Why Jordan Stephenson? Why now?
When Stephenson first was going through his recruiting process, he committed to Texas in October 2013, then de-committed and jumped to Wisconsin within a 48-hour period in December. He never picked up an A&M offer, as the Aggies already had Jay Bradford and were shooting after some of the nation's top backs -- one of whom they got in Kendall Bussey.
Fast forward a few months and things have changed, for both A&M and Stephenson. Now, the match makes more sense for both sides. He needs a landing spot at a place where there's an available scholarship; A&M needs another back to fill out the 2015 depth chart.
Stephens isn't a big guy, at 5'9" and 190 lbs., but he runs a 4.4 40 and that kind of speed sells itself. Since signing day, A&M lost Brandon Williams to the other side of the ball and Jay Bradford for who knows how long. When a 4-star running back shows up unexpectedly and you're looking at a depth chart that could have as few as three scholarship players on it for 2015, you have to at least look at him.
What does A&M offer Stephenson? A scholarship. They've still got three left for 2015 (they had four, but Keith Ford can be considered to have one). His grades and scores, while not great, are good enough for admission. And, of course, they have a need.
I have no idea how serious Stephenson is about A&M and if he'd commit, but it would be a sensible marriage for both sides. The Aggies have a four-deep backfield for 2015 and James White, Stephenson, Bussey and Ford for 2016. You can still add a back or two to that if you want.
A&M's pursuit of Stephenson, should it get serious, isn't a sign they're striking out on their 2016 targets. It's a sign they're looking at a guy who can come in and help them win games starting in September. THIS September.
A&M to the Big 10? Nah.
I see a lot of you have noticed this article emanating out of Nebraska talking about the Aggies being one of five teams that were interested in going to the Big 10 in 2010. I can tell you right now -- and it seems like the article bears this out -- that those talks didn't get beyond the introductory stage. The big idea, at that point, was the one hatched by DeLoss Dodds with the support of Bill Byrne, to move six teams -- including A&M, Texas and OU -- to the Pac-12 and make the first super-conference. Not everyone at A&M was on board with that idea, leading to discussions with the SEC...and you know the rest.
The real interesting part of the story isn't that a bunch of teams were seriously considering leaving the Big 12 -- we already knew that. Nebraska and Colorado made the jump immediately, followed by an angry A&M and Mizzou in 2011. The point was that story comes off very much as a veiled threat, that the Big 10 wouldn't need to investigate the prospects of adding Kansas and Oklahoma and could do so quickly. For that conference, the deal makes sense; you pick up a power basketball program in KU, get into a few more markets including Kansas City and OKC and, I guess to an extent, D/FW. It also gets you to 16 and starts the super conference ball rolling.
In any event, I get the sense that this whole deal -- the story and the veiled threat -- was for an audience of one. This is OU sending a message to Bob Bowlsby, telling him that the Big 12 needs to get back to 12 teams and if they don't, then OU will book. KU would jump in an instant.
Oklahoma could have had out of this mess in 2011, but decided it was too important that they stay with Texas. Now, perhaps, they've learned their lesson and will do what's best for them. It would be very difficult to imagine a Big 12 with 8 teams, so it would be very interesting to see what a next step would be in such a situation.
Another story with a message
I saw the New York Times did a piece over the weekend discussing Nick Saban's supposed flirtation with the Texas job two years ago. While I really don't think Saban was ever as interested as they made him out to be, it doesn't really matter. That whole story was one more stone (a boulder, maybe) at Steve Patterson. The Texas AD deserves a lot of credit, because he's alienated an entire fanbase in record time. Fran and Byrne didn't get to this level of loathing this quickly. When the subject of your story can be trimmed to "Team A could have had the best coach in the sport but the AD wouldn't even talk money with him", that's not going to go over well. When a "prominent" (but unnamed) donor says that AD is in way over his head and is not a nice person, you have what they call in the business a "hit piece." There are a lot of high-powered Texas alums who despise Patterson and had enough clout to take a dump on him in the NYT. Whether the facts are exactly correct are irrelevant; they wanted Patterson pinned to the wall as hard as possible. I think he's there and his lifespan is short.
So what's A&M do? Not a damned thing. Nod, smile and keep going. If you want to talk about renewing the series, wait until the next guy shows up. Odds are his mandate will be significantly different.
Will anyone be surprised...
If Christian Kirk tears things up from day one? The stories you hear (or we've heard and read) about this kid are remarkable. He works like he doesn't think he has any talent, busting his but in the weight room and in the classroom at levels well beyond those of most true freshmen (actually, most college players). But he DOES have talent, and he has it to burn. He has a rapport with both Kyle Allen and Kyler Murray. He's got the best hands I've seen in a freshman wideout and plenty of speed. If this guy doesn't get hurt, he may put up ridiculous totals in this offense. You love it when a guy comes in and, on day one, does something that makes you go, "whoa. He's legit." It didn't take Speedy that long last year, and Kirk already has given the coaches that opinion. Lining those two up next to each other is beginning to seem absolutely deadly.
