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You are right, but my point was that A&M did not even try to bring in national recruits.

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This is a total fabrication. You have a short-term memory regarding the recruiting process and program exposure.

W will enjoy this also.
In the 2020 nfl draft 15 of the first 59 players were from Texas high schools. That 1/4 of the first two rounds. Seven were in the first round and four were defensive players.

Sq 12 Ag said:

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I worked in the Athletic department when R.C. was the head coach. I can attest to him having the philosophy that you don't have to recruit heavily outside the state of Texas in order to win a national championship. If we were the only big school in the state of Texas, that might be possible, but you know that tu is going to get their fair share as well as out-of-state poachers.

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Exactly!!

Harry Lime said:

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Quote:

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You are right, but my point was that A&M did not even try to bring in national recruits.

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This is a total fabrication. You have a short-term memory regarding the recruiting process and program exposure.

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Maybe I exaggerated a bit. They tried, but I don't think they made it a priority. They thought in state recs would be enough.

infinity ag said:

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whatthehey78 said:

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Probably already stated...but A&M didn't have "National appeal" back in-tha-day. Move to SEC, JFF, Heisman trophy, and Jimbo are the BIG reasons for the NEW A&M reach. Gotta keep winning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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You are right, but my point was that A&M did not even try to bring in national recruits. They just looked in TX and maybe OK/LA. And even Texags gurus justified it.

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RC stated flat-out that he was only interested in recruiting Texas kids, besides the pre-internet, costs, etc reasons already brought up. RC believe if he got the top talent in Texas we could be as good as anybody. Also, he really wanted to bring a NC to Texas using mostly Texas kids. I can't say this was really a bad thing under the circumstances, but RC never managed to "lock down" all the best in Texas anyway, so who knows what would have happend.

As mentioned above, starting with Sumlin (Franch and Sherm couldn't really build anything) that started to change. Now that Jimbo has the national momentum, I don't ever see that going away as long as he's here.

Much more money available to fly people in and out, much easy access to data and film via internet, etc

Had a HS coach who played for A&M in the mid 70's tell me. I was all greater Houston player. The next year they brought in an all state player. Now we have progressed to bringing in all American players. Success and TV allow you to get better players from all over.

I distinctly remember one or two wrecking crew players from Compton that played for RC.

Weak brand and limited national presence.

Name them.

This is why we never matched up well with teams like Ohio St, UT, Penn State, ND, … Cal

They pulled good players from all over.

ashley said:

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W will enjoy this also.
In the 2020 nfl draft 15 of the first 59 players were from Texas high schools. That 1/4 of the first two rounds. Seven were in the first round and four were defensive players.

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but none of those front seven guys were anywhere close to Myles Garrett, Von Miller, et al talent level.

the Tech LB that went in the 1st round had a nice career, but had little overall impact on the program. Tech was bad with him and without him

Everett Smith

Aaron Brown (played for Fran, my bad)

I think you should look at RC's rosters. You will find players from both coasts sprinkled throughout the years. RC also raised the alarm early on in the 90's over facilities and the athletic/school admin wasn't hearing it. It was his direct lead fundraising that led to the Zone and Bright Complex additions even getting off the ground, giving A&M the tools needed to recruit on the national stage.

Sirr Parker was from California. Sumlin recruited Kyle Allen and Christian Kirk out of Arizona. So it's not like us recruiting nationally is a new idea. But there is also a difference between goals and plans. Jimbo makes plans. In R.C.'s defense, I don't think he could have recruited better nationally then he did. Exposure of program, facilities, difficulty in travel, and to be frank, College Station as a place to live were a lot different 25 years ago.

Sirr Parker is really a miracle coming here. Yes, his brother was in Houston but still. Then coming through with that touchdown in St. Louis is really a great path. He's the kind of guy that if he came around today could choose any place to go (Stanford, service academies, Notre Dame, Clemson, etc.) excepting Alabama and LSU. I don't get the feeling that a 3.9 GPA matters much there.

REAL ANSWER:

Honestly, it's a different world with the internet- easy exposure and ease of contact. Recruiting nationally is MUCH cheaper and easier- especially when you have the name- which a&m does post- manziel and SEC.

Before, only 10 or so schools could do it- you're talking mostly phone calls and letters. Coaches weren't flying all over the country. Budgets were much more limited pre-big money tv contracts.

If you were a Notre Dame, USC, Nebraska,
Michigan you had an "in" with any recruit- Texas A&M was not going to waste money and time criss-crossing the country unless it was a kid we knew had interest in A&M.

