AUBURN – Good morning and welcome to the first ever early signing period live blog as Auburn will have most of its 2018 football recruiting class signed before the end of the next three days.
12:30 p.m. UPDATE – Auburn’s recruiting class is currently ranked in the Top 10 in every online service.
ESPN.com – No. 7
Rivals.com – No. 8
247Sports.com – No. 9
- Here are the official signees list right now:
Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Hometown (Last School)
Asa Martin RB 6-0 205 Decatur, AL/Austin
Joey Gatewood QB 6-5 230 Jacksonville, FL/Bartram Trail
Smoke Monday DB 6-3 190 Atlanta, GA/Carver
Josh Marsh LB 6-2 215 Decatur, AL/Decatur
Daquan Newkirk DL 6-3 280 Mississippi Gulf Coast CC/First Academy
Jamien Sherwood DB 6-2 200 Jensen Beach, FL/Jensen Beach
Christian Tutt DB 5-11 195 Thomson, GA/Thomson
Michael Harris LB 6-2 215 Tucker, GA/Tucker
Shaun Shivers Ath 5-7 175 Ft. Lauderdale, FL/Chaminade-Madonna Prep
Kameron Stutts OL 6-4 330 Killen, AL/Brooks
Jalil Irvin OL 6-3 300 Stone Mountain, GA/Stephenson
Zakoby McClain LB 6-0 205 Valdosta, GA/Valdosta
Seth Williams WR 6-3 215 Cottondale, AL/Bryant
Shedrick Jackson WR 6-1 185 Hoover Ala./Hoover
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4-star Auburn QB commit Joey Gatewood highlights vs. Cartersville (GA) H.S. Matthew Stevens
Noon UPDATE – Malzahn compares 4-star signee Joey Gatewood to Cam Newton - During the SEC Network special for signing day, Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn compared his newest quarterback signee Joey Gatewood to his most famous quarterback protegee – Cam Newton.
“Joey Gatewood is the closest thing to Cam Newton, physically, that I’ve seen,” Malzahn said. “He can run, he can throw, he's a big-time athlete.”
Malzahn has been in attendance for multiple games Gatewood has played and sent him a text before playing Cartersville (Ga.) High School on ESPN earlier this August. In that game, Gatewood completed 12 of 16 passes for 183 yards and a touchdown while also gaining 129 yards on the ground with two scores. Gatewood was able to take designed quarterback runs for at least four or five runs a carry and was seen breaking tackles and hurdling defenders on long runs while wearing jersey No. 2, which could remind some Auburn fans of the raw skill set of former Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton.
“I’ve been seeing people say ‘oh he’s just an athlete’,” Gatewood said following the 52-45 loss to Cartersville High School in its season opener on ESPN on Aug. 26. “I’m not an athlete but I’m an athlete at the quarterback position. I hope people saw that tonight.”
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11:45 a.m. UPDATE – Auburn four-star Sedrick Jackson, a four-star receiver from Hoover High School, isn’t like every other prospect because of his famous uncle Vincent. At Auburn, and pretty much everywhere else, they call him Bo.
Jackson, the nephew of former Heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson, received a scholarship offer from Auburn in April. Jackson chose Auburn after narrowing his list of choices to five schools where Auburn made the cut with Missouri, Mississippi State, Georgia Tech and Memphis.
“They told me they liked my film,” Jackson said after an unofficial visit in July 2016. “They watched me and it’s definitely a place I’ll be coming back to. (Auburn wide receivers coach Kodi Burns) a really great guy. I watched him play back in 2010 with Cam Newton when they won the championship. He told me to come back down for some practices, and I’ll definitely come back and watch.”
Jackson had caught 48 passes for 978 yards and nine touchdowns at Hoover High, where he was part of back-to-back state championships. In the latest state championship game in Tuscaloosa, Jackson had two touchdowns against McGill-Toolen in front of Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn, offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey and defensive coordinator Kevin Steele. He is the teammate of four-star 2019 wide receiver George Pickens, who is also committed to Auburn.
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More: Four-star 2018 WR prospect Seth Williams commits to Auburn on Thanksgiving
11:30 a.m. UPDATE - Seth Williams, a four-star wide receiver from Paul Bryant High School in Tuscaloosa who choose the Tigers over Alabama, announced his verbal pledge to Auburn’s 2018 recruiting class on Thanksgiving. Williams, a 6-foot-3 and 212-pound wide receiver prospect, is rated as the fourth-best player in the state of Alabama and 30th best wide receiver in the nation according to 247Sports.com. Williams chose Auburn over scholarship offers from hometown school Alabama, Florida and Florida State. If Williams ends up signing and playing for Auburn, he’ll become the first player born in Cottonwood, Ala., to earn a football letter at Auburn. Williams' high school, Paul W. Bryant High School, is a 12-minute drive from the University of Alabama campus. Williams is the fifth-rated player in Alabama according to 247Sports.com and ranked as the No. 10 athlete nationally by ESPN.
