AUBURN | I’d call Big Cat a success.

Sure, Auburn hasn’t landed a 2023 commitment out of the annual recruiting event — yet — but the staff positioned itself well with some key recruits and got an important early start with the 2024 class.

Those two ’24 commitments from defensive back A’Mon Lane and quarterback Adrian Posse, both 4-stars, shouldn’t be overlooked.

They place the Tigers securely in the top 10 in the early team rankings and more importantly, they have the look of two future starters and team leaders.

Two excellent pieces to build the 2024 class around and the kind of start that could lead to, dare I say, a top five class. Wouldn’t rule it out.

And I certainly wouldn’t rule out several other ’24 Big Cat recruits to end up in AU’s class.

As for the 2023 class, Auburn made important moves with some important targets. There’s nothing easy about flipping an offensive tackle like Bo Hughley from Georgia or a tight end like Jelani Thurman from Ohio State, but AU took steps in that direction at Big Cat.

Perhaps it was enough or perhaps they’ll need to land a few more punches over the coming months.

Auburn has positioned itself well with several other prospects that were in attendance including edge Ashley Williams and cornerback JC Hart and should see its commitment list grow in the coming days and weeks.

I’d be surprised if AU doesn’t have at least eight commitments by the opening game against Mercer Sept. 3. It’s not the perfect position but it will give the Tigers something to build on with two important official visit weekends — games against Penn State and LSU — to add to the class during the first month of the season.

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In today’s musical journey, we go back 52 years to a hastily organized charity concert that eventually raised $12 million and paved the way for many more benefit concerts to come. On Aug. 1, 1971, George Harrison and Ravi Shankar hosted the Concert for Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Harrison, Shankar and a number of other artists including Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Billy Preston, Leon Russell, Ali Akbar Khan and Bad Company performed two shows with Shankar and Khan opening both with a set of classical Indian music. A humanitarian crisis was occurring in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), which was fighting for its independence. The area was also hit hard by a cyclone with an estimated 7 million people displaced.

Harrison and Shankar, who met five years earlier due to Harrison’s interest in the playing the sitar, began talking about the atrocities occurring in East Pakistan in early 1971. The preparations for the concert began in earnest in late June. At the beginning of July, Harrison recorded a new song, Bangla Desh, which includes the lines: “My friend came to me with sadness in his eyes / Told me that he wanted help before his country dies.” The two concerts had an attendance of 40,000 combined, which immediately raised $250,000, which was distributed through UNICEF. They produced a live record from the concerts, Concert for Bangladesh, but it took over five years to work through the record labels and IRS to free up the funds. By 1985, $12 million had been raised for for Bangladesh, which became its own country on Dec. 16, 1971 with the surrender of West Pakistan forces. The Concert of Bangladesh was a precursor to many charity concerts to come including Live Aid, which raised approximately $127 million in 1985 for the famine in Ethiopia.