AUBURN — Having played with just 74 players on scholarship last season, Auburn University football coach Gene Chizik needed not only some buzz about his recruiting, but real, live football players to show up from his 2010 recruiting class that was ranked in the top 5 nationally.
All indications are he’s got them.
Auburn has 29 of the 32 players it signed earlier in the year on campus and working toward the start of fall practice in August. The Tigers expect 30 on campus after a junior college transfer receives NCAA Clearinghouse approval.
Auburn anticipates it will play with 84 or 85 scholarship players this season. The maximum is 85.
Chizik replenished his roster by enrolling five of the 32 in January and counting them back to the 2009 signing class. He signed 27 more in February, and 25 of them — the maximum allowed — will be eligible.
”It’s huge for us with our numbers situation,” Chizik said.
”When you’re trying to restock the cupboard and fill a lot of holes, it’s imperative that you sign the right guys, and they have to make it. That’s a hurdle, but we feel really good about that. We look forward to bringing in a full class this year. We’ll have to do this a couple of more years.”
In recent years, Auburn has annually had several signees who went to junior college in hopes of enrolling at Auburn after qualifying.
