AUBURN | With just a week to go until the start of the early signing period, Auburn’s 2022 class has the potential to move up the team rankings.
How far? That remains to be seen.
The Tigers currently sit at No. 38 in the Rivals team recruiting rankings with 1,188 points. AU has 13 current commits but for the purposes of this analysis, we’ll reduce that to 12 commits and 1,113 points due to the unlikeliness that Drew Bobo remains in this class.
We’ll take a look at three potential finishes, all with 10 additional signees that would bring Auburn’s class total to 22.
SCENARIO A
Finish: Auburn lands most of its remaining top targets
Tigers land: RB TreVonte’ Citizen, WR Darrius Clemons, OL Julian Armella, OL/DL Antavious Woody, DL Khurtiss Perry, DT Tyre West, LB Robert Woodyard, LB DeMario Tolan, DB Austin Ausberry, DB JaDarian Rhym
Total points: 2,352
Current rank: 7th
SCENARIO B
Finish: Auburn wins more than it loses down the stretch
Tigers land: RB Justin Williams, WR Darrius Clemons, OL/DL Antavious Woody, DL Khurtiss Perry, DT Tyre West, DT Enyce Sledge, LB Robert Woodyard, DB Austin Ausberry, DB Keionte Scott, DB Marquise Gilbert
Total points: 2,228 (approximate)
Current rank: 8th
SCENARIO C
Finish: A solid finish that fills most needs
Tigers land: RB Justin Williams, WR Darrius Clemons, OL Jalen Farmer, OL Anez Cooper, DL Khurtiss Perry, DT Enyce Sledge, LB Robert Woodyard, DB Austin Ausberry, DB Keionte Scott, DB Marquise Gilbert
Total points: 2,076 (approximate)
Current rank: 9th
Below are the points totals for each remaining target. You can see how Rivals comes up with their points total formula based on ranking HERE. Some important notes…
** The rankings are currently being updated so some of the totals could change in the coming hours and days.
** The two JUCO defensive backs, Scott and Gilbert, are not currently ranked so I gave them what I would consider a conservative 75 points each, which equates to a 5.6 3-star. They could certainly be ranked higher or perhaps lower.
** When compiling the points total, only the top 20 players in the class are counted. So if AU signs 22, then you drop off the two lowest ranked players. To make this easy, I just subtracted 75 points from AU’s current total by taking out Bobo, which gave AU 1,113. I then took out two more players, Alex McPherson (60) and one of the 5.6 3-stars (75), which are Gordon, Fair and Wooden to get to 978. I then added the 10 projected signees to the 978 to get the total for each scenario.
** Other schools will gain and lose commitments over the next seven days (more gain) so the final rankings will likely trend a little lower in each scenario. For instance, if you plug AU's projected totals into last year's final rankings, AU finishes: A (11th), B (13th) or C (15th). But those 2021 totals also included the late signing period.
** Lastly, I chose 10 to make it simple. Auburn could close with nine or perhaps 11 or 12 depending on how things shake out. There’s also the late signing period to keep in account for the final rankings.
** If you would like to do your own scenario, pick your players and add the total to 978. Player points as of Wednesday morning, Dec. 8…
RB TreVonte’ Citizen 174
RB Justin Williams 142
WR Darrius Clemons 155
WR Camden Brown 105
WR Marquarius White 90
OL Jalen Farmer 60
OL Anez Cooper 45
OL Julian Armella 214
OL Malik Agbo 139
OL/DL Antavious Woody 149
DL Khurtiss Perry 147
DT Enyce Sledge 60
DT Tyre West 153
DT Jeffrey M’Ba 90
DE Nyjalik Kelly 156
DT Chris McClellan 152
LB Robert Woodyard 139
LB DeMario Tolan 120
LB T.J. Dudley 143
LB Deuce Spurlock 60
DB Austin Ausberry 155
DB JaDarian Rhym 115
DB Keionte Scott (75)
DB Marquise Gilbert (75)
