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Longhornfrenzy

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  1. Lunch with Liucci: By Billy Liucci Segment 1 (00:00:00 - 15:42:03) It was a wild week. I said it last night, I had to mix in some family stuff. It's fine. Everything is good. It was stressful. This stuff is not fun. There is an adrenaline thing of chasing down a story, getting the story and juggling it. So many of these kids' parents listen. It's one of my favorite parts of the job. They can become lifelong friends. It is annoying when you put a story out, and you have people trying to go out of their way to villainize the person who put the story out because the kids found out via social media. There are things you can say bad about me. The one thing you cannot say is that I do not consider other people in everything I do, especially in this instance. It's a small group. I like to look people in the eye and say, “You do not know a damn thing about me, the process or what went on.” My first concern was not letting anything out prior to that game. That was a fun night for the kids. They had a freaking blast. I was careful in not wanting to be manipulated in any way in terms of the timing. There were people who had an idea or knew and were saying they didn't agree with it. It was people who mattered. That decision was made at the highest level, and that was my thought. I did not see it being walked back because of the level of decision it was. Ross Bjork said it was his recommendation to the Texas A&M’s President. They took it to the board. The people at the top had to sign off on that. Once they did, there was no walking it back. It takes a toll on you walking around that stadium that night knowing what might happen. Some people don't like us because they dont like success. There has been a success here, and they hate when you talk about things like this. I'm calling that small group right now. Selfish would have been announcing that during College GameDay when kids are sitting at the hotel. I waited until the national people were getting word at 6:45 a.m. on Sunday morning. I was making phone calls, stressing and wringing my hands over it. A. You want the story. We deserve the story. I had had it since the inception of it, but at the same time, it meant a lot to me to make sure it was done, and there was no stopping it. B. I wanted Jimbo Fisher to know. I was as positive as I could be that he knew before leaving that building Saturday night without calling him, thus interfering in the process. It was tough. Here's the thing with Jimbo Fisher. Kevin Sumlin made comments about the toll the job took on his health and family. Jimbo came up from West Virginia, didn't have a lot, and went to Samford to play football. He wasn't a five-star. Forget what you think about him. Think about the human here. He worked his way up to the peak of his profession. He was coaching in front of 100,000 people, doing what he loved, not knowing that was going to be his last time to coach here. I don't know if Jimbo will ever coach again. I think he will. Is he even 60 yet? He loves it. Maybe he does, but not in that type of environment. All of a sudden, he is fired, and he has $75 million. Maybe he goes and sits on his farm in West Virginia. There is a human element we forget sometimes. He has $75 million, but do you think that guy wasn't devasted when he got the news? In the moment, it's OK to consider the human there that failed at what he was paid to do. I was thinking about that yesterday. There's a human side. There is a family side too. I am not saying you should not fire coaches. Of course, you should. That is the sport. They are compensated very handsomely, but that doesn't change the fact that it's not really a day to celebrate when you make a change when the guy isn't winning as much as you want or expected them to. This machine, and this is why I think they to be careful about who they hire, this thing does not have championships. We don’t have trophies around here. I was just talking to Greg McElroy and Cole Cubelic. The expectations are absolutely reasonable. They are not based on history. Even though A&M historically hasn't won like powerhouse programs, expectations have nothing to do with history. I said prior to the Mississippi State game that a win wasn't going to be enough. Before that meeting, I felt bad energy/vibes coming out of Ole Miss in terms of the wolves circling. Ole Miss, the wind was blowing in a certain direction. These road trips get you. Segment 2 (15:42:03 - 20:57:00) The thing about the Kevin Sumlin vs. Jimbo Fisher graphic, was not only was it annoying, but people would fall into the "Should not have fired Sumlin" rabbit hole. That wasn't the point of it. They need to make a good hire this time. I really like the message Josh Pate has said about A&M. It is a tremendous job. You could win massively here. You have to find the right guy, and they haven't. You hope they aren't heading to the dark ages. A&M needs this hire to hit. You see programs that have a lot of history going through dark periods more than A&M has, This will be a 7-5 team or 8-4 with a ton of talent. I know, some of it will go out the door during the transition. I think a lot of that would happen anyway. That was part of the concern. It happens to everyone. This is really important for Ross