Greetings from the Columbus/Phenix City Auburn Club meeting here at Green Island Country Club. Gene Chizik is about to take the dais for a speech, but he met with the media beforehand. Here's what he had to say:

(How different are things for you now that spring practice is finished?)

"It's been a whirlwind through spring practice, obviously, and the next couple of months are going to be really, really critical for us, certainly the next month. Just with us getting out on the road and being seen at different schools, really doing some one-on-one evaluations as we go and watch these kids work out and practice and do some things that we're allowed to do. We think we've got a pretty good track on recruiting in terms of who's where, but you always go out and gain so much more information. The next month will be really big for us, and then even after that, the next month includes getting to your camps and getting them on your campus where you can evaluate them, so the next two months is a huge, huge part of the recruiting process for us."

(How do you follow up on the Tiger Prowl and Big Cat Weekend?)

"We're just going to go out and do our recruiting thing, and obviously try to be on the edge with how we recruit and what we do and things of that nature in terms of just trying to be maybe a little bit different than most. But overall, it's mainly the same thing."

(Now that it's been a year, can you assess how well those stunts worked?)

"I don't know. I really don't know. I feel like some of those things we did that were different captured the audience some, but at the end of the day you have to out-work everybody in recruiting. You build relationships. You've got to find ways to interest young men and your university, and I think we have a great coaching staff that they believe in Auburn and they love recruiting and they work really hard at being good at what they do. And at the end of the day, that's what it's all about."

(Your impressions after A-Day?)

"We have certainly not arrived at all. We've got a long way to go to be a good football team. I think we're an average team right now. But we've got three or four months again before we play again. We're going to need these next three months to really develop as a football team. That means they're going to have to come in and watch film on their own, do the things that it takes to

(How important is it to have a presence in Columbus?)

"This is huge. I mean, Columbus, Georgia, it's so close it might as well be right here. It's right on top of us. And over the years there's been some real good players that have come from this area, as we all know. And it's huge for us to get back in here and recruit. It's huge for us to get back in here and be a presence here. Auburn's too close for us to not be a presence here. So again, when it comes to the recruiting base and the things that are important to Auburn football, Columbus is huge in that regard, so we're going to work really, really hard to come back in here and make Auburn's presence felt."

(Auburn's had two scholarship players from Columbus in the last five years -- DeRon Furr and D'Antoine Hood. Do you feel like the coaching staff has made progress in making Auburn relevant here in a recruiting sense again?)

"You know, I think we've got to make inroads here. I think, like I said, there's been some really good players to come out of this area that have played at Auburn. But there have been so many players that have come from this area that have gone to other places. And that's the point of us needing to get back in here and be a stronger presence in here than we have in recent past. So that's a huge, huge priority for us in recruiting."

(How often do you expect to be asked about who your starting quarterback is at these speaking engagements?)

"I was waiting for you to ask me about that. (laughs) That's the position, obviously, that everyone wants to know. And so I get asked that obviously quite a bit. I give the same response every time: we're going to continue to evaluate where they're at. We just finished spring practice two days ago. So we are in the process of going back and going through all 15 days and re-evaluating things. That's not just for the quarterback position, that's for everything. We're going to go back and evaluate that again and see where we're at. We'll back off a little bit, let some time clear and then go back and evaluate it again. So we will announce who our starter is or we will make that decision when we are ready. And there's absolutely no timetable on that at all."