More on the QB situation
There’s a little to add to what we reported last night on this, and it’s equally unpleasant. For starters, it looks like the coaching staff was completely caught off guard by Allen’s request, even though they probably shouldn’t have been. From the perspective of the Allen camp, he had not been given a fair shake with respect to the competition with Kyler Murray and, as we mentioned, his relationship with Kevin Sumlin is not only close to non-existent, it’s soured.
Allen’s camp feels like the relationship started heading south last January, when Sumlin met with Kevin and Kyler Murray and agreed that the younger Murray would play in 2015 if he signed with Texas A&M instead of Texas. Even in the summer, when Allen was clearly the better quarterback in open competition, Sumlin said Murray would play – from their perspective, a two QB system, something Sumlin had never done before.
During the ASU game, Allen struggled early and was benched for Murray. The freshman was used in multiple games and then replaced the injured Allen during the Alabama game. Allen, of course, went back in and gutted it out the next week against Ole Miss when Murray was suspended. Once Murray was back, Sumlin did not acknowledge the injury publicly as either a move to Kyler or for a reason for Allen’s poor play against Ole Miss. He said, instead, that the QB switch was made purely based on performance in practice.
That didn’t sit well with the Allen camp, as he had played with a sprained AC joint that not only the staff, but a whole lot of other people knew about. From their perspective, the head coach had thrown him under the bus as the source of the team’s poor play. There was, we’re told, no communication between the two after that for nearly a month, as Sumlin appeared set on Kyler as the starter – period. No more two-QB system.
After the bad loss to Auburn and Murray’s struggles against Western Carolina, Allen regained the job and publicly contradicted his coach, saying in a press conference that he had been hurt and had played through it. That didn’t sit well with the staff.
With no guarantees that he would start the bowl game, Jake Spavital’s pending departure and the bad blood from midseason all put together, Allen’s side decided enough was enough and asked for a transfer. It looks like OU is the early leader to get him – ironically, Sumlin wants the 2016 offense to look more like Oklahoma’s from what we’ve been told.
Allen’s departure does not mean A&M’s problems at the position are over. Kyler Murray’s camp isn’t happy that he was demoted to third string for the end of the season and there appears to be anger there. We’ve been told that Kyler is not only going to play baseball this spring, but if he performs well, he may even drop football and go with baseball exclusively. Sumlin will likely have to make some amends here too.
The days of the logjam are long gone.
How hot is Sumlin's seat?
It's still too early to see what the actual effects of Allen's departure will be on Sumlin's standing with the big money Ags, but we did touch base with a few last night. One of the more prominent ones, who has said 2016 is a decisive year for Sumlin, said he could be in trouble now "if the noise gets loud enough." It is, in his estimation, not loud enough now.
Here are your official visitors for the weekend.
Colton Prater (A&M commit)
Ryan McCollum
Ross Blacklock
Brandon Jones
After this set of officials, the next one will be the weekend of January 22-24. Dead period starts on Monday so there will not be any recruiting going on until January 13.
Some late QB options to consider (Fletch)
Here are a few kids that you can look at late that you could bring in late for the 2016 class.
Trevor Knight-Oklahoma quarterback
Knight was actually an A&M commit when he was in high school. He decommitted when A&M made Matt Davis the top QB priority.
Richard Lagow-Cisco College
Lagow is from Plano and is committed to Indiana right now. At six-foot-six he is one of the tallest quarterbacks in the nation and is a pretty good game management quarterback. I never felt he was given a fair chance to compete for a starting job in college after he signed with UConn out of high school.
Logan Bonner-Rowlett HS
Bonner might be the best quarterback in Dallas right now and has gone unnoticed for the most part. He is committed to Arkansas State and if you want a kid who you could steal real late, this would be a good option.
David Moore – Alpharetta (Ga.) Milton
A guy A&M talked to early in the recruiting process and then left alone as they went after Jalen Hurts. Currently committed to SMU, but would almost certainly listen at the least. Not ready to make an immediate contribution.
Notes on three key recruits (Courtney)
The Texas A&M coaching staff hit the road immediately after their trip to Baton Rouge. Despite ending their season with a loss to LSU, and loosing Kyle Allen at quarterback due to an immediate transfer the Aggies are still in the race for a group of key defensive targets.
As soon as the dead period was lifted Texas A&M defensive backs coach Terry Joseph and defensive coordinator John Chavis immediately traveled just down the road to make an in-home visit with one of their top priorities in Nacogdoches Rivals100 safety Brandon Jones.
Jones will taking his official to Texas A&M this weekend.
"So far, with A&M, and my in-home visits, they have been great," said Jones. "My family and I have enjoyed them a lot. You know it finally gave me and my mom a chance to actually sit down and talk with the coaches about things. All the coaches said I could get early playing time if I come in and compete. I'm taking my official to A&M this weekend just to see if I can really see myself being there. For two days I want to see, and hopefully get in touch with some players to get a behind the scene look on everything."