Bjork, the decision maker, to get this one right. Get the right guy and get him quickly, and don't give me this crap, I don't want to hear. Segment 3 (20:57:00 - 22:53:08) "The board told Jimbo he was let go on Saturday. He stormed out of the locker room and left for the ranch. That is not true. There is a lot that is not true that I get. Don't give me the "We need a strong coach. He needs to be organized and be friends with everyone." That is something you put on your list that we desire. Have that on the list. Plenty of people check that box and can recruit lights out. Everyone can put elite players on the field. The biggest part of the job is keeping this team together as much as you can because if you do, you have a winner on day one. Segment 4 (22:53:08 - 36:01:10) I love it for Elijah Robinson. He deserves it. The players are happy with it, and I think coaches on staff, like Bobby Petrino and D.J. Durkin. They will respect that. This could be fun for Elijah. This could be a good audition for him. Not only around here but for anywhere. Elijah is Elijah. He is real. He is lovable. He will show love but also push you and make you better. There is a reason he is paid as much as he is to be a position coach. They could not afford to lose him. He is an elite recruiter. Of everyone on that staff that you want to keep, no matter what your next head coach is, it's Elijah Robinson. Period. It doesn't mean it can't work without him. You can't get caught up on one coach or player during a transition, but I think it would be incredibly important and beneficial to the next coach if he is a prominent member of that staff. I can't even put into words how far that would go in terms of keeping guys here, recruiting efforts and putting together the right staff. The connection of Elijah and Terry Price, I would have said the same damn thing about TP when Kevin Sumlin was fired. Fisher retained Price. We all know what TP's value was. Elijah is the exact same way. How cool would it be to see Elijah go 3-0? Go beat LSU in Baton Rouge, and go win a bowl game. Have this team get to nine wins. All of these things are important in terms of retention and setting the coach on the path to win right away. You have the potential to say whoever walks in there, has a loaded roster from day one. I don’t think we will quite be able to say that because of the damn portal nowadays. Durkin is a hell of a recruiter. He is a pro's pro. He is another guy who is loved in the building. He is doing a great job on the recruiting trail. Guys like that stand out. Between that and making a quick hire, you have the potential to retain a lot of this. You will lose some. There are no two ways around this. You will lose guys you want to keep, and they will make a big deal of it on social media. If you hire the right coach and they sell it right, you can have a contending team on day one at Texas A&M. This week, they are talking to people. You would love to see it wrapped up in a couple of weeks. From the end of Mississippi State to the end of LSU is two weeks. You would love to see a decision by the middle of that week following LSU. There isn't a name that has floated to me that I have not thought about. I think Kliff Kingsbury is a really intersting one. Go get Dan Lanning. Go get Dan Campbell. Go get Kalen DoBoer. Look at what he is doing right now at Washington. Those are highly unlikely, but if you start talking about these other candidates, I like a lot about Elko. Kliff is intriguing. Somebody mentioned Todd Monken. He is doing great work with the Ravens and Lamar Jackson. He won a couple of national titles with Stetson Bennett at Georgia. It's day one. I try to tell y'all exactly what is happening, and what is exactly happening is there is not a standalone candidate. There are not two or three. There's a list. They will use the search firm that A&M is contracted out to. They will use that to weed out a lot of it so A&M can narrow it down. There is no one or two guys sitting at the top of a list right now. As of Monday morning, that is not the case. I know people say every AD walks around with a list in his pocket. Well, yeah. Ross probably has a list, but this is different because of the money you are paying Jimbo. All those guys I mentioned will get calls. They may get advice on who they should hire. Mike Elko, if he had not left for Duke, he would have been the perfect inside promotion. What's even better is now he has Power 5 experience. There is one person I haven't dove into it, but had Luke Fickell not taken to the Wisconsin job last year and been at Cincinnati one more year, would Fickell be the guy that every A&M fan would want? I don’t know if he would come. When we think about these things, don't forget about stuff like that. Segment 5 (36:01:10 - 44:27:09) Not evolving to the game was part of it, but Jimbo certainly tried in terms of recruiting, portal and NIL. Offensively, was slow. There was a lot. Maybe tried to do too much of it on his own. That's hard to do. Sometimes coaches don't realize that. Some personalities want to do everything on their own. It worked for him at FSU. College football is so unique in how much it changes almost every five years. Whether it be the rules, style of play, the portal, NIL, or realignment, it's ever-changing. They don’t have a recruiting coordinator yet. They never added that. They don’t have