Auburn's new commitment ... Mysterio!So last night Auburn picked up their 15th commitment of the 2010 class in Linden (and/or Sumter County) defensive end Justin Delaine. Beaver's rounded up the pertinent details I suggest you take a look at, but to review ...
--Delaine not only hasn't been ranked by the major services, at the time of his commitment he didn't even have a profile up at Rivals or Scout. I haven't following this recruiting thing very long, but I don't think that happens for SEC commitments very often. This is as deep a sleeper as you're going to get at Auburn.
--He's listed as a defensive end, but Delaine seems like the kind of guy you get on campus first and find a position for later: 6-5, 225, track speed, played just one year of football. I don't have much doubt he's sushi-raw, but for Auburn to go ahead and accept a commitment from him now suggests to me that someone on our staff--Lolley, apparently--saw enough in Delaine not to take any chances on anyone else getting there first.
--Getting him on campus might prove tricky, though, since even he apparently admits he's got academic issues to work on. At the very least, if he's really transferring from one school to another solely in an attempt to drag his GPA up, at least he's taking things seriously.
--No doubt the Tide fans are having a good laugh this morning at Auburn taking a commitment from a kid whose offer list includes two Mississippi schools and Troy and hadn't even drawn enough attention for an evaluation from the gurus ... but as I've mentioned before, I lived and worked for a while out in that part of the state, and it would be unbelievably easy for a legitimate prospect like Delaine to fly under the radar at a place like Sumter County. There's virtually no press coverage, the football team is almost an afterthought compared to hoops, the facilities and equipment are, um, lacking, and while I thought much more highly of Sumter's coaching while I was there than some of the other schools in the area, the infrastructure's just not there that can turn a kid who's never played organized football into a superstar overnight. Beaver hid away some uncorroborated info on Delaine's living situation in his comments thread, but that sounds about par for the course in places like York and Linden.
In short, I'm not worried. This staff's not going to offer a player with one year of football experience unless he's got some serious athletic goods. And if Delaine does stick at defensive end, there's not a position coach on the staff I'd trust more to turn those goods into something useful than Tracy Rocker.
--So, yeah, Delaine's not going to move the guru needle; yeah, he's very likely going to need a redshirt even if he qualifies; yeah, it would be nice if Auburn could land another high-profile prospect to get some of that good ol' Big Cat feelin' back. But seeing what guys like Daren Bates and Anthony Gulley are doing already, it's already fair to give this staff the benefit of the doubt when it comes to evaluating under-the-radar prospects like Delaine.
7 comments:
I'd rather have Hush commit to Auburn than Mysterio even though Hush has a bit of a attitude problem...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hush_(comics)
(Yes, I got the joke on how there's nothing about Delaine but still)
Since winning the genetic lottery seems to have more of an impact on a player than actual playing time, I'm excited about this kid.
For an example of players who won the genetic lottery, Google the new Syracuse starting QB. The kid hadn't played a down of football in 4 years (while he played b-ball at Duke), but had looks from the NFL and has now won the starting QB job despite Syracuse having two experienced QBs (if you can call playing at Syracuse the last few years experience).
Well, if anyone can do something with the kid, I'd believe Andro Williams at Linden can (Tuscaloosa News named him Class 1A coach of the year for 2008 FWIW, and he won two state titles while assisting Stacy Luker in Sweet Water).
He's very highly respected as a coach in this corner of the world, so we'll see what happens there.
SW-al, I hadn't seen that Williams had moved on to Linden. You're right: he's an outstanding coach. Their semifinal berth last year makes a lot more sense now. When I was out there, they had a freaking ton of talent by 1A standards but not really the staff to do a lot with it. We'll see what happens with Delaine, but I'm betting he blows up under Williams.
Phillip, um ... yes?
hey justin delaine(labryantdelaine@yahoo.com) here um stupid i have actually played two prior years of football befor now ya'll just didnt here about me cause honestly none of you big time sports writers journalist newspapers arelistenin i been in the paper i have stats out the ears you were so stupid ask me befor you type anythingg else doedoe and i bet if i were somewhat different it would not be a big deal what i looked like and ohyeah by different i mean chalky with blue eyes stinky breath and blonde hair and from a big city but im just a good ole hard workin country boy and im not changin that lolley has actually been watchin me for two years and southern miss, ucla, msu, GT, fla, uni of south alabama, arkansas, KU, louiseville, troy, and USC ll were lookin at me.... auburn is just the one yhat has shown me the most love and thank you for sayin that about coach williams he is a good no great coach and and will matthews who has coach more offensive and deffensive line guys than you couldnt count but ima do me and take all the help but dang i thought it was a sin to envy someone, all im tryin to do is play ball and get an education but when a gocb (good ole country boy) trys to better himself you have people who only talk about the game and critique what others do but i want yu to put some pads on and get out on a field and see would auburn like you cause i seriously doubt your strong enough or fast enough to play me or any one else with a heart for the game like mines and P.S. im gone knock alabama lil A.J.'s head clean off come aubrn vs. alabama 2010 edition peace stupid........
I hand't heard of him either.
I have high hope that they might get great player for the next season. There are many medium profile that they can get.
Post a Comment