This time last year, Auburn coaches were getting quite a bit of publicity for their outside-the-box recruiting style inside the state of Alabama.

Gene Chizik and company hit the road in limos and stretch Hummers to evaluate area prospects.  Coaches can’t chat with players during the spring evaluation period, but they can meet with coaches, guidance counselors and the like.

Chizik and his assistants realized that while they might not be able to talk with recruits, they could be SEEN by recruits.  Thus the over-the-top nature of the limos and Hummers.  The trips were called the Tiger Prowl.

“We knew it would get a little attention.  It probably got more attention than we originally had thought.  But the bottom line is, we wanted to make a statement to the 17-year-old players in this state who are coming out next year that it’s important to us to be at their school.  We wanted to make that statement to the high school coaches in the state of Alabama.”

The plan worked brilliantly.  Probably because it was a brilliant plan.

Fans at other schools mocked the Tiger Prowl (especially those Crimson-clad fans who share the state with AU), but all would be quite happy if their coaches had thought of it first.

The results were a Top 10 signing class for Auburn in 2010 and the unexpected ability to actually hang with Nick Saban on the recruiting trail.

So what to do for an encore?

This year Auburn has painted a big bus (seen at left) with images of AU athletics and the words “Tiger Prowl.”  While coaches are visiting a town’s high schools in their Hummers, the bus zips around that town as a rolling billboard for the Tiger athletic program. 

In the evenings, when all of the high school visits are done, the Tiger Prowl turns into a caravan stop, complete with coaches from various AU teams meeting and greeting fans. 

Here’s the interesting part — Chizik tried yesterday to make it very clear that the Tiger Prowl is NOT connected to his recruiting efforts.

“Tiger Prowl has nothing to do with recruiting.  Tiger Prowl is basically a fundraising event that we do in the evenings.”  That’s the message Chizik sent in at least two separate interviews on Thursday.

So why is Chizik now saying that the two aren’t linked?  Probably because he doesn’t want the NCAA to draw a connection between recruiting visits and booster events.

Last year — shortly after the Tiger Prowl tour — Auburn hosted what it called the “Big Cat Weekend.”  Prospects visited the AU campus and — what do you know — several hundred students and fans turned out to roll Toomer’s Corner with them.

That resulted in several NCAA secondary violations and it even required assistant coach Trooper Taylor to be taken off the road for a few months.

Boosters and fans cannot be involved in a school’s recruiting efforts. 

It sounds like Chizik is trying to make it clear to everyone (NCAA investigators included) that there is no connection between the Tiger Prowl fan events and his coaches’ recruiting visits.

The SEC conducted its spring football coaches media teleconference on Thursday afternoon. Head coach Bobby Johnson made the following comments:
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It’s rare that we see press releases regarding recruiting efforts from major college football programs, but that’s exactly what Georgia has produced this week.

The Bulldogs football office released a statement to the press this week to inform the public on Georgia’s recruiting efforts in its own state. A detailed account from the report can be seen here from Chip Towers of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

“By the end of next week, our assistance coaches will have been to more than 350 schools in the state of Georgia,” Richt said in the release. “Our coaches are really pounding the state of Georgia. The focus of our staff is to make sure we recruit the state of Georgia first.”

It’s probably a wise move. The state of Georgia produces some of the nation’s top talent, and programs all across the country actively recruit the state for that reason.

Three of Rivals.com’s top five players in the state of Georgia went to out-of-school states in 2010: wide receivers Da’Rick Rogers (Tennessee) and Markeith Ambles (Southern Cal) and defensive tackle Jeffrey Whitaker (Auburn).

That’s a trend Georgia is clearly trying to change.

Auburn’s coaching staff continues its recruiting tour with the highly-publicized Tiger Prowl.

The Birmingham News has a few photos and an update on Auburn’s tour right here. The tour by Auburn has clearly been a success as recruits see Auburn’s staff move around together and fans get a chance to hear from and talk to members of the staff.

It should be pointed out that Auburn coach Gene Chizik has stressed that the Tiger Prowl is a fundraising tour for fans, not a recruiting pitch to prospects.

“Tiger Prowl has nothing to do with recruiting,” Chizik said Thursday on a spring SEC coaches teleconference. “Tiger Prowl is basically a fundraising event we do in the evenings.”

