Auburn Football Recruiting: Ranking Five Much-Needed Recruits

Here we discuss the five recruits who have either signed their letter of intent or enrolled early, and rank them for their importance to Auburn football.

Auburn football will come out of National Signing Day with the No. 9 recruitment class as ranked by 247sports.com. What started early in December 2016 with Jarrett Stidham‘s recruitment, the Tigers will complete an impressive class that will add onto an already powerful roster for 2017.

The top rated recruits from this year include 4-star defensive end Markaviest Bryant, 5-star offensive tackle Calvin Ashley, and the newest addition to running back with 4-star Devan Barrett. Names that came to shock those on the Plains were the commitments of 3-star athlete JaTarvious Whitlow, a quarterback who will switch to wide receiver, and 3-star tight end John Samuel Shenker, whose connection with Chip Lindsey led to his recruitment.

It’s safe to say that this recruitment class won’t make or break the 2017 season, but it certainly does have the capabilities of making Auburn a dark horse name come playoff season. Lindsey’s relationships with quarterbacks — and seemingly tight ends — along with Malzahn’s trickery and relationship with running backs offers an interesting story for offense.

Defensively, Auburn is set up to once again be dominant. It is hoped that Byron Cowart, Deshaun Davis and Dontavius Russell will add on more playing time and show off what they were unable to in the 2016-17 season. Whatever might be and whatever could be are up for grabs, but there’s enough room to say that Auburn will have plenty of firepower to take the SEC West.

Here’s a ranking of the top five recruits for Auburn football’s 2017 season: