Auburn's Thigpen looking for 'football thugs'

For Auburn football, the summertime is loaded with high school camps and unofficial visits from recruits. Last Sunday, some of the top players from across the Southeast ventured to Auburn for a senior, invitation-only mini camp. The prospects participated in individual drills, shuttle drills, one-on-one's, 7-on-7's and recorded 40-yard dash times.

Those in attendance included Matthews (N.C.) Butler athlete Kris Frost, Gainesville (Ga.) linebacker A.J. Johnson and local standouts Enrique Florence, a safety from Valley High and Leeds corner Jonathan Rose.

Frost was the highest ranked player according to online recruiting sites and is considered the nation's No. 27 overall prospect in the Rivals100.

Following his visit, which was his fourth in the past few months, Frost said his decision will likely come down to Auburn and a school yet to be determined.

In recent years, recruiting has practically become a sport of its own.

With multiple Internet sources available for recruiting news and rankings, earning a commitment from a top recruit gives a school a lot of publicity in that realm. The number of stars a player is given to reflect his talent is mentioned with their name along with position and hometown. National Signing Day is now an all-day show on ESPN and the signing class rankings are considered by some to be just as important as a team's rank throughout the season.

For safeties coach Tommy Thigpen, the lead recruiter of Frost, the availability of online information and highlight videos on YouTube has allowed him to revamp his recruiting tactics.

"You've got access with one click," said Auburn safeties coach and recruiter Tommy Thigpen. "You don't have to go back to the library, find his tape, pull it out, download it on your system. All that takes time. Now you just go to YouTube, one click and you're seeing anybody play. It's changed the way we do business."

With that capability, Thigpen added that it is getting harder to miss those "hidden gems," the players with D-1 talent from tiny towns.

"Now in the information age, it's opened the door and there are no secrets in these states anymore," he said. "Back in the day, back when there were no cell phones and the Internet, Rivals, Scout and ESPN 150, people didn't know. You didn't have people scouring the earth looking for football players. Now, everything shows up on the Internet. You couldn't get that kind of exposure before."

But despite its convenience, recruiting going viral has created some issues. With the newfound interest in the process, the level of competition in recruiting has increased drastically.

For instance, with players as young as high school sophomores getting interest, kids are getting college scholarship offers before they even have their drivers licenses. And because some schools are after those players, other schools are forced to follow suit just to keep up.

"It's a slippery slope," Thigpen said. "If you don't offer them, then you're out of the game. And then if you do offer them, what if they don't develop in their 12th or 11th grade seasons? It's hard to evaluate a 10th grader. Just a year before he was probably on the JV team. He's only got one year playing with the older kids, and he's getting college offers."

The rankings and star systems have also raised the bar. The more stars on a player, the more the fans want coaches to go after them. A coaching staff may put together a top signing class loaded with four and five stars, but the sky-high expectations for a phenomenal year on the football field could end up hurting it.

"It's because human development is so difficult to predict," Thigpen said. "Now it turns back on the coach. Say for three years you have a top-five class and multiple five star players, but go 7-4. Result? Coach is out the door."

With development prediction being so challenging, even though a player is considered a five-star recruit, he may be a bust in college if he does not have the other elements that can make him a star.

"You'll look at a five-star on tape, and yes he looks good on tape, but I don't know all the intangibles yet," Thigpen said. "What if he can't decipher information? That's not a kid you want. If he can't comprehend information, he won't be any good for us. A five-star is a five-star, but you have to be able to take that kid and see what his IQ is. We want more than straight athletic abilities from a kid."

Last year the Auburn coaches assembled the nations' No. 4 recruiting class in just their first season on the Plains. The high-star power of players like running back Michael Dyer and offensive lineman Shon Coleman helped boost the Tigers past the top-five mark. But Thigpen believes a two-star guy has just as much potential as a five-star, and in some cases, more.

"I don't care how many stars you have, you've got to work at it," Thigpen said. "They can have all the athletic ability in the world, but I don't want to have to tell a kid the same thing 30 dang times until they get it. I can coach the 4.6, 4.7 guys if they get it and work at it."

Daren Bates joined Auburn for the 2009 season and found himself starting at safety as a true freshman. Despite his minuscule recruitment out of Olive Branch (Miss.) High School, Bates went on to be an All-SEC Freshman selection. Thigpen said it was because Bates brought so much more to the table than physical talent.

"He was raggedy," Thigpen said. "I tell him all the time he was raggedy, but he worked at it. Zac Etheridge played a big role because he put so much pressure on him to get better. Your coach can pressure you, but that peer pressure is always best. Bates worked hard, took notes, took the time to come in here and study film, and he balled out."

Players like Bates are the ones that Auburn is looking for. Recruits that Thigpen likes to call "football thugs."

"I want guys that want to be around football," Thigpen said. "Guys that love, love, the game of football, guys that don't mind coming in early to learn. If I ask them, ‘What do you want to do here?' and they say, ‘I want to find out where the party's at.' Well, this ain't the place for you. I'm not the coach for you. I want football thugs. They stay here all night, do their homework, go to sleep and are ready for more football. That's what we've got to have here. And we've got that in guys like Bates, Zac and Aairon Savage."

And even though there is less hype surrounding the lower-ranked athletes, Thigpen said he could work with them if they have the mindset and determination to get better.

"I'd rather them lay under the radar," Thigpen said. "Kind of like Auburn did last season, and surprise everybody."