Chizik also downplayed the significance of the Tiger Prowl on recruiting.

“I don’t know if that’s something that played a huge role in our signing class or not,” he said. “It’s all about how hard you work and it’s all about relationships. All the other stuff … I don’t know what impact that had.”

The exact impact is unclear, but I think it’s pretty safe to say Auburn benefited in recruiting from the Tiger Prowl. Chizik probably knows that too, but he’s not going to talk it up too much publicly. Still, his staff has done a fine job recruiting in a little more than a year at Auburn.

Everyone is buzzing about the possibility of conference expansion in the SEC.  Coaches were hit with questions about expansion during yesterday’s teleconference.

One of them made a pretty big splash with his answer.  No one should be surprised that it was Steve Spurrier.

“I don’t know if we’ll do a larger (SEC),” South Carolina’s coach said.  “I haven’t heard that scenario.  I’ve heard maybe Arkansas back to the Big 12 or something like that.”

To that, Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long must be thinking, “Thanks, Steve.”

When talk of the Big Ten possibly expanding and grabbing a Big 12 school popped up in December, immediately folks around the nation began suggesting that Arkansas would leave the SEC to rejoin four of its old Southwest Conference mates in the more midwestern league.

There are only a couple of problems with that theory:

1.  Arkansas bolted from those four schools (and four others) when it left the SWC on its own back in the early 1990s.

2.  Arkansas makes a helluva lot more money in the SEC (where revenues are evenly shared) than it would in the Big 12 (where TV revenue is not evenly split).  If Missouri or Nebraska bolt from the Big 12, it will be because of their very public displeasure with their current league’s revenue split… a split that favors Texas and Oklahoma.

Long brought up the topic of SEC dollars when asked in January if the Hogs might leave their current home for the Big 12.

“You would look at it, but I can just tell you right off the top of my head, there’s about seven to eight million reasons you wouldn’t make a move to the Big 12.”

Some Arkansas fans who long for the Big 12 surely would not feel that way had their once strong football and basketball programs not both declined since joining the SEC.  If the Razorbacks were dominating the West Division, there would be fewer mumbles about joining a league that features Kansas, Iowa State, Kansas State and a number of other teams who have no connection whatsoever to the Hogs.

It’s interesting that Spurrier suggested Arkansas might leave.  A Columbia sportswriter opined just last week that Carolina would be better suited in the ACC.  Again, if USC were having great success in the SEC East, there would probably be no talk about moving to an “easier to win” conference.

As it stands, the Arkansas-to-the-Big-12 story will get a few more spins in the media cycle thanks to Spurrier’s comment.  Long and Bobby Petrino will have to answer questions about their school’s plans a few more times this summer.

When they are asked for their thoughts, they should simply return the favor to ol’ Steve.

“Us?  I haven’t heard that scenario.  I heard that Carolina might head to the ACC or something like that.”

Anthony Johnson is still committed to LSU, but the defensive tackle from O. Perry Walker High School in New Orleans wants to make sure he made the right choice.

Johnson told CrimsonConfidential.com he plans to take all five official visits allowed by the NCAA this fall. He also plans to visit schools unofficially.

Johnson said he will take official visits to Miami, Texas, Oklahoma, Southern California and California. He said he plans to take unofficial visits to Alabama, Miami and USC this summer.

Johnson originally committed to Tennessee before switching his commitment to LSU. That could make USC a team to watch.

The staff he committed to at UT is now at USC. That includes head coach Lane Kiffin, defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin and defensive line coach Ed Orgeron.

Tennessee continues to work to build its recruiting for 2011 under new coach Derek Dooley.

The Knoxville News Sentinel has four new prospects each Friday for UT fans to keep an eye on. This week’s list is updated here. Here are the four highlighted players from the News Sentinel:

Defensive tackle Timmy Jernigan – Columbia High School in Lake City, Fla.
Cornerback Jonathan Rose – Leeds (Ala.) High School
Linebacker Anthony Swain – Gadsden (Ala.) City High School (committed to Auburn)
Athlete Jabriel Washington – Trinity Christian Academy in Jackson, Tenn. (committed to Alabama)