There's been a fair bit of discussion on the radios and the internets about whether Auburn's plan to pack the entire recruiting staff into a stretch hummer (are those curtains I see?) and go around to area high schools to attract big-name recruits. This is about the cheeziest thing I've ever seen.
I don't know if it will work or if it won't work. I hope it doesn't work, because the college-coach-as-pimp meme is one I'd really not like to see become viral. I'm not naive enough to be blind to the fact that lots of crazy things happen on the recruiting trail, but this is a significant step down in class from the kind of crap that Lane Kiffin is pulling. This sort of thing signals that Auburn is going to become the Fabulous Freebirds of college football.
I'm becoming somewhat Tkylekingian in my references and picture selection, aren't i?
My guess is that some recruits will be impressed with it, most of them impressed without really being persuaded by it. They'll say, "Hey, that's kinda cool. Now let's talk about your depth chart." Some others will be turned off by it. The ones who are genuinely persuaded by the limo will disproportionately end up as prima donnas or as off-field distractions.
Ultimately, I'm not sure it will mean much. It's just a silly publicity stunt to make them seem younger, hipper. I'm just not sure that anyone the age of the Auburn coaching staff can really look young and hip. I think pulling silly stunts when you're in your 40s just makes you look even older. Not younger. It just reminds people of how inappropriate it is for you to ride around in a pimp mobile when you take arthritis medicine and complain about your sciatica.