Auburn Football Success the Result of Good Recruiting

A college football program is allowed to have 85 scholarship players on a football team at any given time. In the SEC a team is allowed to give 25 players a scholarship in any given year and can only sign 28 to letters of intent.

Most football teams want to be two players deep at every position coming into a season. This makes 44 players plus a kicker, punter, long snapper, and 10 or 11 special teams players.

Given that close to ideal circumstances mean 58 available players to cover in any given season. This leaves a team recruiting 21 players that qualify and make it into the university each year on average. Of those 21 players, 14 must produce and play for a team to be successful at the highest levels.

Only eight players remain on the Auburn team from the 2007 recruiting class. This class can be considered as severely underachieving. The 2008 class has 10 members still on the roster. This class can also be considered as underachieving. 

Neither the 2007 or 2008 classes had enough members qualify for entry to the university to hope to cover their expectations. This is the result of the last two years of recruiting before Gene Chizik was hired.

The 2009 recruiting class has 19 members still on the roster and 14 are predicted to contribute greatly with another three that have produced in some role already. Auburn signed 28 players in 2009 and only 19 remain.

The 2009 class was the result of a huge last minute effort by the Auburn staff to salvage a recruiting class that was falling apart. They pulled it together and brought in 19 players that have a good chance of producing. It was a great result for a situation that had been deteriorating.

Auburn added five more members to the 2009 class after the season was over. All five are expected to contribute. This will give a final result of 25 players on roster and an incredible 19 that will be major contributors with three more that could possibly contribute as well.

Auburn signed 27 players for the 2010 class. There will be a few that do not make it to be enrolled. We should get 23 to 25 viable contributors from this class. There are 17 members of this class that should contribute early and often.

For 2010 Auburn should have a minimum of 74 players that can contribute on the field. This should give Coach Malzhan and Coach Roof a full compliment of players to fully implement their offensive and defensive schemes. It will also give some extra buffer for injuries sustained during the season. 

What does all of this mean? First, the Auburn football team will be as good as it will get from depth in 2010. The only two methods for improvement in future years will be through upgraded talent and better execution. 

Auburn will be able to start a more effective redshirt program in 2011. This means more undeveloped talent can be recruited and developed. It also means vast improvement on the scout team.

With one more well planned and targeted recruiting class Auburn will be back healthy and at full strength. Auburn will be at full playing strength this year. Auburn will be able to concentrate fully on execution of the full game plan in 2010. There will be much improved competition in practice.