Auburn had Tarvarish Dawson. Then almost lost him. But the playmaker out of Lehigh (Fla.) Lehigh Acres decided to stay with the Tigers through the coaching change and has inked with Auburn.
"I knew right away after talking with coach Bryan Harsin that I was staying with Auburn," said Dawson. "I liked coach Gus Malzahn, and when he was fired, I chose not to sign early, but coach Harsin started talking to me right away, and I knew I was staying."
The 5-foot-11, 170 pound two-way athlete committed to Auburn in May and planned to sign early. But a few days before the Early Signing Period, Malzahn was let go. That slowed things down for Dawson and allowed schools like Florida State, Miami and Texas A&M to make a run at him.
The Aggies gave him the most to think about, but in his mind, this has been over for a while.
"I told the coaches at Auburn about three weeks ago that I was signing with them. It did not take me long. Yes, I did think about Texas A&M a good bit, and it was a little tough for a few days, but I knew Auburn was the right school.
"Coach Harsin called me right away, he talked about my film, what he liked about me, and we got off to a great start. Then he started talking to my family, getting to know us, and he is a coach I want to play for."
Other coaches have started to build that relationship with Dawson too, and that is a good thing, because he could be one that lines up on both sides of the ball on the next level.
His future school is no longer being discussed, but his position options are.
"I know I am going to Auburn and playing for coach Harsin, but they are telling me athlete, and that I will have the choice," said Dawson. "They have talked about wide receiver and defensive back, so we will see. I know on offense, they will run a pro-style system that spreads the ball out, so I like that a lot.
"I think coach Harsin is going to do great with the offense, get great players to Auburn do what he did at Boise State, win."
