July but opened his recruitment back up in January, telling Shea Dixon of 247Sports that he "rushed" his decision.
"I still plan to communicate and nurture a relationship with [Auburn]," Narcisse told Dixon. "But at this time I will open my recruitment back up. My main goal now is to continue to get my health better and be a leader and role model to my team."
Narcisse came in at No. 7 for quarterbacks in Bleacher Report's Future 100 for the class of 2017, and it's easy to see why Auburn is still pushing for him after his decommitment. He's the ideal Malzahn quarterback:
"He's easily the smoothest runner on this list, which makes him an ideal fit to land in a collegiate offensive scheme that emphasizes designed rushing attempts from its quarterback, His agility is often utilized on roll-out plays that take him beyond the pocket, and he displays solid touch (17/20) that creates space for receivers to extend. Elongated passing mechanics (12/15) can be polished to add even more precision and power to passes.
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Auburn doesn't have a gaping hole at quarterback for 2017, but it will lose Jeremy Johnson after this season. If the Tigers want to have strong depth there for the future, Narcisse is the way to go.
All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Recruiting information courtesy of 247Sports.
Justin Ferguson is a college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.
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