Best Ive ever seen

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AUBURN | Tim Horton remembers vividly Nov. 22, 2013.

The Auburn assistant couldn't forget. It was the day he first watched Byron Cowart play.

"He was special," Horton said. "He was unbelievable."

Horton, who recruits the Tampa, Fla. area for Auburn, watched as Cowart led Seffner to a win over Jefferson in the 6A regional semifinal game.

"His motor was like nobody's I'd ever seen," Horton said. "He had an unbelievable motor."

Horton watched Cowart, a junior at the time, record seven tackles, three quarterback hurries, two sacks and two fumble recoveries.

Horton saw Cowart return both fumble recoveries for touchdowns.

"I came back after that game and told our coaches that that's the best player I've ever seen," Horton said.

That's high praise coming from a 26-year coaching veteran.

"He was that good," Horton said.

Others thought so as well.

Cowart became Rivals.com's No. 1 player in the 2015 class, the most-wanted prospect in the country. He had the grades, the offers, the stars and the rankings, and he backed it all up with his play.

Cowart's whirlwind recruitment, which didn't include Auburn until Will Muschamp's arrival in mid-December, ended with the Tigers receiving a signed National Letter of Intent, albeit several hours later.

Cowart announced at 8 a.m. on Signing Day that he would sign with Auburn, and did sign with Auburn, but the Letter of Intent wasn't immediately faxed. It led to speculation that Cowart could be having doubts.

Recruiting analysts reported that Cowart was wavering, that he was considering making the last-second flip to Florida, but Auburn wasn't worried. Muschamp certainly wasn't.

The proof is in the picture.

"Didn't you see how (Muschamp) looked in the staff meeting (picture)?" Travaris Robinson, Auburn's secondary coach, asked. "He wasn't worried about it. He knew. We felt good about it."

Cowart, 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds, will move to Auburn in May and begin summer workouts. He'll start fall camp with the Tigers in August, but what position he initially lines up to play has yet to be determined.

Auburn defensive line coach Rodney Garner believes Cowart has the abilities and versatility to play either the "Buck" position, where Carl Lawson is playing, or defensive end.

"Byron's a big, athletic guy that can really bend," Garner said. "We think he has a tremendous skillset and we're going to see how quickly he develops and picks up the system.

"We're going to give him an opportunity. He will determine how much and when he plays. Whether he's going to be a 'Buck' or an end, we've got to wait and see when he gets here. "

Cowart headlined Auburn's 2015 defensive line class, which also included four-star defensive end Prince Tega Wanogho Jr., three-star defensive tackle Jauntavius Johnson and junior college tackle Maurice Swain.

Urging a Prince

Tega, from Edgewood Academy in Elmore, committed to Auburn the day before Signing Day and two days after an official visit to Auburn.

Tega, 6-foot-8 and 250 pounds, had planned to wait until later in February, weeks after Signing Day, to announce his decision. But the Tigers couldn't wait.

"We always felt like he wanted to be at Auburn, but at the same time he enjoyed recruiting because he blew up overnight," Garner said. "He took an official visit to LSU and had a great time. He wanted to visit other schools, but we couldn't promise him he'd have a spot if he did.

"We had a need to fill positions and we had guys on hold that we needed to offer if we're not going to get him. It's a chess game so we definitely had a talk with him and let him know that if this is what you know in your heart that you want to do, the guarantee is to get it done now."

Tega, from Nigeria, has played only one year of football. His highlight tape wasn't the reason Auburn signed him.

"We signed him on potential," Garner said. "To find guys with that kind of length and athleticism and character is hard to pass up on. He's such a neat person, too. The purity he possesses; he's just so humbled and appreciative. It's refreshing to recruit a young man like that."

Tega broke his leg in January playing basketball, but is recovering well and reportedly ahead of schedule in his rehabilitation. The injury doesn't change much. Tega wouldn't have been counted on to play early regardless, and he knew that.

He realizes he's still raw.

"He doesn't have the expectations to come in here and play," Garner said. "There's going to be a curve for adjustment and Prince knows that. He's coming off an injury so that's something he's got to work his way through. He's got to come in and develop.

"We're going to take it at the pace we need to take it to get him ready for SEC football because we definitely know he has the skillset."

Juco will help

Swain doesn't have as much time to adjust to the SEC as Tega, and after playing football nearly all his life, including the past two years in junior college, he won't need it.

Garner hopes he won't.

Swain, 6-foot-5 and 295 pounds, enrolled at Auburn in December after choosing the Tigers over Mississippi State and Kentucky. He'll be counted on to help Auburn in the fall and has been working at all three inside positions along the defensive front this spring.

"He's going to have to help us," Garner said. "And I've been pleased with him so far. He's a tall d-lineman so he has to be conscientious of his pad level. That's been a big adjustment for him coming from junior college ball to the SEC.

"But he's tall and he can really run. He's going to help us this fall. I'm looking forward to him."

Garner is familiar with Swain having recruited him in 2012-13 out of Troup County (LaGrange, Ga.) when Garner was the defensive line coach at Georgia. Swain made it known to Garner then that he wanted to play for him. Two years of junior college didn't change that.

"He wanted me to take him at Georgia, but I knew his grades were questionable," Garner said. "Had he had his grades in line, we (UGA) might have pulled the trigger and took him, but we didn't."

Rival coaches tried to use it against Garner during Swain's recruitment out of junior college.

"Some schools tried to use against me, saying that I didn't want him out of high school but that I want him now," Garner said. "And that wasn't true.

"Me and Maurice have always had a great relationship so that is one thing I had to my advantage."

Garner also had Swain's word.

"We had a gentleman's understanding early on that he was coming to Auburn," Garner said. "We had an understanding that he was going to come to Auburn, that I was going to coach him and that he would just wait (to publicly announce his commitment) and not scare anyone off (another defensive line target) by taking a junior college kid."

In-state presence

Johnson, Auburn's lone in-state defensive line signee, is scheduled to report May 24 and his strength will be a welcomed addition to the heart of the defensive line.

Johnson, 6-foot-3 and 315 pounds, is a run-stopping, middle-clogging tackle Garner was looking for in 2015.

"He's a big, powerful guy," Garner said. "He's strong. He's a good first and second-down guy who can really hold the point of attack against the run.

"He's coming off a knee injury so he'll start rehabbing when he gets here. He'll have to work through that, but he's a strong guy who can be a big presence for us in the middle."