Aldine Davis four-star linebacker Jeffrey McCulloch has over 35 offers from major schools coast to coast. The Aggies caught his eye right out of the gate with an impressive win against Arizona State. Despite an up-and-down season Texas A&M is still among McCulloch's top programs.
McCulloch initially planned an official visit to A&M, but after discussion with his family those plans appear to have changed. While that news on the surface appears to be bad for the Aggies, McCulloch's intentions suggest otherwise.
“He and his father discussed it, and with it being a local school he can go up there anytime he wants to," said Aldine Davis Head Coach James Showers.
McCulloch did attend the Kyle Field inauguration game and has already had an in-home visit with Coach Kevin Sumlin. He has had several other in-home visits, and 3 are scheduled for this week.
Between in-home visits, deciding where he will take his last two officials and preparing for the Under Armour All-American game McCulloch has kept busy.
"Jeffrey has already taken three official visits so far," said coach Showers. "He has two more to take, but they are not scheduled yet. He wants to take his time to be sure he is visiting the right schools.”
The official visits so far were to Michigan, Notre Dame, and Stanford. With only three down and two still to go McCulloch decided to delay his commitment.
An announcement at the Under Armour All America Game was the plan, but McCulloch wants time in order to make the right choice for his future both on the field and in the classroom.
McCulloch is a straight A student, so academics are very important to him. He wants to major in Business Marketing and have a place in “the corporate world” after football.
Academics have always been a major key in McCulloch's recruitment, and now more than ever stability among coaching staffs is playing a huge role.
Stability was also a major topic brought up during A&M and LSU's in-home visit with Marrero (La.) John Ehret four-star linebacker and LSU commit Michael Divinity.
On the third day of the open recruiting period LSU head coach Les Miles and recruiting coordinator Frank Wilson stopped in at the Divinity household, and they were followed up by A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin, former position coach Mark Hagen, area recruiter coach Terry Jospeh and defensive coordinator John Chavis.
"We talked about my position and the needs of each program," said Divinity. "Stability was a major subject. This is a business. You don't know how everything will go.
"I'm still really thinking about everything," said Divinity. "I've put this on the side until after state this weekend. We play Zachary. I'm not sure, but I think both LSU and A&M will be there."
(more in the next post)
There’s a little to add to what we reported last night on this, and it’s equally unpleasant. For starters, it looks like the coaching staff was completely caught off guard by Allen’s request, even though they probably shouldn’t have been. From the perspective of the Allen camp, he had not been given a fair shake with respect to the competition with Kyler Murray and, as we mentioned, his relationship with Kevin Sumlin is not only close to non-existent, it’s soured.
Allen’s camp feels like the relationship started heading south last January, when Sumlin met with Kevin and Kyler Murray and agreed that the younger Murray would play in 2015 if he signed with Texas A&M instead of Texas. Even in the summer, when Allen was clearly the better quarterback in open competition, Sumlin said Murray would play – from their perspective, a two QB system, something Sumlin had never done before.
During the ASU game, Allen struggled early and was benched for Murray. The freshman was used in multiple games and then replaced the injured Allen during the Alabama game. Allen, of course, went back in and gutted it out the next week against Ole Miss when Murray was suspended. Once Murray was back, Sumlin did not acknowledge the injury publicly as either a move to Kyler or for a reason for Allen’s poor play against Ole Miss. He said, instead, that the QB switch was made purely based on performance in practice.
That didn’t sit well with the Allen camp, as he had played with a sprained AC joint that not only the staff, but a whole lot of other people knew about. From their perspective, the head coach had thrown him under the bus as the source of the team’s poor play. There was, we’re told, no communication between the two after that for nearly a month, as Sumlin appeared set on Kyler as the starter – period. No more two-QB system.
After the bad loss to Auburn and Murray’s struggles against Western Carolina, Allen regained the job and publicly contradicted his coach, saying in a press conference that he had been hurt and had played through it. That didn’t sit well with the staff.
With no guarantees that he would start the bowl game, Jake Spavital’s pending departure and the bad blood from midseason all put together, Allen’s side decided enough was enough and asked for a transfer. It looks like OU is the early leader to get him – ironically, Sumlin wants the 2016 offense to look more like Oklahoma’s from what we’ve been told.
Allen’s departure does not mean A&M’s problems at the position are over. Kyler Murray’s camp isn’t happy that he was demoted to third string for the end of the season and there appears to be anger there. We’ve been told that Kyler is not only going to play baseball this spring, but if he performs well, he may even drop football and go with baseball exclusively. Sumlin will likely have to make some amends here too.
The days of the logjam are long gone.