Old School Monday
When Stephenson first was going through his recruiting process, he committed to Texas in October 2013, then de-committed and jumped to Wisconsin within a 48-hour period in December. He never picked up an A&M offer, as the Aggies already had Jay Bradford and were shooting after some of the nation's top backs -- one of whom they got in Kendall Bussey.
Fast forward a few months and things have changed, for both A&M and Stephenson. Now, the match makes more sense for both sides. He needs a landing spot at a place where there's an available scholarship; A&M needs another back to fill out the 2015 depth chart.
Stephens isn't a big guy, at 5'9" and 190 lbs., but he runs a 4.4 40 and that kind of speed sells itself. Since signing day, A&M lost Brandon Williams to the other side of the ball and Jay Bradford for who knows how long. When a 4-star running back shows up unexpectedly and you're looking at a depth chart that could have as few as three scholarship players on it for 2015, you have to at least look at him.
What does A&M offer Stephenson? A scholarship. They've still got three left for 2015 (they had four, but Keith Ford can be considered to have one). His grades and scores, while not great, are good enough for admission. And, of course, they have a need.
I have no idea how serious Stephenson is about A&M and if he'd commit, but it would be a sensible marriage for both sides. The Aggies have a four-deep backfield for 2015 and James White, Stephenson, Bussey and Ford for 2016. You can still add a back or two to that if you want.
A&M's pursuit of Stephenson, should it get serious, isn't a sign they're striking out on their 2016 targets. It's a sign they're looking at a guy who can come in and help them win games starting in September. THIS September.
A&M to the Big 10? Nah.
I see a lot of you have noticed this article emanating out of Nebraska talking about the Aggies being one of five teams that were interested in going to the Big 10 in 2010. I can tell you right now -- and it seems like the article bears this out -- that those talks didn't get beyond the introductory stage. The big idea, at that point, was the one hatched by DeLoss Dodds with the support of Bill Byrne, to move six teams -- including A&M, Texas and OU -- to the Pac-12 and make the first super-conference. Not everyone at A&M was on board with that idea, leading to discussions with the SEC...and you know the rest.
The real interesting part of the story isn't that a bunch of teams were seriously considering leaving the Big 12 -- we already knew that. Nebraska and Colorado made the jump immediately, followed by an angry A&M and Mizzou in 2011. The point was that story comes off very much as a veiled threat, that the Big 10 wouldn't need to investigate the prospects of adding Kansas and Oklahoma and could do so quickly. For that conference, the deal makes sense; you pick up a power basketball program in KU, get into a few more markets including Kansas City and OKC and, I guess to an extent, D/FW. It also gets you to 16 and starts the super conference ball rolling.
In any event, I get the sense that this whole deal -- the story and the veiled threat -- was for an audience of one. This is OU sending a message to Bob Bowlsby, telling him that the Big 12 needs to get back to 12 teams and if they don't, then OU will book. KU would jump in an instant.
Oklahoma could have had out of this mess in 2011, but decided it was too important that they stay with Texas. Now, perhaps, they've learned their lesson and will do what's best for them. It would be very difficult to imagine a Big 12 with 8 teams, so it would be very interesting to see what a next step would be in such a situation.
Another story with a message
I saw the New York Times did a piece over the weekend discussing Nick Saban's supposed flirtation with the Texas job two years ago. While I really don't think Saban was ever as interested as they made him out to be, it doesn't really matter. That whole story was one more stone (a boulder, maybe) at Steve Patterson. The Texas AD deserves a lot of credit, because he's alienated an entire fanbase in record time. Fran and Byrne didn't get to this level of loathing this quickly. When the subject of your story can be trimmed to "Team A could have had the best coach in the sport but the AD wouldn't even talk money with him", that's not going to go over well. When a "prominent" (but unnamed) donor says that AD is in way over his head and is not a nice person, you have what they call in the business a "hit piece." There are a lot of high-powered Texas alums who despise Patterson and had enough clout to take a dump on him in the NYT. Whether the facts are exactly correct are irrelevant; they wanted Patterson pinned to the wall as hard as possible. I think he's there and his lifespan is short.
So what's A&M do? Not a damned thing. Nod, smile and keep going. If you want to talk about renewing the series, wait until the next guy shows up. Odds are his mandate will be significantly different.
Will anyone be surprised...
If Christian Kirk tears things up from day one? The stories you hear (or we've heard and read) about this kid are remarkable. He works like he doesn't think he has any talent, busting his but in the weight room and in the classroom at levels well beyond those of most true freshmen (actually, most college players). But he DOES have talent, and he has it to burn. He has a rapport with both Kyle Allen and Kyler Murray. He's got the best hands I've seen in a freshman wideout and plenty of speed. If this guy doesn't get hurt, he may put up ridiculous totals in this offense. You love it when a guy comes in and, on day one, does something that makes you go, "whoa. He's legit." It didn't take Speedy that long last year, and Kirk already has given the coaches that opinion. Lining those two up next to each other is beginning to seem absolutely deadly.
Old School Monday
