First off, congratulations to the men's basketball team for being ranked 5th in the AP and Coaches polls, the highest the team has ever been ranked. The best may be yet to come. If Danuel House finds his shot, this team can do a whole lot of damage in a year where talent is spread out and teams (besides the Aggies) are painfully inconsistent.
And that concludes our discussion of basketball, unfortunately. It's time to talk recruiting. A lot of questions have popped up on the board since yesterday afternoon, and Rob and Fletch have addressed most of them. I'll give my own take on things, but you'll see a lot of similarities.
What's A&M's backup plan?
You're looking at it. Going back in on Chris Daniels, going after Jauan Williams and Anthony Hansford from D.C., getting after D'Vaughn Pennamon, getting serious with D'Andre Christmas-Giles...that is the backup plan. They're going after guys who are bigtime talents that they didn't push for very hard for a considerable period of time. Now, they're trying to make a late rush. It could work out well, or, it's more likely they come up empty.
How did this weekend go?
Pretty good, apparently. The big target was obviously Jeffery McCulloch and the staff feels like they did a lot of good there. Can they get him? The odds are better than they were before the weekend. Hansford also had a good time and A&M is now a legitimate threat to get him. Mark Jackson is a lot more solid than he was before, but we were also told a lot of the talk that he was almost ready to flip to Texas was BS. They had made a run and made up ground, but it wasn't an imminent doom sort of deal.
Christmas-Giles apparently was impressed and the Aggies are in the mix to be in his top three. I think that'll probably be as far as they go. He seems intent on Texas. Greedy Williams apparently had a huge time and is supposed to be coming back with his brother next weekend. That is a situation worth following. Cameron Lewis isn't saying much of anything, so I think he'll stick with LSU.
How can it go well if there were Yessirs?
You've got nine days until national signing day. Fallback plan or not, the guys A&M's after are bigtime recruits and they have another official visit to take. You want to put yourself in a position where you're the leader and that buzz from the visit doesn't go away.
Who's in next week?
Rakeem Boyd, the Williams brothers, supposedly, Quartney Davis, Chris Daniels and Eric Cuffee.
Would you let Cuffee visit?
If I were A&M, I'd want to know what happened in Fayetteville first. There are a lot of people up there saying some mean things about the kid, because they're saying he went up there with the purpose of recruiting for Texas. You see this maybe once a year or so, nationwide, where a recruit gets their ship pulled and sent home from an official. That didn't happen, but the people in Arkansas are still furious. If A&M doesn't feel 100% comfortable with the situation and has the slightest inkling Cuffee did what he is accused of and would do it again in College Station, I'd tell him to stay home.
Who can A&M still get?
I would have narrowed my focus to the following: Davis, Daniels, Jack Jones, Brandon Jones, the Williams brothers, Jauan Williams, Hansford, McCulloch and Pennamon.
Of that bunch, I think Davis will come back; Pennamon could well flip. Jack Jones is probably A&M or USC. Brandon Jones is A&M or Texas, and I think he'll eventually end up at A&M. If not, that's a massive humiliation for Kevin Sumlin's program. McCulloch is A&M or Texas. No idea where Jauan Williams goes, and Hansford is also anyone's guess. They could fill up or end up with 20. I think they'll be in the 21-22 range.
What went wrong?
A lot, and this is all on the coaching staff. The problems A&M is having with Texas are not because of what Texas has done right, it's what A&M has done wrong. They got out to a good start with this class, made a few coaching changes (that was certainly an issue with Greg Little, among other things), got off to the good start to the season and put it in cruise control. They stopped hustling at midseason and didn't pick it back up again until about a week ago. They didn't close, they didn't have backup plans and didn't make themselves as accessible as they should have.
The other issue was the quarterback deal. I didn't think it would be that big of an issue (Cuffee did bail after Kyle Allen left) at first, but losing Allen and Murray in a week painted a horrible picture of a program out of control, where players didn't like their coach and wanted out.That was a picture they did not work hard enough to dispell, and it cost them dearly with players that would have otherwise been slam dunks. Now, they have to work to get that negative notion out of their heads, show they have a game plan and execute it.
Bluntly, the deal with Kyler Murray damaged this program and the reputation of its coach in multiple ways. If Sumlin had lost either QB, it would have been ok. But both, and the way it happened, was terrible. The Murrays hurt this team this year, next year and for years to come. The best move would have been never to have signed him (impossible at the time), or cut him loose and found an accommodation with Allen. The poison stings.
A&M got complacent, then they got caught up in a disaster of their own design. Texas' staff, on the other hand, just kept working and have found a way to make a crappy team in a crappy conference coming off a 5-7 record and a dead coach walking seem appealing.