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10:30 a.m. UPDATE – Four-star linebacker Zakoby McClain makes it official to become part of Auburn’s 2018 class. The 205-pound prospect from Valdosta, Ga., committed to Auburn over LSU and West Virginia after the Tigers defeated Alabama 26-14 in the Iron Bowl to clinch a Western Division championship. McClain is the second linebacker signee to join Auburn’s recruiting class because despite him being listed as a linebacker on the Auburn website, the Decatur prospect is slated to compete as a hybrid safety player that could play some linebacker in some big sets for Auburn.
McClain had 123 tackles, 20 tackles for loss as a junior, leading the Wildcats to a state title while being nominated for U.S. Army All-American Bowl and being ranked the No. 12 outside linebacker nationally by ESPN.
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9:15 a.m. UPDATE - Auburn announces the signing of four-star offensive lineman Jalil Irvin and three-star offensive lineman Kameron Stutts.
Irvin, a four-star offensive guard from Georgia, announced his pledge to Auburn in March as the 6-foot-4, 280-pound prospect chose Auburn over at least 24 scholarship offers most notably from Michigan, Georgia and North Carolina.
Irvin was seen as the first impact made by Auburn tight ends coach/recruiting coordinator Larry Porter as the Tigers newest hire is listed as his primary recruiter and a prospect he had identified as the running backs coach at North Carolina under Larry Fedora.
Stutts, who is from Brooks School in Killen, Ala., is rated as the No. 48 offensive tackle in the class of 2018 and also the No. 22 prospect in the state of Alabama according to 247Sports.com.
Stutts committed to Auburn on its A-Day spring game and choose the Tigers over 11 other scholarship offers including Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Missouri and Virginia Tech while also receiving attention from Alabama and Tennessee.
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More: Four-star commit Quindarious Monday to start practicing with Auburn
9 a.m. UPDATE - Auburn is expected to have eight early enrollees among 2018 recruiting class including: safety Jamien Sherwood, defensive back commit Christian Tutt, defensive back commit Josh Marsh, defensive back commit Quindarious Monday, quarterback Joey Gatewood, junior college defensive lineman Daquan Newkirk, four-star running back Asa Martin, wide receiver Shedrick Jackson out of Hoover High School.
Among those early enrollees - Marsh, Martin, Jackson, Monday, Tutt and Newkirk are planning to take part in on-campus bowl practices.
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8:45 a.m. UPDATE - According to Rivals.com, Auburn quarterback Joey Gatewood is the No. 7 dual-threat quarterback in the nation. This makes him the highest ranked ranked dual-threat quarterback to be signed out of high school in the Gus Malzahn era. Sean White (No. 4 pro-style) and Jeremy Johnson (No. 5 pro-style) were not considered dual-threat quarterbacks. However, as the Montgomery Advertiser pointed out in August when he played on ESPN, the 6-foot-5, 230-pound signal caller is insistent to prove he's an athlete who can play the quarterback position.
Auburn QB commit Joey Gatewood talks to reporters. Matthew Stevens
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8 a.m. UPDATE – Auburn already has nine signed National Letter-of-Intent documents from 2018 prospects including their quarterback of the future (Joey Gatewood) and running back of the future (Asa Martin) and possibly their safeties of the much more recent present (Jamien Sherwood and Quindarious Monday).
Here’s are the prospects of Auburn’s 2018 recruiting class that have signed so far….
Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Hometown (Last School)
Asa Martin RB 6-0 205 Decatur, AL/Austin
Joey Gatewood QB 6-5 230 Jacksonville, FL/Bartram Trail
Quindarious Monday DB 6-3 190 Atlanta, GA/Carver
Josh Marsh LB 6-2 215 Decatur, AL/Decatur
Daquan Newkirk DL 6-3 280 Mississippi Gulf Coast CC/First Academy
Jamien Sherwood DB 6-2 200 Jensen Beach, FL/Jensen Beach
Christian Tutt DB 5-11 195 Thomson, GA/Thomson
Michael Harris LB 6-2 215 Tucker, GA/Tucker
Shaun Shivers ATH 5-7 175 Ft. Lauderdale, FL/Chaminade-Madonna Prep