Luper working to lure recruits to the Plains

While balancing the titles of Auburn’s recruiting coordinator and running backs coach, Curtis Luper also considers himself an astute sports historian.

So, even during a hectic summer of recruiting and moving his family to Auburn, Luper has a keen understanding of the national sports landscape.

It’s helped him put just a little perspective on the seemingly neverending publicity Auburn has received for its avant-garde recruiting tactics, which began with a stretch-limo tour of Alabama and just recently included an impromptu — and controversial — toilet-paper party with fans and prospects at Toomer’s Corner.

“I understand there’s not much going on in sports right now,” Luper said. “Other than the Los Angeles Lakers going (into) their 30th NBA championship, which, by the way, is a record.”

Yes, Luper is a Lakers fan. He’s just not a fan of those who think Auburn has done what it’s done on the recruiting trail just for show.

“Our objective is not to receive national attention,” Luper said. “Our objective is to receive the attention of 17- and 18-year-olds.”

Intentional or unintentional, consider both accomplished.

The Tigers didn’t receive a verbal commitment after what was dubbed Big Cat Weekend, but a strong impression, among both national pundits and prospective Auburn football players, was certainly established.

Instead of the traditional tour of campus, walk-through of sports facilities and football-themed powwows, Luper and staff held pie-eating and watermelon-eating contests, along with a home-run derby.

These are football prospects, right?

“The Big Cat was promoted as a social gathering of the nation’s finest athletes. Very little football, if any,” Luper said. “We weren’t concerned with any athletic evaluation, or testing, or any 1-on-1 drills or any of that. Someone said it was like a family reunion.

“We just wanted to be different.”

Though the game is constantly changing in the Auburn recruiting world, Luper said it still comes back to the basic fundamentals.

Talk up the program, get the player on campus, make him feel comfortable and let the rest take care of itself. “Beg” if you have to.

“It’s a lot of work, a lot of coordination, a lot of work and a lot of begging,” Luper said. “We’re begging kids to come to campus, essentially.”

That begging, even when the promised return is something as unique as Big Cat Weekend was, never seems to yield the most desired results when it comes to sheer bodies, Luper said. These are still high school kids the Tigers’ coaches are dealing with, of course, so there was — and always will be — a fair share of no-call no-shows.

That’s just fine, Luper said. It’s all in the game.

“We never get as many people as we expect,” Luper said. “I’m used to it. It’s not frustrating.”

Prospective players will continue to roll in this summer, as the Tigers will hold a number of football camps for rising seniors. There, Auburn’s coaches won’t be able to recruit the players, per se, but they’ll be able to see them out of street clothes and in their element — on the field.

The importance of camps isn’t what it used to be, Luper said, as a number of the nation’s top players are tending to sit them out. But the value is certainly there and can provide the visual evidence coaches need to offer someone who may not be making headlines on recruiting Web sites.

“The camp is a place where you can find the hidden jewel or make a determination on a guy we think can play,” Luper said. “We’ll get them into camp and see if they can.”

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