A.M. update

Busy evening last night. As you've probably already heard by now, Donte Aycock appears headed to Auburn after the AJC reported Tech had yanked his scholarship offer. Big news, but just as big is that Auburn won't be getting either Corey Gaines or Johnnie Farms, who committed and recommitted to Ole Miss and North Carolina, respectively. (Oh, and Tracy Moore recommitted to Okie St., but that wasn't a shock.) A little bit earlier in the day, AuburnUndercover reported that Greg King will in all likelihood choose Tennessee over Auburn.

The upshot of all of this: if Farms was ever really that close to committing to Auburn, he's the one that hurts. All of Auburn's offensive line eggs now appear to be in Aubrey Phillips's basket, and given that Phillips may very well be on his way to Florida St., this is a dangerous place to keep them. Given the depth of Auburn's defensive tackle class--a reason Gaines cited in picking Ole Miss--it might even be fair to say that the worst part about Gaines's choice is that his presence would have made it more likely Nick Fairley could switch over to the offensive side of the ball.

As for Aycock, well, Rivals likes him although Scout and ESPN have him more in the "upper three-star" range. The question, of course, is why Auburn offered yet another running back when McCalebb and Jacobs are already in the fold and David Oku appears on the verge of signing up as well. If both Aycock and Oku commit, that's four running backs--three of them four-star recruits to at least one service--and possibly only two offensive linemen (both low-end three-stars) in the class. I suspect I'm not alone in thinking "You know, that ratio looks sort of backwards." The positive spin is that it's virtually impossible for Auburn to whiff on all four of those guys--someone from this class is going to end up being the real deal at tailback--but man, I'd feel a lot better about it if I felt like they were going to have someone worthwhile to block for them three seasons from now.

King would have been a nice addition to our linebacker depth, but with with Eltoro Freeman, Harris Gaston, and (fingers crossed) Jonathan Evans already in the class, it's not a backbreaker.