Former 5-star recruit Byron Cowart transferring from Auburn football

The Crootletter breaks down college football with a recruiting slant.

Tuesday, news broke that former five-star recruit Byron Cowart is leaving the Auburn program.

Cowart, out of Seffner (Fla.) Armwood, was an incredible physical specimen in high school. He looked like he was a decade older than some of his high school teammates. And while he always seemed to physically look better than he played, he was still a really good player and coveted by all of the major programs in the Southeast. Cowart ultimately picked Auburn over Florida, with the word being that Will Muschamp, then the defensive coordinator at Auburn, formerly the head coach of Florida, being the deciding relationship factor.

I’m not sure why Cowart did not work out at Auburn, but he was never able to make an impact, though injuries and coaching changes likely played a factor. He was pleasant to deal with on the recruiting trail, and I wish him well. Perhaps a change of scenery will help.

Auburn’s defensive line remains nasty as ever.

Penn State has momentum

Recruiting in September has been extremely slow. With few recruits traditionally taking big visits in this time, and three of the four most talented recruiting states (Florida, Texas, and Georgia) being significantly impacted by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, it has slowed down even more. Only three four-star prospects have committed this month.

But things are looking pretty good for Penn State, both on the field and off. PSU site Black Shoe Diaries profiles how the Nittany Lions could be in great shape to beat out Ohio State for two defensive linemen: five-star Micah Parsons, a former PSU commit, and four-star Tyreke Smith.

The last time Penn State beat out Ohio State for an Ohio kid? A very long time. If Smith does spurn Urban Meyer for James Franklin, it would unequivocally be Franklin’s most impressive recruiting victory, bar none. Going into Ohio and taking a top-three prospect in the state — that’s recruiting at an elite level.

Smith will take his time, though. He’s set up a ridiculous visit schedule for this fall — seeing USC this past weekend, Alabama in October, Penn State for the Michigan game (unofficial visit), Ohio State for the Penn State game, Oregon in late November, and then back to Happy Valley for his final official visit on Dec. 8.

Penn State currently has the No. 3 class in the country on the 247Sports Composite, with 23 commitments and 13 four- or five-star prospects. The Nittany Lions are the team that has improved its talent the most over the last four recruiting classes, per my Blue-Chip Ratio measure.

Recruiting failures lead to on-field failures

Arkansas site Arkansas Fight does a great job of breaking down how Arkansas’ failures in recruiting have contributed to the Hogs not having the tough, dominant group that is usually associated with teams coaches by Brett Bielema. Arkansas’ offensive line was nothing special last year and doesn’t look great this year, either.

A true freshman could be the answer to Alabama’s No. 2 receiver question

In this week’s Numerical, Bill Connelly lays out some wild stats about how often Calvin Ridley is targeted by Jalen Hurts compared to his other teammates. Ridley has 23 targets, No. 2 receiver Robert Foster has just six. Now, I would argue that part of the reason for this is that Hurts seems to look at his primary target, perhaps a checkdown to a back, and then take off. He’s a much better runner than he is a passer, and that is good enough to beat almost every team Alabama will face.

But if Foster really is not the answer at No. 2, I think true freshman Jerry Jeudy could be. Jeudy is not the freakiest of athletes, but he is an advanced route runner with reliable hands. It would not surprise me to see him get more work as the season wears on.

Dan Mullen is a really good coach

This is an excellent breakdown from Bill Connelly on the Mississippi State beatdown of LSU. Mississippi State played to the strengths of true freshman tackle Stewart Reese. I saw Reese several times as a recruit. He is huge, but not super nimble. The Bulldogs put him in a lot of situations where he could use his size, and minimized the times he needed to block LSU’s fierce edge rushers in space.

Despite its use of a freshman tackle, Mississippi State is quite veteran. The Bulldogs under Mullen occasionally time it right and end up with a super experienced team. When you don’t produce a lot of NFL talent, you don’t lose many players early to the draft. I wrote about this in 2014.

Quickly

• Three things I learned from the weekend in college football, including Clemson vs. Louisville and Tennessee vs. Florida.
• Spencer Hall had a good review of the Kentucky win at South Carolina. Kentucky absolutely knows who it is as a team, and plays within itself.
• This, also by Hall, is an interesting look at the NFL.

The value in that kind of behavior doesn’t come from the product. That flatlined in terms of utility a long, long time ago. (The Patriots remain unusual for not only trying, but trying intelligently to produce a good product.) An NFL owner no longer needs that to continue to boost the value of the franchise using anything that happens on the field. Value comes from getting a new stadium someone else paid for, moving the franchise to a more valuable piece of real estate and doubling the value of the franchise overnight. Value comes from leveraging and re-leveraging your existing assets, not by creating anything new.

I don’t know if I agree that this is the main cause, because there are multiple causes for declining NFL ratings. But it is certainly a cause.

• I thought this was a neat way to handle this situation by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

• Thoughts and prayers to Terrace Marshall Jr, a five-star receiver recruit and one of my favorites in the class after his leg injury.