A number of the highly touted prospects who may or may not sign with Auburn today were by no means on the radar under Tommy Tuberville’s watch.

Most might have been considered total longshots, especially after the Tigers’ 5-7 2008 season, which resulted in a complete overhaul of the program. That, of course, included Tuberville, who will be analyzing other schools’ recruiting classes today on ESPN instead of sweating out one of his own.

But new coach Gene Chizik said recently he doesn’t think of any one player in the entire country as an unrealistic snag.

“We’re at Auburn. I think that says it all,” Chizik told the Montgomery Advertiser last Thursday after a meeting with members of the Alabama Football Coaches Association in the capital city.

“We’re going after the best in the country — no matter when, what, where, how. That’s how we’re going to do it. We’re going to work really hard to try to get that done every year — including this one.”

That work has already paid dividends for the list of commitments Auburn expects to fax in their National Letters of Intent throughout today — National Signing Day.

“With these players that were committed to other schools or the high profile national-type recruits, it is a good sign that this staff is going to recruit very well nationally,” said Bryan Matthews, recruiting expert and publisher of AuburnSports.com.

Auburn’s list of commits heading into today stands at 25 — 26 when counting Daphne quarterback/athlete Robert Cooper, who said Tuesday he will accept Auburn’s offer to grayshirt next year, according to AuburnSports.com. Cooper will not enroll until January and will not be allowed to participate in football-related activities until then.

Before Tuberville’s resignation, Auburn’s list of commits was also at 26, but that number dropped to as low as 19 and has fluctuated up and down.

Some of the players to commit in the past month were previously recruited by Tuberville’s staff, but players such as four-star quarterback Tyrik Rollison and three-star defensive end Nosa Eguae emerged and committed abruptly thanks to connections made by Auburn’s new assistant coaches at their former employers.

Even if none of the on-the-fence recruits choose Auburn today, it won’t be considered as devastating as last year’s Signing Day shutout.

Auburn went 0-for-6 with prospects who were still considering the Tigers on last year’s Signing Day, all of which were pursued much longer than this year’s crop.

“I don’t think there is any doubt that these guys have hit the ground running in the past month,” Matthews said of the new coaching staff. “They’ve made tremendous ground on guys that weren’t mentioning Auburn even a few weeks ago.”

Here is a list of those players:
* Bryce Brown, RB, 5-star — Wichita East (Kansas): The No. 1 recruit in the country, per Rivals.com, is a soft commit to the University of Miami, but has said he will not make an official announcement. Auburn is said to be in the mix, and could even receive an official visit from Brown in the coming weeks.

* Deangelo Benton, WR, 5-star — Bastrop (La.): Looks to be leaning heavily toward Les Miles and LSU, but Auburn is still in the picture.

* David Oku, RB, 4-star — Midwest City (Okla.): Also one of the top prospects in the nation, Oku said he enjoyed his visit to Auburn this past weekend. Shortly after, he de-committed from Tennessee and has made it clear he won’t be making a decision today. His choices are narrowed down to Auburn, Tennessee and Syracuse.

* Aubrey Phillips, OL, 4-star — Olive Branch (Miss.): On his official visit to Auburn this weekend, the big lineman said he was still committed to Tennessee, “but on Signing Day there will be a change.” The only feasible change appears to be Auburn. His high school teammate, Daren Bates, committed to Auburn last week.

* Dontae Aycock, RB, 4-star — Tampa (Fla.): According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he had his scholarship offer from Georgia Tech yanked after visiting Auburn this weekend. During that visit, he said his choices were down to Auburn and Georgia Tech. Do the math.
* Taikwon Paige, DB, 4-star — Milledgeville (Ga.) Military College: He said he would love to play at Auburn. He just doesn’t have an offer — yet. If things start to go awry early today, he just might get one.

* DeQuinta Jones, DT, 4-star — Bastrop (La.): Jones, as most do, seemed to really enjoy his visit to Auburn a few weeks ago, and has certainly kept it in the mix. He’s a soft verbal to Michigan, but will make his announcement tomorrow. Tennessee and Arkansas are also in the mix.

* Emory Blake, WR, 4-star — Austin (Texas): The son of former NFL quarterback Jeff Blake, he is choosing among Auburn, Texas Tech and Colorado. He will announce his decision today at a press conference at his high school.

* Tana Patrick, LB, 4-star — Stevenson (Ala.): Almost certainly a lock for Alabama, but stranger things have happened, and Patrick has yet to take Auburn completely out of the picture.

* Greg King, LB, 3-star — Memphis (Tenn.): He will decide between Tennessee and Auburn today.

* Mike Eargle, ATH, 0-star — Scranton (Pa.) Lackawanna C.C.: Like Paige, he’s awaiting an offer from Auburn.

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