Ring the Bell: On premature proclamations of A&M recruiting's death

First, there was Lazarus. Then, there was Paul McCartney. Now, there is Ol’ Sarge.

Every now and then the Reaper’s grip slips.

The most recent example occurred last week. On Thursday ESPN.com released an article which proclaimed that Texas A&M was no longer the football recruiting leader in the state.

The Aggies, according to ESPN, have been replaced by Texas.

The author of the article, respected recruiting analyst Jeremy Crabtree, supported that position with a quote from an anonymous source — identified only as an SEC West Divison coach who recruits Houston and East Texas — that claimed the “Death Knell” has sounded for A&M.

That’s cause for alarm.

Well, except that one day later the Aggies received a commitment from safety Derrick Tucker, a four-star ranked recruit from Manvel (Houston area) who also has offers from Alabama, USC and — yes — Texas.

One day after the death knell, Kevin Sumlin won a major head-to-head recruiting joust with Charlie Strong.

That’s kind of reminiscent of the Paul McCartney death rumors of 1969. Those rumors were stoked by the iconic Abbey Road album cover which showed the Beatles walking in a funeral procession through a crosswalk.

According to pop culture, John Lennon was dressed in white to symbolize a heavenly figure. Ringo Starr’s black attire symbolized the undertaker. George Harrison’s denim jeans and shirt symbolized the grave digger. A barefoot McCartney symbolized the corpse.

The A&M Sports Information Department should borrow that idea for the cover of this season’s football media guide — photograph A&M coaches John Chavis, Larry Jackson, Kevin Sumlin and Aaron Moorehead walking across Houston Street toward Kyle Field.

Chavis, the defensive godsend, would be clad in white. Jackson, aka the Black Death, would, of course, wear black. Sumlin, for whose program the bell supposedly tolls, would be bare-footed. Moorehead, whose recent ill-advised tweets dug the hole that A&M supposedly is in, would represent the grave digger.

The point is that Paul McCartney obviously was not dead and neither is A&M recruiting. Why anyone would suggest that in May is extremely curious.

True, Texas has won some recent recruiting battles against A&M – most notably linebacker Malik Jefferson in 2015. But the Longhorns also recruited defensive end Justin Madubuike last year.

Madubuike, of course, signed with A&M.

No doubt, the Aggies have had some recruiting setbacks. Moorehead’s Twitter reaction to five-star quarterback Tate Martell’s decommitment certainly put the program in a negative light. One receiver — Crosby's Mannie Netherly — even used those tweets as an excuse to also decommit from A&M.

However, most recruiting insiders believed that receiver was showing signs of changing his mind anyway.

Losing a quarterback commitment raises red flags nationally because of the surprising transfers of both Kyle Allen and Kyler Murray last December.

But speculation is new A&M offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone decommitted from Martell before Martell decommitted from A&M.

It’s speculated that Mazzone isn’t as bullish on Martell as previous A&M OC Jake Spavital was. Mazzone supposedly favors a bigger quarterback than the 5-11 Martell.

Martell’s father even seemed to suggest that in a recent story released on Rivals.com.

What if A&M lands a quarterback that isn’t rated as highly as Martell, but Mazzone feels is a better fit for his system? Would the death knell keep ringing then?

Besides, the strength of a recruiting class isn’t really known until two or three years later.

In four years from 2009 to 2012 the Texas Longhorns thoroughly dominated recruiting in the state of Texas.

At least, that’s what national recruiting analysts said.

Texas ranked between fifth and second nationally in each of those four years. Indeed, all the Longhorns’ recruiting classes in that period were ranked at least 13 spots ahead of A&M’s.

But A&M has posted more victories than Texas in five of the past six seasons. Although A&M has had disappointing 8-5 finishes the past two seasons, Texas struggled just to qualify for — and lose — one obscure bowl game (the ’14 Texas Bowl).

The bet here is A&M will continue to post more victories in 2016 than will Texas, which still projects to have major problems at quarterback, receiver and on defense.

On-field success typically leads to recruiting success. So, if the Aggies do have a successful season, A&M recruiting will prove to be alive and well.

Just like Paul.