Even Jackie's players were almost all Texans.

12thMan9 said:

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ABATTBQ11 said:

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Because a lot of idiots think that good football players only come from Texas

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Signed,

R.C. Slocum

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This times 1000. R.C. thought small, talked small and coached small. Secondly, what years did Texas recruit nationally? I mean anywhere near the level we are today? It certainly wasn't the 80s, 90s or over the last 12 years. Yes they had a few BRIEF pops from 2005-2009 but not much else.

FarmerJohn said:

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Sirr Parker was from California. Sumlin recruited Kyle Allen and Christian Kirk out of Arizona. So it's not like us recruiting nationally is a new idea. But there is also a difference between goals and plans. Jimbo makes plans. In R.C.'s defense, I don't think he could have recruited better nationally then he did. Exposure of program, facilities, difficulty in travel, and to be frank, College Station as a place to live were a lot different 25 years ago.

Sirr Parker is really a miracle coming here. Yes, his brother was in Houston but still. Then coming through with that touchdown in St. Louis is really a great path. He's the kind of guy that if he came around today could choose any place to go (Stanford, service academies, Notre Dame, Clemson, etc.) excepting Alabama and LSU. I don't get the feeling that a 3.9 GPA matters much there.

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Yes, but in the old days, an OOS rec was a rare thing. My point is that we suffered because we had a Texas-first mentality. That is wrong strategy.
We should have a MERIT FIRST mentality. If a CA player is better than a TX player, then take the CA player. Offers should be Location-blind. We have no obligation to Texas kids.

Jimbo I believes does that. If he finds a good player in a far away place, he will give him an offer.

Not exactly true. RC recruited some great running backs/receivers from California, a few guys from Colorado, Utah, Louisiana, Oklahoma. However, Jimbo recruits the entire south and up to the northeast. Much bigger net.

Jimbo4win said:

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This times 1000. R.C. thought small, talked small and coached small. Secondly, what years did Texas recruit nationally? I mean anywhere near the level we are today? It certainly wasn't the 80s, 90s or over the last 12 years. Yes they had a few BRIEF pops from 2005-2009 but not much else.

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You sound like youre 30 or younger. Are you aware the internet hasnt been around but 25 years?

Quote:

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In the 2020 nfl draft 15 of the first 59 players were from Texas high schools. That 1/4 of the first two rounds. Seven were in the first round and four were defensive players.

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Gary Patterson was the best at developing the players nobody else wanted and he just got fired. Yes, there are hidden gems every year. The 2020 draft was also an outlier.

In the past 3 years, TXHSFB players in the first 2 rounds:

CB-2
S- 3
LB-3
Edge-6
DL-1


2020

3. J. Okudah, CB OSU
20. K. Chiasson, Edge LSU
23. K. Murray, LB ou
27. J. Brooks, LB TBAT (Mizzou, Arkansas)
31. J. Gladney, CB TCU (No SEC offers)
40. R. Blalock, DT Okie Lite (We offered, Bama, LSU, Mizzou, tu)
44. G. Delpit, S LSU
45. A. Winfield, S Minnesota (Mizzou)

2021
28. P. Turner, Edge UH (Nobody Offered)
41. Levi O., Edge Washington (UGA, Arkie, Mizzou, ou, Vandy) <guessing we moved bc he was not interested>
43 T. Moehrig, S TCU (We offered, UGA, Mizzou, OM, Vandy)
54. Dayo O., Edge Vandy (We offered, so did Harvard, ou, MSU and tu)
58. Nick Bolton, LB Mizzou (MSU)

2019
29. LJ Collier, Edge TCU (TBAT was onyl other offer)
49. Ben B., Edge ULM (Montana State was only other offer)

infinity ag said:

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I've been reading for 20+ years, from the Slocum era. Every now and then I brought up the fact that Texas recruited nationwide and we had almost all our recruits from Texas. This happened year after year. So I suggested that we needed to cast a net outside and get some top recs.

There was pushback from posters saying TX was a "fertile recruiting land" and we had all we would ever want from Texas. Seemed stupid to me as I read those responses.

Now Jimbo's come aboard and he's pulling in recs from all over. We are now a top recruiting destination and may even get to No 1 this year.

Shouldn't we have done it years ago? Why this chauvinism about only local kids? Talent can come from any place.

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Dinero new Jersey I think.

LB Las Vegas

Crow Louisiana

Because all Texas would let us recruit is a "sliver of east Texas". Pretty simple.