National Signing Day 2015: Meet the New Auburn Tigers

Barring some strange turn of events with outstanding LOIs (no, we don't expect anything like that), Auburn's 2015 signing day is finally over, and the new class is final. It was a day of surprises, drama, etc, just as we thought. I don't think any of us expected for events to go the way of the Byron Cowart situation, but some drama and strangeness happens every season.

Now that we're finished, let's run the list of who is on board:

Early Enrollees:

It doesn't do them justice, but you can check out a short write-up on all of the early entrees here.

Committments Who Signed:

Targets Who Signed:

One target who did not sign with Auburn was 3* LB Elijah Sullivan. Auburn offered him a greyshirt a few weeks back, apparently, and he decided not to take it. Instead, he joined The Purple Wizard of Manhattan out at Kansas State. Good luck to Elijah. We wish him all the best and hate that it didn't work out for him to be in this class.

Thoughts

That is an impressive class. Auburn signed more 4*s than pretty much any other team in the nation. They finished with a class ranked 9th in the nation in the 247Sports Composite. It was ranked in the 3rd by Scout, 6th by Rivals and 247Sports, and 8th by ESPN.

There were misses. The Tigers would like to have added 5* OL Martez Ivey, 5* DE CeCe Jefferson, or 5* WR Terry Godwin, but you can't win them all. This staff did some serious work down the stretch, and so much of what happened can be directly attributed to the hiring of Will Muschamp, Travaris Robinson, and Lance Thompson.

The Muschamp Effect

I should probably call this "The T-Rob Effect," too, since it's just as much his work. Perhaps even more so. With Muschamp and Robinson on board, the Tigers cleaned up in South Florida. You can check out WarRoomEagle's awesome map to see where we pulled players from. Without Robinson, it is doubtful that we land a single one of the Davis group. We don't land Tim Irvin, either. It is probable we don't pick up Byron Cowart without T-Rob, but I think Muschamp may have been enough to sway him along.

Immediate Impact Players

Who is likely to see the field immediately? You would have to believe Byron Cowart. Cowart and Lawson are going to be an absolute terror to opposing quarterbacks. Ryan Davis is so fast and shifty that I can see him getting some early playing time, along with Darius Slayton. Carlton Davis is another that could possibly step on to the field in Auburn's first game in the defensive backfield.

Out of all of the signees (including early entrees), I have to say the two most likely to see the field right off the bat are Jovon Robinson and Chandler Cox. Robinson is a no-brainer. Auburn needs an experienced running back. Cox will be a true freshman, but with spring and fall camps behind him, I think he'll grasp the offense well enough to step into the Jay Prosch role.

Don't rule out Jalen Harris, either. The Philip Lutzenkirchen protégé is one of Auburn's only true Tight-Ends on the roster, now. If he grasps the offense quick enough, I could see him making a move.

Going Forward

We're not through talking about these young men just yet. Peggy will be along tomorrow with a great signing day recap done in .gif form, and we'll be taking a much closer look at each and every one of these players in the coming weeks. It was a stressful and strange day, but I must say that I'm quite pleased with how it all turned out.

War Eagle!