Auburn Recruiting: The Early Enrollees

Jovon's trip to Auburn has been a long one. He committed, signed, enrolled, and began practicing with the team in 2012. Then came issues with his high school transcripts, and he was forced to go the JUCO route. When Auburn was cleared to begin recruiting him again early in 2014, he quickly jumped on board. Now he's enrolled at Auburn and even took part in bowl practices with the team.

Robinson is a huge addition. While Roc Thomas, Peyton Barber, Kamryn Pettway, and Kerryon Johnson are all very talented, Robinson brings experience with him. He was the #1 JUCO running back for a reason. He is a beast with the football, and will add an immediate punch to Auburn's running game. I honestly see him being a Rudi Johnson type player. Quick burst of brilliance and then gone to the pros.

Queen is an excellent quarterback prospect who threw for more than 8,000 yards and 89 touchdowns in his career. At the moment he is the only true quarterback in this season's class. Fellow early enrollee Jason Smith will get a shot at quarterback. Queen will join Jeremy Johnson, Sean White, and Smith to battle for the starting roll this fall. I'm sure he'll end up redshirting this season, though.

Speaking of Jason Smith, he will get a shot at quarterback, but will most likely end up at wide receiver. There's always the chance he proves to be dynamic enough to play the Nick Marshall role, though. I doubt that happens, but his JUCO footage is pretty impressive. Smith also signed with the Tigers a few years back, but was placed in JUCO and rejoined the team this semester. He will go through quarterback competition in the spring.

Auburn desperately needs interior defensive lineman, and Swain provides immediate experience at that position. Auburn lost quite a few defensive lineman after last season, and could possibly lose Montravius Adams to the NFL after this coming season, so having experienced depth on the interior is huge. Of course, there's always the chance that Swain excels and goes pro after this season, too.

Chandler Cox may have more impact on Auburn's season next year than any other signee. Cox enrolled early and will go through spring practice to learn the FB/H-Back role. He is a player more in the mold of Jay Prosch than Brandon Fulse and CJ Uzomah were, and will hopefully add that expert blocking ability back to the running game that the Tigers lacked this past season. Having him for spring practice just adds some extra tasty icing to the cake, since it means he has that much more time to learn the offense.

Carr and Sharp provide some needed depth on the offensive line going into this season. I feel bad that I don't know more about them, because the Big Nasties up front rarely get the recognition they deserve. Auburn's offensive line needs a bit of work after this past season. It should get a boost with a more experienced Braden Smith and healthy Alex Kozan, but injuries are always a big risk on the line, and we saw last season just much the dynamic of the running game can be altered when your line isn't as strong.

Irvin, the nephew of NFL star Michael Irvin, was a last-second addition to the early enrollee group. He came to Auburn on an official visit during the Mega Recruiting weekend, and ended up sticking around. He committed to Texas during one of the high school all-star games, but Travaris Robinson never gave up on him and procured his visit to the Plains just days before he was due to enroll at Texas. He ended up flipping to the Tigers shortly afterwards.

Irvin isn't that tall, but he's exactly the type of cornerback Will Muschamp likes. I look forward to seeing what he can do in this defense. He'll get a chance to compete for playing time early, as Auburn's secondary has not been spectacular over the past few seasons.