A few thoughts since some of you asked...
I do
not think we will take Terrance Coleman. As I have said many times earlier, we certainly would have taken him earlier in the process, but I do think the ship has sailed. I'm no Auburn expert, but if I had to wager I would say his uncle will turn pro early, and he will pick another SEC school (not Alabama). If we were to re-extend a firm offer to him, I think we have a great chance at picking him up; after all, he was seriously re-considering us even before the Tuberville firing, but at the end of the day I just cannot see him getting a firm offer. And yes we have been looking at him possibly as an inside linebacker.
I do
not think we will take Jonathon Atchison. I do not think he ever had a firm offer to Alabama, and the firing of Tuberville does nothing to change that.
I do
not think we will take Raymond Cotton. He has some other offers from BCS conference schools, and I imagine he will open his recruitment back up, so he may very well get some more offers. I have no clue if he'll end up at Auburn, but given his lack of ties to AU otherwise than Tubby, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't. Apparently, according to at least one Auburn board, Ensminger was actually in Cotton's living room on a visit when he got the text message of Tuberville's firing, and of course that can never be a good thing.
I
do think we will now get B.J. Chitty. I think we had a great shot with him even when he was still committed to Auburn, but with Tuberville gone I imagine that he is now pretty much a 'Bama lock.
The
huge news stemming from this is Montez Robinson. Not only has he de-committed from Auburn, he has also apparently dropped them from consideration. Georgia is a fine program and they will give us serious contention, but if things are really down to Alabama v. Georgia -- and I think they are -- I think the odds are in our favor that he ends up at Alabama. That said, he's likely to take some more official visits to Alabama and Georgia, and he says he will end up deciding on National Signing Day.
At this point, it is somewhat setting up as a race between Montez Robinson and Fletcher Cox as to who commits first. We only have one Jack linebacker spot left, but either way it's clear now that we will get our Jack linebacker in this class. And with Robinson, even if he ends up at Georgia, that's no real major loss for us. The biggest problem with him going to Auburn was that we would have faced him four times, but with him in Athens we will only face him once (thanks to the rotational divisional schedule) unless we meet up with them in Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game.
Bottom line, this is an avalanche of absolutely terrible news for Auburn, and two bits of great news for the Tide. Aside from destroying what little higher-end talent was present in a bad class -- thus turning an already bad class into an outright terrible class -- the Tuberville firing should turn at least one, and perhaps two, players with elite-level talent to Alabama.
My friends, a day like this calls for some
Stagg and a
Macanudo for all of us Alabama recruiting aficionados. Cheers!