Sting Factor: Jarell Stinson backs off pledge to Auburn
When a major program loses a key recruit, Rivals.com takes a look at how big of a blow it is to the respective school, analyzing it from a local and national level. To quantify the “sting” of each decommitment, we assign a score from one to 10, with one being no big deal and 10 being a catastrophic hit.
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THE STORYLINE
Jarell Stinson made his commitment to Auburn before a new regime, led by Bryan Harsin, took over.
The three-star athlete from Opelika, Ala., who is expected to play cornerback in college also had a great relationship with position coach Wesley McGriff, but he’s now at Florida.
It’s not a major surprise that Stinson decided to back off his pledge to Auburn in recent days, because even as he got to know the new coaching staff, he was closest with the old staff and there was a mutual parting of ways.
A speedster from right down the road, it’s not ideal to lose a player of Stinson’s caliber, but he had been investigating other options for a while. He recently said “probably UCF” was recruiting him the hardest, but Florida and others are involved as well.
Auburn is down to five commitments and currently has the last-place class in the SEC team recruiting rankings although there are some names out there that have the Tigers high on their list.
LOCAL REACTION
"Stinson's decision to reopen his recruitment didn't come as a shock. Not a big one, at least. He committed to Auburn in December just two days after Gus Malzahn was fired. Stinson actually committed to then-defensive backs coach McGriff. McGriff never stopped recruiting Stinson and pushed hard to get Stinson to visit Florida, which he did in June.
"Stinson might not end up at Florida, but it looks less and less likely he will stay close to home at Auburn. That's what stings the most for Auburn - losing a local kid that the new staff worked hard to keep." - Jeffrey Lee, AuburnSports.com
Sting Factor: 7
NATIONAL REACTION
"There are two ways to think about this: If Stinson did not want to be at Auburn with the new coaching staff, then the best thing to do is part ways and move on. Plenty of top recruits will still be interested in the Tigers and many will end up playing at Auburn. The other way is that this new coaching staff needs to lock up local talent and there is no one closer than Stinson, who has the speed to make an impact for the Tigers on the defensive side of the ball.
"It is worrisome that Auburn only has five pledges especially after so many programs loaded up with commitments after June visits, but Harsin and his staff know what they’re doing and need to show some kids what they can do on Saturdays before they jump on board.
"Harsin is a very competent coach and while things are slow now I have full confidence Auburn will get it going in the right direction. Keeping Stinson would have been nice, but it won’t make or break this recruiting class." - Adam Gorney, Rivals National Recruiting Director
Sting Factor: 5