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Thursday, August 14, 2008

Elite 11 thoughts

I saw where Rivals upgraded Auburn commit Raymond Cotton's rating to four stars today. They also rate him as the No. 12 dual-threat QB prospect. I was thinking about how rare it was for an Auburn commit to receive a bid to the Elite 11 quarterback camp and I actually dug up a list of all 10 Elite 11 classes thus far. Auburn has had one player go to the camp -- Neil Caudle in 2005.

For whatever reason, Auburn has rarely gotten the huge QB signees in my 20-something years of keeping up with the Tigers. I've always wondered why that is. I guess it's because Auburn has so often been close to the vest in its offensive approach -- which might be why they always seemed to bring in great running backs. In contrast, Georgia has three former Elite 11 QBs on its current roster -- Matthew Stafford, Joe Cox and Logan Gray -- and two more commits out of this Elite 11 class in Aaron Murray and Zach Mettenberger.

Obviously if you look at some of the names on there, it's not a rock-solid predictor of collegiate success. But there are some pretty stinking good players who have participated in that thing since it started a decade ago. If my count is right (and if Jarrett Lee winds up as LSU's QB) it looks like four starters for Auburn's 2008 opponents are former Elite 11 QBs -- Stafford, Lee, Jevan Snead and Jonathan Crompton.

Here's the list. I'd acknowledge where I found it if I could only remember:

1999
Brock Berlin
Jeff Smoker
Chris Rix
Casey Clausen
Matt Cassell
Roman Ybarra
Matt Lovecchio
Chance Mock
Jon VanCleave
John Rattay
Zac Wasserman

2000
Derek Anderson
Nic Costa
Kellen Clemens
Brodie Croyle
Billy Hart
Matt Leinart
Ingle Martin
Adrian McPherson
Kyle Orton
Casey Paus
D.J. Shockley
Paul Troth

2001
Ben Olson
Chris Olson
Drew Olson
Justin Zwick
Tyler Palko
Trent Edwards
Vince Young
Reggie McNeal
Gavin Dickey
Evan Kraky
Will Proctor
Ryan O'Hara

2002
Michael Affleck
Dennis Dixon
Tommy Grady
Robert Lane
Chris Leak
Justin Midgett
Blake Mitchell
T.C. Ostrander
Clayton Richard
Jamarcus Russell
Andre Woodson
Kyle Wright

2003
Rhett Bomar
John David Booty
A.J. Bryant
Kirby Freeman
Brian Hildebrand
Cornelius Ingram
Nate Longshore
Tony Morelli
Chase Patton
Bobby Reid
Matt Tuiasosopo
Drew Weatherford

2004
Harrison Beck
Jake Christensen
Joe Cox
Jonathan Crompton
Jonathan Garner
Ryan Perrilloux
Kyle Reed
Mark Sanchez
Rob Schoenhoft
Willie Tuitama

2005
Matthew Stafford
Tim Tebow
Kevin Riley
Cody Hawkins
Jevan Snead
Josh Freeman
Mitch Mustain
Pat Devlin
Jake Locker
Isiah Williams
Neil Caudle
Zach Frazer

2006
John Brantley
Stephen Garcia
Willie Korn
Ryan Mallett
Rontrell Bailey
Aaron Corp
Logan Gray
Peter Lalich
Jarrett Lee
Brock Mansion
Keith Nichol
Tyrod Taylor

2007
Nick Crissman
Dayne Crist
Blaine Gabbert
Mike Glennon
Jacory Harris
Star Jackson
Landry Jones
Andrew Luck
E.J. Manuel
Kyle Parker
Sean Renfree
John Wienke

2008
Tajh Boyd
Richard Brehaut
Allan Bridgford
Raymond Cotton
Garrett Gilbert
Andrew Maxwell
A.J. McCarron
Zach Mettenberger
Aaron Murray
Bryn Renner
Tom Savage
Eugene Smith

5 comments:

hindual said...

David,

Really loving your work here. I really appreciate your effort and wanted to let you know. Thanks for keeping us updated on the Tigers.

Patrick

Anonymous said...

I thought for sure Jason Campbell was the second rated QB in the nation the year he signed. I wonder why he wasn't invited.

Also Kodi Burns was the 5th rated QB in the nation according to Scout. What do you have to do to get invited to this elite 11 camp and what is it?

Anonymous said...

Wow...class of 2000 was a doozy. 5 NFL QBs that year, 3.5 of them are starters in the NFL (is Kyle Orton a starter this season?) Might be 6 if Shockley is still in the league.

Anonymous said...

.....There are some awesome names in there (Leinert, Tebow, Stafford), and some like Robert Lane who got moved to tight end by the Orgeron regime.

.....Interesting list.

Anonymous said...

Here's a link to Cotton at the Elite 11..

http://www.rivals.com/video.asp?section=fbrecruit&pkey=&vidtype=amp&vidid=3564