Tennessee beats out Auburn for another recruit as lineman flips his commitment from the Tigers to the Vols
Jeremy Pruitt may never forgive Gus Malzahn for signing Jay Hardy.
That seems to be the message being sent from Rocky Top as Pruitt’s Tennessee program has been defeating Malzahn’s program on the recruiting trail for seemingly every prospect the two are interested in.
Thus far during the 2021 recruiting cycle, Tennessee has beaten Auburn for Dylan Brooks, Cody Brown, Kaidon Salter, Roc Taylor, Trinity Bell and Isaac Washington.
While Auburn stole a prospect out from Tennessee’s backyard back in April when King’s Academy lineman J’Marion Gooch announced his commitment to the Tigers, the Seymour, Tenn., native just announced he had flipped his commitment to Tennessee.
The 6-foot-7, 358-pound offensive lineman is rated as a three-star prospect, the No. 22 overall prospect from Tennessee and the No. 68 offensive tackle prospect in the 2021 recruiting cycle by 247Sports Composite Rankings.
Gooch announced his flip with the following video post.
Thank you to the Auburn Community, and coaching staff for all of the support during this process. After much thought and consideration, I have decided….@CoachTBarr @TKACoachSellers @CoachJPruitt @JimChaneyUT @CoachWillFriend @aspicer19 pic.twitter.com/gGT3EsRVcF
— G_soshiesty (@GoochJmarion) August 31, 2020
To get an idea of what Gooch brings to the Tennessee program, check out his junior season highlight reel:
Tennessee’s 2021 Recruiting Class
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I hate Tennessee. You botched the title by the way. There was no beating us out. They just flipped him.
I had no idea how much y’all hated each other. Y’all sound like uga vs Florida. The hatred. We have the cocktail party. Auburn and bama have the iron bowl. Do you have a nickname for Tennessee vs Auburn?
King Negan
Tennessee’s rival is us and to a lesser extent – Florida.
This is another case of little brother attempting to be relevant.
Auburn – Tennessee is a major rivalry for the older generation. It fell away after the SEC split into East & West Divisions. I don’t really consider Auburn a rival, but my dad does.
I hate Auburn. Great title. Beat em like a drum. He flipped Auburn the bird.
I share in your hatred of all things au.
Relax man he’s a 3* project but we are short on OL this class m. He could be really good in a couple years. Good get.
@Fuzzy……..What’s the deal with this guy? I mean people are slinging the hate word. LOL
King Negan
There is some historical bad blood between Tennessee and Auburn. It was a major rivalry from 1956 – 1992, but ended when the SEC split into divisions. Tennessee picked up Georgia as a rival instead and Auburn picked up LSU as a rival. Now the Tennessee/ Auburn rivalry is primarily in recruiting.
We all hate each other from a team perspective. Vols hate dogs, dogs hate vols… its not personal, for most. We had a good rivalry with Auburn but as others stated when divisions started the rivalry lost a lot. My memory isn’t that great but I recall a number of ties with Auburn. We called Pat Dye; Pat “Tie” Dye. There were some great games back in the day.
We really only hate each other for about 4 hours a year… if you don’t count the other sports…
Not gonna get bent out of shape over a 3 star OL who was our lowest rated OL.
Regarding the other players you mentioned:
Brown: Good player but Auburn is fine at RB for this class with Goodwin. Anything else is icing on the cake. No really heavily pursuing of any RBs
Salter: Auburn and Morris had its eyes on Davis and backed off recruiting Salter as hard. Once they did that Salter committed to the week before.
Roc Taylor: Auburn is not in a huge need for big receivers, will probably take only one since signing 5 last class. Auburn is pursuing Taylor but not as hard as some others.
Bell: Auburn wanted King over Bell. Simple as that.
Washington: Auburn has bigger fish to get. Already have 2 of the top 20 DTs and are pretty much done at the position unless something happens.
Brooks: He’ll be a tiger in the end.
LOL! Auburn sucks! Have fun getting beat by Tennessee for the second time in 3 years!
Auburn sucks? Doesn’t Auburn lead the all time series? You finally won a game in the last 6 tries and now Auburn sucks? LOL
Don’t forget eating your lunch in recruiting.
With a bunch of 3 stars? LOL.
They whooped you with worse.
A 6 point game is being whooped? Interesting. Guess GA State whooped Tennessee too.
I’ll take what losers say for 500.
Then you win 500 because Tennessee has lost to Auburn more than Auburn has lost too Tennessee. Congrats.
That was kinda weak. Good luck to Auburn this year, brother!
LOL ok wde so auburn really didnt want any of em. Riiight, gotcha.
Comprehension not that strong, huh?
If Auburn didn’t want any of them they wouldn’t have offered.. Sometimes you miss on guys and the lower tier guy becomes the next best option which is the case with Bell and Washington. Auburn signed 5 WRs last class and it isn’t a huge need this class. Are they recruiting Taylor? Yes but not as hard as other guys. Auburn is locked up at RB with 4 guys as sophomores or freshman already on the roster and now Goodwin already on board. There isn’t much room for anymore unless it’s an elite back, which Brown is not. Davis was the priority at QB once Morris came on.
Are these good players? No doubt. Auburn just has other guys higher on their board than some of these guys. You aren’t going to just offer 25 guys and land all 25. You have to have options. Also, just because you offer them doesn’t mean you are “recruiting” them. By that I mean actively recruiting them. They might be in contact every now and then but the higher guys on their board hear from the coaches every day or every other day.
I comprehend just fine. I agree with most of your points but your first post sounds an awful lot like listing all the reasons why auburn didn’t really want them anyway. Sour grapes. Maybe they didn’t but I doubt it. Whatever enjoy your season. See you soon.
I mean it is reasons why Auburn didn’t want them, other players on their board were higher up and they took them. Doesn’t mean you don’t offer them. They aren’t scrubs, they just weren’t as high on Auburn’s board compared to Tennessee’s. Not sour grapes at all when most the guys the author listed have lower rankings compared to the Auburn commits at their respective position.