AUBURN | In six more days one of the most important five weeks of Bryan Harsin’s early tenure will commence.

It’s the start of a key stretch of official visit weekends for Auburn and top schools across the country. Many elite prospects will be visiting their finalists and making decisions shortly thereafter.

If the Tigers are going to make a splash in the 2023 class, now is the time to get it done. Recruiting is always important but that’s especially true for Harsin and AU this year.

For starters, most of AU’s best players are likely moving on after 2023 including Tank Bigsby, John Samuel Shenker, Colby Wooden, Derick Hall, Eku Leota, Owen Pappoe and Nehemiah Pritchett. Not to mention at least eight offensive linemen.

Because of recruiting issues that go back multiple years, some of their replacements are going to have to come from the ’23 class.

If AU is going to be competitive in 2023 and beyond, it needs a big injection of talent in this class.

It could also play a big part in Harsin’s future at Auburn.

Going 6-6 with a recruiting class ranked 71st in the country, as it was right before last December’s signing day, is a lot different than going 6-6 with a top 10 class.

Same could be said for 7-5 or perhaps even 5-7.

Boosters, alumni and fans want to feel positive about the direction and future of the program. I believe Harsin can survive another mediocre season on the field if that future appears brighter with a top recruiting class.

Without it that future looks much murkier.

Perhaps the Tigers will win eight or more games, but that upward trend won’t continue if recruiting doesn’t follow the same trajectory.

There are plenty of positive signs when it comes to AU’s recruiting.

The coaches have done an excellent job of getting top targets in for visits over the last three months and won a key recruiting battle for Rivals100 safety Terrance Love in April.

They’ve spent the better part of the last three weeks scouring the state of Alabama and the country visiting and evaluating prospects, and already started lining up some big officials for the end of May and June.

They’ve set the table, now it’s about closing. It’s about winning enough of those key recruiting battles to put AU’s class among the best in the SEC, which would automatically make it among the best in the nation.

It’s time to buckle in and see if AU can get it done over the next five weeks.

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In today’s musical journey, we go back 24 years to the day a cover of a cover of a Danish song became a one-hit wonder for a former Australian soap opera star. On May 16, 1998, Torn by Natalie Imbruglia hit No. 1 on the U.S. Airplay chart five years after it was originally released by Danish singer Lis Sorensen. The song was written by Anne Preven, Scott Cutler and Phil Thornalley. Preven and Cutler produced an English version in 1995 with their band Ednaswap, but it wasn’t a hit. A few years later, it was Thornalley that produced Imbruglia first album and brought Torn with him. It first became a big hit in the UK in 1997, but it was another seven months before it became one of the biggest hits of the summer of ’98 in the U.S. It also hit No. 1 in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Spain, and Sweden, selling over 4 million copies worldwide. Imbruglia was nominated for a Grammy but lost out to Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On.

Imbruglia was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1975. She appeared in commercials as a teenager and left school at the age of 16 to pursue and acting career. She starred on the Aussie soap opera Neighbours from 1992-94, which is the same one Kylie Minogue was on from 1986-87. She moved to London in 1994 to pursue a singing career and it’s there that she recorded Torn and her first album, 1997’s Left of Middle. The album sold 7 million copies. Imbruglia has produced a total of six albums including 2021’s Firebird but her biggest hits since 1998 were mostly in the UK and none close to the success of Torn. She has appeared in five films including 2003’s Johnny English and served as a spokesmodel for Gap and L’Oreal. She is also the spokesperson for Virgin Unite, which raises awareness of obstetric fistula. Imbruglia has won eight ARIA Awards, two Brit Awards and one Billboard Music Award. She won the third season of The Masked Singer UK as the panda.