And now the whole of Auburn Nation, from the coaching staff on down to the fans, can finally exhale.
The day began with elation as Byron Cowart, the consensus No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2015, publicly committed to Auburn over Florida during a mid-morning press conference. That was followed by hours of uncertainty and speculation as Cowart’s signed National Letter of Intent had not yet been received in AU’s football offices.
The rumors were all over the map, including allegations that Cowart’s high school coach Sean Callahan, whose son, Kirk Callahan, recently joined Jim McElwain‘s UF coaching staff, was withholding the NLI in an attempt to get his former player to sign with his son’s school.
“There is no big scandal,” Callahan told Yahoo‘s Pat Forde. “I’m tired of being in the middle of this thing. … Really, I don’t care [where Cowart goes]. I’ve had a good relationship with coach [Will] Muschamp. [Muschamp now is at Auburn as defensive coordinator.] My son will still have his job no matter what happens with Byron.”
Whatever scandal there may have been, however, it all has officially come to an end seven hours later.
Malzahn announces they "have just received Byron Cowart's paperwork."
— WarEagleExtra (@wareagleextra) February 4, 2015
Malzahn: We just received Byron Cowart's paperwork. (Breathe, people)
— John Zenor (@jzenor) February 4, 2015
After all of the hullabaloo, Cowart becomes the highest-rated player to ever sign with Auburn. Hopefully, his play in the future will be worth all of the angst the last several hours wrought.