College Sports

Auburn's football coaches have put an emphasis on making early scholarship offers this year, so much so that they've gotten ahead of recruiting service rankings.

Partly because of that, Auburn's 17 commitments rank 23rd in Rivals.com's early team rankings, which the site released Wednesday.

This is despite the fact that Auburn's number of commitments ranks among the highest among those of the 65 schools in Bowl Championship Series conferences.

The comments section of Rivals' early rankings hints that Auburn's ranking could rise soon.

"The Tigers' class of 17 players definitely is defense-oriented," Rivals recruiting editor Jeremy Crabtree writes. "Auburn always does a great job of finding — and developing — defensive talent, and this group should be no exception.

"Watch out for unranked Reggie Taylor. He's a potential star. "

Taylor, a cornerback and the latest of Auburn's 17 commitments, is currently unrated by Rivals. The same is true of three other high school prospects who have committed to Auburn: offensive lineman Aaron Moore, athlete LaDarius Perkins and athlete Travante Stallwort.

Rivals also does not have rankings for Auburn's three junior college commitments, all of whom signed with Auburn out of high school. Linebacker Eltoro Freeman was a four-star prospect coming out of high school, while defensive tackle Nick Fairley and defensive end Wilfred Journet were three-stars.

Among Auburn commitments who are rated, running back Rodney Scott and tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen are four-star prospects and ranked sixth at their positions. Rivals considers four-star Jamontay Pilson the nation's No. 32 defensive tackle prospect.

Rivals updates its rankings monthly. Jeffrey Lee, who writes for Rivals-affiliated AuburnSports.com, said he expects Auburn's team ranking to climb.

"I would think Auburn will make a big jump after the other commitments are ranked," he wrote on the site's message board. "And as you can notice from the list, look for new (defensive back) commitment Reggie Taylor to make a huge jump in the next installment of rankings."

Auburn's coaching staff, trying to get out in front of other major programs, has begun offering top camp performers earlier.

Rivals' early team top 25 list is as follows: 1) Ohio State 2) Southern California 3) Texas 4) Michigan 5) LSU 6) Florida State 7) Georgia 8) Clemson 9) Oklahoma)10) Michigan State 11) Rutgers 12) Texas A&M 13) Florida 14) Tennessee 15) Mississippi State 16) Miami 17) North Carolina 18) Virginia 19) Penn State 20) Notre Dame 21) West Virginia, 22) UCLA 23) Auburn 24) Stanford and 25) Alabama.

• CLASS OF '08 UPDATE: Defensive back Neiko Lipscomb, one of the top recruits of Auburn's 2008 class, has made the required test score for freshman eligibility, according to AuburnSports.com. He is among 18 signees who have reported to campus.

Others who have reported include cornerback Harry Adams, wide receiver Darvin Adams, defensive back T'Sharvan Bell, defensive back Drew Cole, deep snapper Dax Dellenbach, defensive end Cameron Henderson, back D'Antoine Hood, defensive lineman Derrick Lykes, wide receiver Philip Pierre-Louis, linebacker Spencer Pybus, defensive lineman Jomarcus Savage, running back Eric Smith, tight end Vance Smith, defensive back Christian Thompson, quarterback Barrett Trotter, defensive lineman Andre Wadley and wide receiver Derek Winter.

Not yet reported are running back Reggie Hunt, defensive back Marcus Jemison and offensive tackle Jermaine Johnson. All three have cases before the NCAA Clearinghouse.

Quarterback DeRon Furr participated in spring practice and has moved to safety. Junior college defensive end Raven Gray enrolled for spring but sat out of spring practice with a knee injury, and JUCO quarterback Chris Todd participated in spring practice.

Tennessee transfer De'Shaun Barnes, a linebacker, also participated in spring practice.

Tight end Ken Adams, running back Onterrio McCalebb, athlete Brandon Smith and offensive lineman Freddie Smooth did not qualify academically and have been placed in prep schools or junior colleges.

• TUBS-ERA TOP 10: Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville will mark his 10th season on the job this fall, and the school has launched a fan vote for the top 10 games of the Tuberville era.

Fans can vote at AuburnTigers.com, with choices including 25 games from the last nine years. The site will include capsules, photos, statistics, video and audio highlights of each of the 25 selections.

Fans can vote as often as they like, and voting will conclude at the end of this month. Results will be tabulated in August, and AuburnTigers.com will unveil the top 10 twice a week leading up to the 2008 season opener.

Each game selected by the fans will feature full game stories and retrospectives from Tuberville and the players that participated.