In regards to recruiting, the focus of college coaches, fans and the media shifted months ago to the Class of 2017. The current crop of seniors, though, isn’t done making headlines.

Hays senior quarterback Braeden Kent tweeted on Monday that he no longer planned on attending Texas State, and this announcement capped a yearlong relationship between the Bobcats and the nearby Rebel.

I will no longer be attending Texas State. My recruitment is open pic.twitter.com/gwOapzlucz

— ?B Kent? (@BraedenKent) April 11, 2016

Let’s recap:

Last March, Kent became the second member of Texas State’s 2016 recruiting class.Kent suffered a season-ending knee injury during the third game of his senior season.Texas State head coach Dennis Franchione retired in December and was replaced by James Madison’s Everett Withers.Kent then announced that he had accepted a grey-shirt offer, which meant that he would join Texas State’s 2017 recruiting class.

Joe Vozzelli of the San Marcos Record pointed out that Kent would be one of six quarterbacks at Texas State’s in 2017, although Vozzelli reported that the Bobcats wouldn’t have had a problem with those numbers had Kent elected to walk onto the San Marcos campus. Withers also reportedly offered to talk Kent up to other colleges, which is a tidbit that you leak when you’re a new coach and you don’t want to burn any bridges with the high schools in the area.

It’s not hard to understand where Texas State is coming from. Six quarterbacks is too many quarterbacks (two is too many, amiright Longhorn fans), especially when one of those quarterbacks is a quarterback coming off a serious injury that the current coaching staff didn’t recruit. The names of those six quarterbacks, however, didn’t appear overnight, and an offer to grey-shirt should have never been extended before Signing Day if the Bobcat coaches had trepidations about Kent receiving one of its precious scholarships (also, and this can’t be stated enough, Texas State just insulted a kid who essentially committed to two of its recruiting classes by extending a WALK-ON OFFER).

Texas State is left with a mess on its hands, and my guess is that this won’t quickly be forgotten on the recruiting trails since Kent’s high school coach is a fixture in the Central Texas area. Kent, on the other hand, has been left without a team, and if you weren’t keeping track, Signing Day was over two months ago. So if you need a Football Bowl Subdivision-level quarterback with a chip on his shoulder, call the Hays High athletic office.

Let’s blog.

DID YOU KNOW?

The first goal of the University Interscholastic League’s state soccer tournament will be scored on Wednesday, and the Austin area will have four representatives in Georgetown. Yes, the girls from Vista Ridge and Salado and Lake Travis and Connally’s boys will each be attempting to win a state championship this week.

Since 2000, the Austin area has twice sent three teams to the state soccer tournament. Championship games in 2015 featured the Vandegrift girls and the East View and Liberty Hill boys, and the Bowie girls, Westlake boys and Dripping Springs boys all made an appearance at the state tournament in 2010.

The last time that four local teams reached the state semifinals in the same sport was… well, the fall of 2015 when Cedar Park, Lake Travis, Vista Ridge and Westlake’s football teams all advanced to the fifth round of the playoffs. Four area basketball teams (the Cedar Park boys and the girls from Jarrell, Liberty Hill and Vista Ridge) also appeared in those state tournaments in 2015.

THREE THINGS

1. In today’s newspaper, you’ll find a story about Thrall senior Chelsea Seggern and her plethora of intentional walks. Seggern is a two-time All-Central Texas honoree who will continue playing softball at the University of Tennessee, but she isn’t a one-sport standout. As a volleyball player, Seggern shared District 16-2A’s MVP award with teammate Haley Couch this past fall.

Thrall softball coach Tyler Harwell said a half-dozen of his Tigerettes played both volleyball and softball during the 2015-16 school year. The school’s volleyball team was eliminated by Crawford in the fifth set of a regional final in November, and those who traded their spandex for cleats have not forgotten that loss.

“It makes us very hungry because it was a pretty big deal in volleyball, and I think that we have the players that can do it in softball,” sophomore Ashley Porter said. “I trust our girls, we have the heart and I think we’ll be able to do it.”

2. McCallum posted 14-0 and 12-0 wins over Reagan last week, and the Knights have now won their 12 district games by a score of 123-5. Travis, which is stuck at the bottom of the District 26-5A standings, has two games scheduled against McCallum this week, and the Knights will then close out the regular season against second-place Cedar Creek. If the Eagles are unable to take a game from the Knights, McCallum might not face a challenge in district place until Austin High drops down from Class 6A in 2017.

McCallum is currently one of four Austin-area baseball teams with an unblemished record in district play. District 14-6A’s Lake Travis is up 68-13 over the course of its 10 district games, and District 25-5A’s Georgetown has won its eight district challenges by a score of 53-12. After five games, the scoreboard shows a 45-2 deficit for the District 25-4A teams chasing Salado.

In case you missed it, we wrote last week about a quartet of McCallum players who had older brothers suit up for the Knights.

3. For a third straight year, Jarrell’s Cougars will support the armed forces through its spring sports. For its home games against Florence on Tuesday, Jarrell’s softball and baseball teams will raise money for the Boot Campaign. Both teams will wear camouflage t-shirts, and the school will host a silent auction and t-shirt sale.

OK, thanks for reading this 1,000-word blog. I’ll be back on Thursday.

David Bowie, play us out.

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