Key notes from Recruiting Country
- I have a bit of a COVID update. When the CDC came out and said you don't need to test asymptomatic people, we thought that would be a huge breakthrough in the high school football world. It hasn't been because they're still quarantining asymptomatic people who have come into contact with positive tests. As soon as they show symptoms, they have to get them off and out of practice. COVID is still impacting high school football.
- Last week, I was supposed to see Franklin play Hearne, but they had a handful of positive cases. They canceled that game. I wanted to see Hempstead and Caldwell, but Hempstead wasn't allowed media on the sideline. I wanted to go to Rockdale, but they were at capacity for media on the sidelines. I have a game to go see some games this week.
- Next week, I will be going to Lucedale, MS, to see MJ Daniels, a big-time A&M target, play in their home-opener. Me and my intern, Walker Lott, will be hitting the road. We might even go see Demetrius Hunter at West-Orange Stark. He's a big-time 2022 prospect. Then we'll hit the road the next day to get to Lucedale. It's about six hours from the Golden Triangle up there. I've never covered a game in Mississippi. That'll be my fifth state to cover a game in.
- The biggest announcement that I have is that Jason Howell and I are starting a new social media initiative. We're going to take more ownership of the TexAgs Recruiting Twitter page, and we've created our own TexAgs Recruiting Instagram page. These kids are on Instagram just as much as Twitter, so we decided to tackle what we thought was a little bit of a dead zone in our coverage. We're going to have a template that will tell people our new offers. It'll include some highlights as well. That'll be on both pages, and we have some really exciting ideas. It'll give us a new way to reach A&M fans, our subscribers as well as a new way to reach these high school prospects. It was just something that needed to be done. We will probably have a tweet go out soon letting people know that we're starting this new initiative. We'd like to get it up and running by this weekend.
- LSU held an obvious recruiting weekend. They're no repercussions for it apparently if you don't have a media member running it. Garrett Nussmeier initiated LSU's weekend, the quarterback commit from Flower Mound Marcus. It seems like they did it the right way and stayed out of the athletic facilities. There are no penalties for going to a college campus and handing out with your buddies. If they did it the right way, more power to them. It's recruiting. You have to get creative with it.
- Kids won't be able to come to games, but they can go and be around the atmosphere of the game. Some kids might not want to come to College Station, walk around and not be able to go into the game. Some kids might. It's going to be interesting.
- With how highly publicized the LSU weekend was, do you think that the Alabama coaching staff didn't know it was going on? Do you think they didn't have a private investigator on site trying to find one thing they were doing wrong? This is recruiting in the SEC. It's high stakes poker. After that Oklahoma weekend blew up, it's going to make everyone else walk a much straighter line.
- Armani Winfield is from Lewisville, and A&M is in a good spot there. Evan Stewart is from Frisco, and he was working out at the same time as Eli Stowers up there a couple of weeks ago. I talked to him a little bit, but he said that A&M hasn't really reached out much. Texas is leading there. Caleb Burton out of Del Valle is talented and has offers from everybody. A lot of the wideouts in that class are from the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. Randy Masters is committed to Baylor out of Shadow Creek. He's a guy I'd like to see A&M offer.
- A&M will not be hosting recruits. You can't. However, kids will come to College Station. We're very confident that kids will go and check out the campus. A&M will not be "hosting" anybody, but some may come to campus.
- Everybody talks about a "package deal." Bobby Taylor has told me that he and Malick Sylla want to play together at the next level. If Ty Kana had the same level, I think he would join them. I think there is about a 60 percent chance they play together at the next level.
- Ty Simpson has everybody after him. That's a big job for Jimbo Fisher and Darrell Dickey.
- I know who Ace Whitehead is, and I've seen him in the summer baseball circuit. He's good on the football field. Lampasas is going through a bit of a historic run for him. I'm going to stay local and see a Cameron Yoe game. They've got one of my favorite high school nicknames in the "Yoemen." This is one of the last weeks to see the small schools because the big schools - 5A and 6A - are about to begin their seasons. I'm looking forward to that, but I love that the spotlight has been on the smaller schools.
- Jarred Kerr stood out for me last week. He rushed for over 200 yards and a couple of touchdowns. Lexington throttled Thrall. It seems like he's going to take his time with his recruitment, but it happened all at once. He wants to focus on his season.
- Delvin Morris will be interesting to watch. He's out of Caldwell and is Devin's younger brother. Delvin is the opposite of "frail," and he can absolutely move. It's fun to see the local kids pop up.
A SPECIAL THANKS TO...
CapRock Health System, the only 100% locally owned and operated healthcare system in B/CS, has 4 convenient locations; CapRock Hospital with ER, CapRock 24-Hour Emergency Center, CapRock Urgent Care at Century Square, and CapRock Urgent Care at Jones Crossing. Visit CapRockHealthSystem.com
