Kohl Stewart talks baseball choice, Sumlin's handling of recruitment

Key quotes from Kohl Stewart interview

“All the social media and resources these day, I’ve never seen a kid that has been talked about like Kyler. I mean Johnny was a three star recruit coming out of high school. The way that Kyler has everybody talking about him, I don’t think anybody has seen anything like that.”

“Twitter was big when I was being recruited, but Kyler is at a huge high school and he’s won three state championships. He's nationally talked about now, he the guy to talk about right now in recruiting.”

“Starting my professional career as an 18 year old was a whirlwind. I was drafted in June 2013, I had to make that decision, and then reported three days later. I was in Minnesota to sign and then reported straight to Florida. There was a lot going on and a lot of things I had to get used to. There was definitely a learning curve, and I’m still learning how to be a professional. It’s something every kid in my shoes went through,but  doing it as an 18 year old kid was something that made me grow up pretty quick.”

"My longest bus trip this past year, I think it was 14 hours. But it's fun, you're doing it with the guys. They're really your family because you're with them so much."

“Having a game every day was the biggest adjustment to being a professional. You get up and it's your job. Every day, you wake up and there is something that has to be done. It was something that you just had to get used to. I wasn't used to playing 146 games in six months, that was a different animal. I think I had a pretty good year, and I think I took a lot of good things from it.”

“I'm not in big league camp yet, that's probably a goal for next year. They’re not going to bring guys in that they don’t have a change of making the club. So, I hope this year I’m in high A and can do time there and in AA. Hopefully I'm in AA by midseason this year.”

“I don’t know if I’ve missed out on anything by not coming to A&M. I mean obviously the degree is a big deal, that’s something I want to obtain while I’m growing up. I still get to see my buddies and have fun with them, but the college experience is something everybody says is the best time of your life but I don’t really know if I’m missing it, I like what I do. I'm doing what I love to do, so I don't really think about it that way.”

"Joe Mauer actually came down and played with us this year. He was a quarterback commit in high school and was going to Florida State, and we talked about that a little bit. He had a lot of wisdom about the whole situation. We kind of joked around with it while he was in town. His signing actually came down to the wire, he was packing his stuff up and was going to go down to Florida State. At the last minute, they came to an agreement, but he was ready to go to Florida State."

“I remember Sumlin coming in for my in-home visit in December or January that year. He was actually telling me that I was going to go where I was going to go. In my head, I was like,'There's a possibility of this or that happening,' but he said, 'No, this is what’s going to happen. You’re going to be a top five pick, there’s no doubt in my mind.' He was literally sitting across the table telling this to my family, my mom thought he was crazy. I had planned to go to A&M for three years, that was what I was doing no doubt about it. To hear him say that and be that confident about it, I started thinking that maybe there was a chance I would go that high.”

“Sumlin was so good about all of it. I signed and everything, and he told me to just be honest with him. He just said, ‘Don’t do anything without talking to me about it before you do it,” I ended up signing and everything was good, he couldn’t have been better about it. It was tough for him to see, but he handled it with such class. The thing about Sumlin is that he’s as real as it gets and tells you the truth. He’s going to be straight up with you and he doesn’t sugar coat anything.”

"The first game the Swagcopter showed up at was on ESPN, it was us against Sealy. I remember taking the first snap of that game and Iooked up and he was right over us. You could see the 'YESSIR!' on the underside of the helicopter and he was floating over the field. It was cool, that was a memorable night."

"There are so many things that go into the decision to come to school or to go professional. Kyler's family is going to be pretty key in helping him make that decision. Ultimately, he has to do what he loves. If he loves football, he needs to go play football. If he loves baseball, he needs to go play baseball. It does matter where he goes in the draft and the kind of opportunity he gets, but he needs to do what he loves. That's just the way it is."