Aggies receive recruiting boost

Recommended Video:

COLLEGE STATION — In the bygone days of football recruiting, programs typically began receiving verbal pledges in droves in January, with National Signing Day rolling around on the first Wednesday in February. But with Christmas a week away, Texas A&M already has stockpiled six verbal commitments, including four coveted Rivals.com four-star prospects.

From the Class of 2014.

“Everything we've done this year,” A&M freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel said of the Aggies' early dent in recruiting, “has had a huge impact.”

That's evident by the “elder” statesmen to the class of '14 — the Aggies' Class of 2013 — still enjoying their final year of high school across the state and beyond. A&M has 33 verbal commitments for '13, most of any of the 124 Football Bowl Subdivision programs, with signing day set for Feb. 6.

The list includes two of the nation's top-ranked players in receiver Ricky Seals-Jones of Sealy and defensive lineman Justin Manning of Dallas Kimball, both recent nonbinding pledges to A&M coach Kevin Sumlin.

Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel (2) flexes his knee causing him to get up slowly, taken t the trainers room and put on a brace during the first quarter of a NCAA football game, Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012, in Kyle Field in College Station. less Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel (2) flexes his knee causing him to get up slowly, taken t the trainers room and put on a brace during the first quarter of a NCAA football game, Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012, in ... more Photo: Nick De La Torre, Houston Chronicle Photo: Nick De La Torre, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 188 Caption Close Aggies receive recruiting boost 1 / 188 Back to Gallery

“I've covered A&M recruiting for almost 20 years in some capacity, and I've never seen anything like this,” said Billy Liucci, co-owner of the popular website TexAgs.com and a recruiting connoisseur. “The Aggies are having to turn good players away, and that's a good problem for Kevin Sumlin to have.”

Rivals ranks A&M's '13 bunch No. 7 nationally, behind USC, Notre Dame, Alabama, Florida, Michigan and LSU. And adding a Heisman Trophy to its sales pitch certainly won't hurt A&M's cause with upcoming classes although Manziel, who won the coveted award Dec. 8, insisted that's not his primary pitch point.

“We have a great group of guys, and I'm going to try and sell that — not the Heisman,” Manziel said. “I'm going to sell what we have in the locker room, what type of coaches we have and what Aggieland is all about.”

Schools are allowed to sign only 25 players to a given class in a certain time period around signing day (with 85 total scholarships), and that's where A&M will wind up Feb. 6. Sumlin only brought in 18 scholarship players last year, meaning multiple early enrollees from the '13 class can count back toward the '12 haul.

Eight or nine prospects might take advantage of enrolling early at A&M, Liucci said. A year ago, A&M had four early enrollees in January who then counted back toward 2011. In addition, the 33 in '13 includes at least two players who might not qualify academically.

A&M's newfound recruiting success can be whittled down to four broad factors: Sumlin's hire, the move to the Southeastern Conference, early success in the SEC (especially offensively) and the Heisman effect.

“This is a big deal,” Sumlin said of A&M winning its second Heisman (John David Crow in 1957). “What we had done before the Heisman has led to the recruiting class we have right now, but this certainly adds to a lot of things we've been (touting).”

The roots of A&M's most successful season since 1998, when the Aggies won their lone Big 12 title, started a year ago this month, when A&M tabbed Sumlin from Houston to succeed Mike Sherman, 25-25 over four seasons in College Station.

Sumlin immediately began trumpeting the move to the SEC, winner of the last six national titles. A&M (10-2) then won at least 10 games for the first time since '98, with the season's highlight coming on Nov. 10 in a 29-24 toppling of then-No. 1 Alabama. The No. 9 Aggies close out their season against No. 11 Oklahoma on Jan. 4 in the Cotton Bowl.

“Look at what our offense did this year,” said Manziel, the SEC's single-season total yards record holder, of the league's top-ranked unit. “People didn't think we were going to have success in the SEC because of its smash-mouth, hardnosed defenses, and this (so-called) 'gimmick' offense we run. They said it wouldn't work.”

It has worked, all right, and a fruit of its labor is a wave of prized receivers in the upcoming class. TexAgs lists eight of the 33 as receivers or tight ends. Sumlin emphasized this is the time, too, for the Aggies to continue capitalizing on their success, if they intend to add a second national title (1939) in coming seasons to go with their second Heisman.

“We're nowhere where we need to be,” he said. “We have to increase our talent level.”

Indications are, much like their first season in the SEC, the Aggies are off to a solid start on that front.

bzwerneman