It should have never gotten to this point. And it's on Sumlin and his staff. They're out there making a big deal out of how they're hustling, and that's great. If they'd done it before, they wouldn't be sweating bullets now.
And that concludes our discussion of basketball, unfortunately. It's time to talk recruiting. A lot of questions have popped up on the board since yesterday afternoon, and Rob and Fletch have addressed most of them. I'll give my own take on things, but you'll see a lot of similarities.
What's A&M's backup plan?
You're looking at it. Going back in on Chris Daniels, going after Jauan Williams and Anthony Hansford from D.C., getting after D'Vaughn Pennamon, getting serious with D'Andre Christmas-Giles...that is the backup plan. They're going after guys who are bigtime talents that they didn't push for very hard for a considerable period of time. Now, they're trying to make a late rush. It could work out well, or, it's more likely they come up empty.
How did this weekend go?
Pretty good, apparently. The big target was obviously Jeffery McCulloch and the staff feels like they did a lot of good there. Can they get him? The odds are better than they were before the weekend. Hansford also had a good time and A&M is now a legitimate threat to get him. Mark Jackson is a lot more solid than he was before, but we were also told a lot of the talk that he was almost ready to flip to Texas was BS. They had made a run and made up ground, but it wasn't an imminent doom sort of deal.
Christmas-Giles apparently was impressed and the Aggies are in the mix to be in his top three. I think that'll probably be as far as they go. He seems intent on Texas. Greedy Williams apparently had a huge time and is supposed to be coming back with his brother next weekend. That is a situation worth following. Cameron Lewis isn't saying much of anything, so I think he'll stick with LSU.
How can it go well if there were Yessirs?
You've got nine days until national signing day. Fallback plan or not, the guys A&M's after are bigtime recruits and they have another official visit to take. You want to put yourself in a position where you're the leader and that buzz from the visit doesn't go away.
Who's in next week?
Rakeem Boyd, the Williams brothers, supposedly, Quartney Davis, Chris Daniels and Eric Cuffee.
Would you let Cuffee visit?
If I were A&M, I'd want to know what happened in Fayetteville first. There are a lot of people up there saying some mean things about the kid, because they're saying he went up there with the purpose of recruiting for Texas. You see this maybe once a year or so, nationwide, where a recruit gets their ship pulled and sent home from an official. That didn't happen, but the people in Arkansas are still furious. If A&M doesn't feel 100% comfortable with the situation and has the slightest inkling Cuffee did what he is accused of and would do it again in College Station, I'd tell him to stay home.
Who can A&M still get?
I would have narrowed my focus to the following: Davis, Daniels, Jack Jones, Brandon Jones, the Williams brothers, Jauan Williams, Hansford, McCulloch and Pennamon.
Of that bunch, I think Davis will come back; Pennamon could well flip. Jack Jones is probably A&M or USC. Brandon Jones is A&M or Texas, and I think he'll eventually end up at A&M. If not, that's a massive humiliation for Kevin Sumlin's program. McCulloch is A&M or Texas. No idea where Jauan Williams goes, and Hansford is also anyone's guess. They could fill up or end up with 20. I think they'll be in the 21-22 range.
What went wrong?
A lot, and this is all on the coaching staff. The problems A&M is having with Texas are not because of what Texas has done right, it's what A&M has done wrong. They got out to a good start with this class, made a few coaching changes (that was certainly an issue with Greg Little, among other things), got off to the good start to the season and put it in cruise control. They stopped hustling at midseason and didn't pick it back up again until about a week ago. They didn't close, they didn't have backup plans and didn't make themselves as accessible as they should have.
The other issue was the quarterback deal. I didn't think it would be that big of an issue (Cuffee did bail after Kyle Allen left) at first, but losing Allen and Murray in a week painted a horrible picture of a program out of control, where players didn't like their coach and wanted out.That was a picture they did not work hard enough to dispell, and it cost them dearly with players that would have otherwise been slam dunks. Now, they have to work to get that negative notion out of their heads, show they have a game plan and execute it.
Bluntly, the deal with Kyler Murray damaged this program and the reputation of its coach in multiple ways. If Sumlin had lost either QB, it would have been ok. But both, and the way it happened, was terrible. The Murrays hurt this team this year, next year and for years to come. The best move would have been never to have signed him (impossible at the time), or cut him loose and found an accommodation with Allen. The poison stings.
A&M got complacent, then they got caught up in a disaster of their own design. Texas' staff, on the other hand, just kept working and have found a way to make a crappy team in a crappy conference coming off a 5-7 record and a dead coach walking seem appealing.
It should have never gotten to this point. And it's on Sumlin and his staff. They're out there making a big deal out of how they're hustling, and that's great. If they'd done it before, they wouldn't be sweating bullets now.
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