Google surveys the signees: Terrance Coleman

Because someone needs to do the work of plugging in a given Auburn signee's name into Google and synthesizing the tidbits of information that trickle out. Previous entries in this series here.



The recruitment of the nephew of Antonio Coleman from an Auburn-friendly school who liked the Plains enough to be Auburn's very first commitment in the class of 2009 shouldn't have created too much drama ... but ah, nothing came easy in 2008, did it? Before it was all said and done Terrance Coleman had decommitted, recommitted, talked openly about possibly decommitting again when Bad Lando left, took a visit to Tennessee the weekend before Signing Day ... and finally decided to come to Auburn anyway.

Good thing he did--as you may have heard somewhere along the line, Auburn's not especially deep on the defensive line.

Basics: Go, Auburn Signing Day information sheet, Go!

Terrance Coleman
DL, 6-1, 251
Mobile, AL (Lillie B. Williamson HS)
High School Coach: Bobby Parrish

HIGH SCHOOL: Collected 96 tackles (36 solo, 60 assists) including 14 tackles for loss and 10 sacks as a senior ... Had 116 tackles with nine sacks and 26 quarterback hurries as a junior ... Named honorable mention Class 6A All-State by the Alabama Sports Writers Association as a senior ... ASWA All-State Honorable Mention as a junior ...

"DL" is as specific as you're going to get for a position for Coleman for the time being: he played both end and tackle at Williamson and is projected at either position depending on which service you're reading. The guess here is that Rocker is going to take a look at him first before slotting him into one spot or the other ... and that he may wind up following in Zach Clayton's "hey, why not both?" footsteps.

Recruitnik hoo-ha: Coleman was one of many, many Auburn prospects to land in that "3.5-star" gray area where one of the major services gives them the four-star bump and the other passes. Your pro-Coleman gurus in this case are from Scout, who give him four stars and rank him the No. 23 DT in the country. They write:

Coleman plays the game with terrific intensity. He finds himself in on a lot of plays that were going away from him with secondary effort. He controls the man in front of him well and has an excellent first step. At just over 6-0 tall, he'll likely play inside on the college level, and he'll need to add some weight, but he plays inside for Williamson effectively already. He's a weapon against the run and the pass.

Yay. Even more enthusiastic is ESPN, who rank Coleman the No. 15 defensive end and give him a solidly four-starish grade of 80. (Only four other players in Auburn's class graded as highly in ESPN's system.) Their evaluation:

Coleman is a high-motor prospect who is physical and productive. He moves around on defense and somtimes [sic] plays out of position at defensive tackle. He's too small to play inside at the college level full time, but he has the tools to be a good defensive end ... Has a solid get-off, but he occasionally flashes very good explosiveness off the ball that would be nice to see more consistently. His hands are the strength of his game. Comes off the ball, shoots his hands and immediately works to create separation ... Can provide some pressure as a speed rusher when he gets off the ball quickly. Knows how to use his weapons to get a push and separate to pursue the quarterback. Coleman already is a good player, and his stock still could rise further.

Less bullish is Rivals: they give Coleman three stars, rank him the No. 48 defensive tackle. But even they at least give him a high 3-star rating of 5.7 and ranked him the best non-four-star prospect of his class in the state. If you were going to round off, looking at all three services gets you closer to that four-star threshold than three.

Links of potential interest: To paraphrase Mr. John Keats in a fashion I don't think he could have ever expected, an Auburn recruit's highlight film not set to awful hip-hop or ear-bleeding nu-metal is a joy forever:



Alas, lightning was never going to strike twice:



Have to say, there's more "wow, he just totally pwned those poor n00bs" plays in those clips than I've come to expect. I mean, that play at 37 seconds of the first clip ... anonymous No. 54, you have my sympathies.

There's surprisingly little other info out there on Mr. Coleman. Most of it's been shucked behind the Press-Register's archive wall, but this snippet of an article does make clear which position Coleman, at least, expects to play:

"I'm looking forward to playing on one end at the strong side, and (Antonio) will be on the other end on the weak side," Coleman said. "I felt Auburn was home for me."

Make it happen, Terrance.

You'd expect having Antonio around will help the transition to college; as this little blog post from Evan Woodbery makes clear, they're pretty tight. Can't hurt Terrance's chances of contributing early, anyway. (I guess here is where I'll note that this piece spells it "Terrence," as do a lot of other media references to him. But with the official Auburn release having spelled it with an "a," I'm assuming that's the correct spelling. FWIW.)

Antonio's presence is all the more important for Terrance's tough time growing up: as he notes here, both of his parents have passed on.

T-town News recruiting guru Andrew Bone had Coleman in his Alabama top 10 early and kept him there at No. 9, the only player in his top 10 to end up at Auburn. Bone sez:

Coleman is one of the quickest defensive tackles in the country. He is undersized, but still manages to whip offensive linemen. Coleman’s athleticism and strength will help him play with his hand on the ground on the next level.

While we're on the topic of in-state recruitniks, how bout a big round of BOOOOOOOs for the B'ham News leaving Coleman off of their top 24.

What conclusions we can draw, if any: It's not often I really make any conclusions at all from from watching YouTube highlights, but ... Coleman certainly looked like he was ready for the next level in those clips, right? More importantly, that's what the gurus are saying as well. When the worst any of them have to offer is "high three-star," that's not bad.

Plus we're talking about a position of need for Auburn plus there's his family pedigree plus he was a guy Tubby and Co. jumped on early. It's just hard to see Coleman washing out completely with this much in his favor. The guess here is that he's contributing by his sophomore season (if not sooner) and becomes a solid starter (if not more) by the time his time on the Plains is up.