AUBURN -- Five new Tigers are expected to be enrolled in class today when Auburn University opens its new semester.
Head coach Gene Chizik hopes that the early signees are just the start of a class that seems to be on its way to a top-five ranking by most major recruiting services.
"I think we're sitting just about as good as we can be with most of the guys we have left recruiting," Chizik said last month.
The Tigers will welcome quarterback Cameron Newton, linebacker Jessel Curry, offensive tackle Roszell Gayden, tight end Brandon Mosley and defensive end Craig Sanders. Newton, Gayden and Mosley are junior college players; the others graduated early from high school.
After that, Auburn has 22 players who have verbally committed to sign next month on National Signing Day. Only a few seem to wavering.
Offensive tackle Shon Coleman told Scout.com that he considered himself a "soft commit" and would take other visits to Tennessee, Miami (Fla.), Arkansas and Ole Miss. Receiver Trovon Reed told his local newspaper that he planned to take an official visit to LSU on Jan. 23, but it's not clear if that will happen.
Most of the commitments have long since wrapped up their commitments, and many will be on campus next week.
Auburn hosted no visitors over this weekend, but still has a handful of targets.
None is bigger than South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore, who played sparingly due to a stomach flu at Saturday's U.S. Army All-American Bowl.
Lattimore has narrowed his choices to Auburn, Penn State, Oregon and South Carolina.
"There was about five Penn State guys. They were on me all day, everyday," Lattimore joked to the Spartanburg (S.C.) Herald Journal.
If Auburn coaches convince him to come to the Plains, he'll join running back Michael Dyer in what will likely be considered the nation's top freshman backfield.
Lattimore's signature might also vault Auburn close to the top spot in the national recruiting rankings. Rivals.com currently has Auburn as No. 5 in the country, while Scout.com ranks the Tigers at No. 9. Both sites use methodologies that weigh the quantity and quality of each class's recruits.
Former coach Tommy Tuberville scorned the star-system and derided those who would "recruit out of magazines." Tuberville did land his fair share of successful under-the-radar prospects while also having a number of five-star busts. But Auburn coaches have been more willing to embrace the competitive aspect of recruiting.
"If they're keeping score, you want to win, right?" running backs coach Curtis Luper asked rhetorically last February when he said his goal was to sign the nation's top recruiting class.
With a few more pieces to this year's class, Luper's wish might come true.
