When evaluating recruiting classes, it’s impossible to assess a proper evaluation until after the class has completed its collegiate career. Not only are the top classes determined by what they looked like on paper, but on-field contributions also play a big part.

SDS takes a look at the each SEC team’s best recruiting class of the last decade based off of the recruiting rankings as well as how effective the class was on the field.

NOTE: Recruiting rankings taken from 247sports

Auburn Tigers

Gene Chizik is certain to be one of the most divisive head coaches in Auburn history. He experienced the pinnacle of success and the valley of failure.

But one thing that is not debatable — though a fact Auburn fans will find a way to question — is that Chizik won a SEC and a national title. His last three recruiting classes ranked No. 6, No. 5 and No. 11 nationally, setting the stage for many players that led the Tigers to second SEC championship and national title berth in 2013.

Chizik’s 2010 class features the best player in the last decade at Auburn, along with several complimentary pieces that played key roles in the 2010 national championship.

2010 recruiting class

Record: 37-16 overall

SEC Championships: Won in 2010

BCS Championships: Won in 2010

Class ranking: 6th overall; 3rd in SEC

Cream of the crop: Chizik, along with offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, landed the biggest prospect in the country during the winter of 2009, adding top JUCO quarterback Cam Newton to its 2010 class. The junior signal-caller would go on to shatter school, conference and national records en route to the Heisman Trophy and virtually every major award.

The class didn’t began and end with Newton, however. Running back Michael Dyer produced the greatest rushing season by a freshman in Auburn history. Yes, even better than the revered Bo Jackson.

Defensive end Corey Lemonier teamed up with Nick Fairley — a member of the Tigers’ 2009 class — to harass opposing offensive linemen during the 2010 season, while kicker Cody Parkey would shoot up the all-time scoring list during his storied career.

Bust of the class: Five-star ATH Trovon Reed — the top player from the state of Louisiana and a top-25 player nationally — arrived on the Plains to much expectation, heights he would never reach. After spending four seasons on the offensive side of the ball, Reed flipped sides entering his fifth season at Auburn, playing cornerback during 2014. Reed’s best season for the Tigers was 2011, in which his 21 catches ranked fourth on the team.

Biggest surprise: Just a three-star prospect from Birmingham Ala., defensive back Chris Davis wound up having a phenomenal career for the Tigers. Davis grew to be a good cover corner opposite Jonathan Mincy, in addition to his role on special teams. Of course, Davis’s Auburn career will forever be defined by the “Kick Six” in the 2013 Iron Bowl in which he returned a missed 57-yard field goal 100 yards for the game winning touchdown.