How hot is Sumlin's seat?
It's still too early to see what the actual effects of Allen's departure will be on Sumlin's standing with the big money Ags, but we did touch base with a few last night. One of the more prominent ones, who has said 2016 is a decisive year for Sumlin, said he could be in trouble now "if the noise gets loud enough." It is, in his estimation, not loud enough now.
Here are your official visitors for the weekend.
Colton Prater (A&M commit)
Ryan McCollum
Ross Blacklock
Brandon Jones
After this set of officials, the next one will be the weekend of January 22-24. Dead period starts on Monday so there will not be any recruiting going on until January 13.
Some late QB options to consider (Fletch)
Here are a few kids that you can look at late that you could bring in late for the 2016 class.
Trevor Knight-Oklahoma quarterback
Knight was actually an A&M commit when he was in high school. He decommitted when A&M made Matt Davis the top QB priority.
Richard Lagow-Cisco College
Lagow is from Plano and is committed to Indiana right now. At six-foot-six he is one of the tallest quarterbacks in the nation and is a pretty good game management quarterback. I never felt he was given a fair chance to compete for a starting job in college after he signed with UConn out of high school.
Logan Bonner-Rowlett HS
Bonner might be the best quarterback in Dallas right now and has gone unnoticed for the most part. He is committed to Arkansas State and if you want a kid who you could steal real late, this would be a good option.
David Moore – Alpharetta (Ga.) Milton
A guy A&M talked to early in the recruiting process and then left alone as they went after Jalen Hurts. Currently committed to SMU, but would almost certainly listen at the least. Not ready to make an immediate contribution.
Notes on three key recruits (Courtney)
The Texas A&M coaching staff hit the road immediately after their trip to Baton Rouge. Despite ending their season with a loss to LSU, and loosing Kyle Allen at quarterback due to an immediate transfer the Aggies are still in the race for a group of key defensive targets.
As soon as the dead period was lifted Texas A&M defensive backs coach Terry Joseph and defensive coordinator John Chavis immediately traveled just down the road to make an in-home visit with one of their top priorities in Nacogdoches Rivals100 safety Brandon Jones.
Jones will taking his official to Texas A&M this weekend.
"So far, with A&M, and my in-home visits, they have been great," said Jones. "My family and I have enjoyed them a lot. You know it finally gave me and my mom a chance to actually sit down and talk with the coaches about things. All the coaches said I could get early playing time if I come in and compete. I'm taking my official to A&M this weekend just to see if I can really see myself being there. For two days I want to see, and hopefully get in touch with some players to get a behind the scene look on everything."
Aldine Davis four-star linebacker Jeffrey McCulloch has over 35 offers from major schools coast to coast. The Aggies caught his eye right out of the gate with an impressive win against Arizona State. Despite an up-and-down season Texas A&M is still among McCulloch's top programs.
McCulloch initially planned an official visit to A&M, but after discussion with his family those plans appear to have changed. While that news on the surface appears to be bad for the Aggies, McCulloch's intentions suggest otherwise.
“He and his father discussed it, and with it being a local school he can go up there anytime he wants to," said Aldine Davis Head Coach James Showers.
McCulloch did attend the Kyle Field inauguration game and has already had an in-home visit with Coach Kevin Sumlin. He has had several other in-home visits, and 3 are scheduled for this week.
Between in-home visits, deciding where he will take his last two officials and preparing for the Under Armour All-American game McCulloch has kept busy.
"Jeffrey has already taken three official visits so far," said coach Showers. "He has two more to take, but they are not scheduled yet. He wants to take his time to be sure he is visiting the right schools.”
The official visits so far were to Michigan, Notre Dame, and Stanford. With only three down and two still to go McCulloch decided to delay his commitment.
An announcement at the Under Armour All America Game was the plan, but McCulloch wants time in order to make the right choice for his future both on the field and in the classroom.
McCulloch is a straight A student, so academics are very important to him. He wants to major in Business Marketing and have a place in “the corporate world” after football.
Academics have always been a major key in McCulloch's recruitment, and now more than ever stability among coaching staffs is playing a huge role.
Stability was also a major topic brought up during A&M and LSU's in-home visit with Marrero (La.) John Ehret four-star linebacker and LSU commit Michael Divinity.
On the third day of the open recruiting period LSU head coach Les Miles and recruiting coordinator Frank Wilson stopped in at the Divinity household, and they were followed up by A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin, former position coach Mark Hagen, area recruiter coach Terry Jospeh and defensive coordinator John Chavis.
"We talked about my position and the needs of each program," said Divinity. "Stability was a major subject. This is a business. You don't know how everything will go.
"I'm still really thinking about everything," said Divinity. "I've put this on the side until after state this weekend. We play Zachary. I'm not sure, but I think both LSU and A&M will be there."
(more in the next post)
