Auburn Football: Top 5 recruiting targets for National Signing Day

3. Mark-Anthony Richards (ATH/West Palm Beach, FL) — 4 Stars 

Auburn has looked like the front-runner for a while for West Palm Beach four-star athlete Mark-Anthony Richards. Richards has drawn comparisons to former Auburn running back Kerryon Johnson, a fact that the Tigers coaching staff has no doubt attempted to play up during his recruiting process.

Johnson had a monster junior season for Auburn in 2017, accumulating nearly 1400 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns on the ground. Malzahn and company had a tough time replacing Johnson’s production this past season; JaTarvious Whitlow, Kam Martin, and Shaun Shivers are plenty talented, but none were able to fill his big shoes.

Talented freshman running back Asa Martin elected to transfer to Miami after the season, and Kam Martin is a rising senior, adding to the need of a second running back in this class to join four-star DJ Williams from Sebring, Florida.

The opportunity to play running back at Auburn is intriguing for Richards, with other schools potentially prioritizing him as a wide receiver.

Richards took an official visit to Auburn in December, and while the Tigers have long been considered the favorite, the Crystal Ball still favors Miami, although several of those predictions are outdated.

Richards recently took official visits to Florida and Georgia, and he has a visit scheduled for this weekend at Miami. It will be interesting to see if Auburn, or maybe a surprise team like Penn State can come in and land the last official visit for him the weekend before signing day.

I’d give a slight edge to Auburn at this point, but the race for his signature appears to be far from over.