a high school relations guy. They made hires, but they weren't out there. The other thing that got him is there was some misfortune with those quarterback injuries. Has the caliber of the staff gone down? I think some of it, though, was big misfortune. People don't like hearing that, but it's real. In 2020, they would have been really damn good in a regular season. They might have been better. A&M had the layout to be the second-best team in the SEC that season. Who is to say that if Ohio State had played more games, they would not have dropped one? A&M would have been 12-1. Ohio State loses one game, and A&M is in there. Describing his tenure, it was really close. They could not quite get over it. There are a million reasons why. It was not just one. When they were putting together that No. 1 class, had they finished off the 2020 season in style... Maybe you get additional recruits. That was the moment, dropping those road games, that was your chance. That is when it could have flipped
  2. Fat Hamm I spoke at length last night with Jasper LB and Texas A&M commit Tyanthony Smith after he turned in a 14 tackle performance in a playoff win over Columbia which included 3 tackles for loss as well as an interception. He's had an outstanding last 3-4 weeks in terms of his production. Anyway, my audio was giving me all kinds of issues due to the massive amount of rain water my phone took on throughout the course of the game while shooting highlights. Regardless, I did stay after a chat with him for about 10 minutes to get a feel for where he's at with recruiting and the status of his commitment. Here are some key takeaways from our conversation. - First off, Tyanthony has grown. He's gotten noticeably taller and longer. He's going to hold 225-230 pounds without a problem, and I could see a scenario where he gets even a little north of that. It's a very intriguing frame for a college strength coach. - As I've been saying, Taurean York is playing a large role for Texas A&M. Tyanthony admires his work ethic, mentality, and talked a lot about how Taurean's mindset as a freshman was something he would like to emulate. Tyanthony views Taurean as a mentor and an example. - Another key cog in this recruitment for Texas A&M is DJ Durkin. I said this a bunch over the spring and summer when A&M began to surge for Tyanthony, but Durkin did yeoman's work in taking the Aggies from the back of the pack to firmly in the front. The overall play of the defense this season, specifically the development of the linebacking corps, has been important, as well. - Smith told me he's locked in with Texas A&M right now. He and the Jasper staff did confirm that Texas had begun making a push, but it's currently inconsequential. - There was a ton of speculation about his commitment wavering when fellow southeast Texas natives Drelon Miller and Weston Davis both left the A&M class. After talking with him, it's evident that he was not a fan of that hearsay. While he acknowledged his both Miller and Davis, Smith was adamant that he made his decision for his own reasons and those reasons stood alone far beyond the influence of his peers. - I don't get the idea that there would be any other threat to A&M currently outside of the Longhorns (who he still didn't give too much credence to). We spoke very briefly about LSU, but Smith was quick to shoot down any thought of them being in contention. - Kyle Field and the 12th Man did what they typically do on visits. He mentioned their impact on not only games but also the visit experience
  3. Quick rundown of where A&M stands with current commits & targets By Ryan Brauninger I'm just going to be frank with y'all: it wasn't easy coming up with the subject matter for this week's recruiting article. It's not because we are void of angles to look at this thing, either. Rather, it's because no matter how you mix it or shake it, it's all going to come out tasting the same right now. In a vacuum, a three-point road loss to a top-10 Ole Miss team while on your backup quarterback would be a complete non-factor on the recruiting front. A snapshot of the game all by itself would indicate an uptick in offensive production, while the defensive performance would be written off as an outlier. I'm sure Saturday's game has been presented as exactly that in the recruiting phone calls emanating from the Bright-Slocum Complex this week. At least, it should be. The snowballing problem is that this isn't a vacuum, and the wave of negative recruiting has turned into an avalanche. By now, you're all very aware of the arrows being flung in the direction of the Texas A&M football program in its current state. It has to be a tumultuous time in the recruiting war room right now, but the good news is that — at least at the time of pinning this article — we haven't been told there are any more commits on the verge of re-opening their recruitments. That may be short-lived, though, as visits are being scheduled and phone calls are being taken. Up to this point, you'd have to give the A&M coaching and recruiting staff major kudos for the work they've done. The effort to keep things afloat during the bye week was more than commendable, and the reason recruiting is still a high-stakes game for this cycle is because of the caliber of players they'd been able to get in the boat. Still, they haven't taken advantage of their