ESPN College Football

With Willie Martinez joining the Auburn defensive staff, Tommy Thigpen will move from coaching safeties to linebackers.

Thigpen, who was an All-ACC linebacker at North Carolina, had coached the Tigers' safeties for the past three seasons. He was the North Carolina linebackers coach from 2005-08 before joining the Auburn staff and also coached linebackers for a season at Illinois.

Martinez, a former defensive coordinator at Georgia, will coach Auburn's entire secondary. The past three years under Gene Chizik, the secondary duties had been divided at Auburn. Phillip Lolley coached the cornerbacks and Thigpen the safeties.

Brian VanGorder takes over the Auburn defense after coming over from the Atlanta Falcons.

The Tigers finished last in the SEC and 86th nationally in passing-efficiency defense last season. They gave up 23 touchdown passes and intercepted just 11 passes.

ESPN recruiting analysts Corey Long and Jamie Newberg have come up with their list of the 25 best recruiters in college football this year.

These are all assistant coaches, and eight SEC coaches made the cut -- Sal Sunseri of Alabama, Tim Horton of Arkansas, Trooper Taylor and Tommy Thigpen of Auburn, Mike Bobo of Georgia, Frank Wilson of LSU, G.A. Mangus of South Carolina and Charlie Baggett of Tennessee.

The ACC was second with five assistant coaches on the list.

I put together my own list earlier this month of the SEC's top 25 recruiters among assistant coaches, and six of the eight SEC guys on the national list were also on my list. The two I didn't have on my list (Mangus and Thigpen) should have been.

Bottom line: If you can't recruit in the SEC, you're probably not going to be around very long -- or you better be one of the best position coaches in the business.