BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Tommy Tuberville did Gene Chizik no favors by leaving behind bare final recruiting classes. Twelve of Auburn's 28 signees in 2008 never even played a down for the Tigers, and only five of the 28 will likely exhaust their eligibility.

Tuberville's last group truly was, as the Opelika-Auburn News recently dubbed it, "The Class That Time Forgot."

So what's that make Chizik's first two classes? Because time is quickly forgetting many of those players, too.

Remarkably, 43 percent of Auburn's 2009 and 2010 signees are no longer on the team, or never joined the program in the first place. That's a brutal percentage, especially as Auburn sits with the SEC's fewest 2012 commitments and two new coordinators who inevitably will weed out some veterans.

Jon Solomon is a columnist for The Birmingham News. Join him for live web chats on college sports on Wednesdays at 2 p.m.

The good news for Auburn: It sits at 24 for 24 from the 2011 class still on the team, as far as we know. But 2009 and 2010 are the classes that keep on disappearing.

The missing signees are spread out among positions. They include six offensive linemen, four wide receivers, four defensive backs, three linebackers, three running backs and three defensive linemen.

They're not just fringe players. Forty percent of Auburn's four- or five-star signees listed by Rivals.com from those years are gone. That doesn't include five-star offensive lineman Shon Coleman, who hasn't played while fighting cancer and remains in the program.

Auburn's quarterback situation might not be a mess if it didn't miss in '09 on Tyrik Rollison, the No. 2 dual-threat quarterback who ranked 17 spots ahead of Clint Moseley. Rollison was suspended and transferred to Sam Houston State, where he has since left while recently expressing interest to join Texas A&M-Commerce.

Auburn's four- and five-star misses add up. Dontae Aycock, the No. 16 running back in '09 ahead of Arkansas' Knile Davis and Wisconsin's Montee Ball, was dismissed by Auburn in '10. Then he left South Florida last year, too.

Taikwon Paige, a four-star junior-college cornerback in '09, never qualified. Neither did Reggie Taylor, the nation's 34th-ranked corner that year.

Mike Dyer, the No. 2 running back in '10, gave Auburn two exceptional years as BCS Championship Game MVP and a first-team All-SEC star. Then he was suspended indefinitely and transferred to Arkansas State.

Roszell Gayden was a massive, four-star offensive lineman out of junior college in '10. He never played a snap due to injuries.

Jeremy Richardson, a four-star receiver in '10, never qualified. Another four-star receiver that year, Antonio Goodwin, got dismissed with three-star teammates Dakota Mosley and Shaun Kitchens after they were arrested on robbery charges.

Some high-profile players still at Auburn haven't lived up to the hype, at least not yet. DeAngelo Benton was the seventh-ranked wide receiver when he signed with LSU in 2007, rated ahead of Dez Bryant. Benton joined Auburn in 2009 and has 14 catches in three years.

Some high-profile 2010 recruits such as Trovon Reed, Kenneth Carter, Jeffrey Whitaker, Eric Mack, Craig Sanders and LaDarius Owens are hoping to make names for themselves. It's still relatively early in their careers. Corey Lemonier, a member of that '10 class ranked fourth nationally by Rivals, tied for fourth in sacks in the SEC last season.

Chizik only had two months to compile the '09 class after he was hired. He did land some longterm hits such as Emory Blake, Philip Lutzenkirchen and Onterio McCalebb. And of course Cam Newton turned out quite fine in 2010, as did fellow JuCo transfers Nick Fairley and Brandon Mosley.

Chizik signed eight JuCos his first two years. That helped win a national title. But it's not a longterm recipe for success, especially when those classes disappear for reasons beyond exhausted eligibility. Auburn didn't sign a JuCo in 2011 and doesn't have any committed for 2012, at least not yet.

Some of Auburn's top targets this year remain undecided. How the Tigers close in the next few days becomes a huge story.

Auburn doesn't need another forgotten class. Time already did enough damage.

Write Jon at jsolomon@bhamnews.com. Follow him at twitter.com/jonsol.