Richard Jibunor Not Signing Today

Auburn was hoping 16 of their 20 commitments would sign today. So far 15 have faxed in their letters of intent but it sounds like the staff might have to wait on #16. 4* Buck Richard Jibunor is reportedly not signing today due to confusion over the early signing period timeline and the signing process in general. It sounds like it’s been a hectic day for the young man. Here’s a brief rundown of the events.

First reported by Benjamin Wolk over at SECCountry, Jibunor told him early in the afternoon that he was planning on not signing today because he wanted to do it when school got back in session.

Richard Jibunor just told me he won’t sign today. His exact words: “I will as soon as I get back to school. We’ve been on break.” Not sure if that means he’ll do it one of the next two days of the early signing period or wait until February. It had always been Jibunor’s plan to sign early, so I’ll keep you posted.

Keith Niebuhr of AuburnUndercover followed up with Jibunor and heard the same thing.

From Jibunor: "We're already out of school and I wanna do it when we're in school"

The problem here is Jibunor’s school is out for the holidays until January. The early signing period lasts only to Friday so if he doesn’t sign this week then he will have to wait until February to do so. Niebuhr speculated in that same thread that maybe Jibunor is unaware of the timeframe associated with the new early signing period. Remember, this kid only started playing football a few years ago so he’s probably not all that familiar with the recruiting process and it’s intricacies. Throw in a brand new wrinkle to recruiting with this early signing period and it appears you get a bit of chaos.

I suspect that Auburn coaches reached out to him and explained that the early signing period is only 3 days so if he wants to sign he must do so soon. Wolk soon reported about an hour later that Jibunor did in fact plan on signing.

Source says that Jibunor will now sign sometime Wednesday. Simply a communication error. Should be resolved by the time Malzahn talks later today.

But Gus Malzahn’s press conference came and went with no official word that Jibunor had signed. Now Wolk is reporting that Jibunor won’t sign today but could sign by Friday.

About to shut this down the day, but wanted to give the latest on Richard Jibunor before I checked out. A team-side source has told me they think Jibunor could sign between now and Friday, even floated the word “probably.” On the flip side of that, Jibunor has expressed some hesitation. In fact, last I heard from him this evening, he thinks he’ll wait until February to sign. Just to be clear: I don’t think the Tigers have anything to worry about here. This was a slight misunderstanding about the early signing period that could be resolved before Friday. If not, it’ll just have to wait until February. Again, my confidence is sky high that Jibunor is a member of Auburn’s class.

So there you have it. It seems most everyone still believes Jibunor will sign with Auburn even if he waits until February. I suspect coaches will try and help him out over the coming days to hopefully get him on board. But the fact that this is the only drama Auburn faced today in recruiting is probably a good thing. Hopefully the young man gets the process sorted out so he can go ahead and claim his spot in this class.

War Eagle!