opportunities on the field that would have gone such a long way into rewarding the sweat equity they put in off of it. Let's take a quick peek at the current situation with each commitment as well as a few of the staff's top remaining targets. QB Miles O'Neill‍ - Nothing to report on as of now. Seems locked in. On the visitor list this week. QB AJ Maddox‍ - Same as above. AJ appears to be solid. WR Jaylan Hornsby‍ - Visited Rutgers last weekend. WR Cameron Coleman‍ - Has taken multiple visits with Florida State upcoming. WR Debron Gatling‍ - No visits. Commitment holding strong. ATH/WR Ernest Campbell‍ - TCU looks to be the biggest competition. Frogs are pushing. TE Eric Karner‍ - Hasn't visited anywhere since committing in the summer. OL Ashton Funk‍ - Locked in. Michigan did attend a recent game, but he's an Aggie. OL Coen Echols‍ - Very much expect an Auburn visit soon. Tigers have been pushing. OL Blake Ivy‍ - Not much intel comes out on him. LSU and Texas had been involved. OL Isendre Ahfua‍ - Haven't heard anything definitive, but we are watching Utah and Washington. DL Dealyn Evans‍ - Remains committed but seems shaky. Still keeping an eye on Florida. DL Dominick McKinley‍ - Lots of phone calls but no visits set as of now. DL Gabriel Reliford‍ - Visited LSU and USC, with the Tigers being the biggest threat. LB Tyanthony Smith‍ - Solid in his pledge. I've heard Texas is re-engaging. LB Jordan Lockhart‍ - Seems solid. Should be at Texas A&M this weekend. LB Tristan Jernigan‍ - Has visited Ole Miss, Miss State and Alabama. Watch out for Saban. S Myles Davis‍ - Locked in right now. Let's see if he visits Texas later this month. S Jordan Pride‍ - Recently visited Florida, but I think the Aggies can hold on here. CB/ATH Terry Bussey‍ - My latest report sounded good for A&M, but his phone is ringing. WR Micah Hudson‍ - Aggies are not out of the race and could get him back on campus. I'd lean toward Texas Tech still. ATH/WR Drelon Miller‍ - Keeps giving A&M chances after his decommitment. LSU feels good about where they're at. CB Kobe Black‍ - Supposed to be in College Station for an official visit this weekend. We'll see if that happens. He plays in Bryan on Friday. ATH/HBack Hunter Andrews‍ - Expected to return to Kyle Field on Saturday. Visited Utah last week. That's about as succinct as I could be with the current climate of each kid. I should say that the volatility of the entire situation could cause information to become outdated pretty quickly, though. As always, we'll continue to do our best to give y'all the best lay of the land we can provide. My best advice for recruiting fans would be to buckle up. Whatever happens, there are sure to be some twists and turns over the next couple of months
  4. Recruiting Country: The latest recruiting news surrounding the Maroon & White By Ryan Brauninger Key notes from Recruiting Country Micah Hudson‍ took a trip to College Station to see some people. He was around campus. He spent Saturday and Sunday in College Station. It’s intersting. That's two trips in the last few weeks for him. I would still lean heavily towards him signing with Texas Tech, but he sat down in this chair and told me that it's Texas Tech or Texas A&M. There is not a big crowd around Micah's recruitment. There is something that keeps him coming back. Whether it's a relationship on staff, the feel of College Station or the proximity, he can decide he wants to come to College Station on a whim. It's tougher to do that if you want to go to Lubbock. Micah's recruitment has the Evan Stewart vibe. Early in the recruiting cycle, A&M had no chance at Evan. Everyone was saying it. He visited. He showed up again and again, and by the third visit, you thought there was something here. Evan was never committed to another school. Micah is committed to Texas Tech. Keeping tabs on his visit plans is going to be interesting to follow. If he turns back up at A&M for South Carolina, ACU or Mississippi State, that would be three visits in a month-plus. We are keeping tabs on it. He is not in any hurry to come off his decision to Texas Tech. He is a cerebral, aware kid. It's not clear weather in Lubbock either. You are in year two of Joey McGuire, so it's easier to sell the vision. Texas Tech and A&M have done the best job of recruiting him and building relationships. They are what he is looking for a college experience in terms of the town and surroundings. He doesn't want big and flashy. Texas and USC never played a roll. He is a quiet kid. The laid-back nature of Lubbock and College Station is what he looking for. Cameron Coleman‍ will be here this weekend. His high school team is on a bye week. He was incredible last week. He is a superstar. He is a 5-star prospect and producing at a 5-star level as a player. He had nine catches for 294 yards and four touchdowns. That is not the only week Cam has had insane numbers. He is also playing against the best competition. He will spend the weekend in College Station. He has family ties to Bryan and Houston. Auburn and Alabama are trying to get him to come away from his pledge to A&M. The negative recruiting arrows were being flung from every direction. That's why the bye week was important for the staff to get out there a quell some of that. Drelon Miller‍ decommitting felt like that would open the floodgates. The coaching and recruiting staff have stopped it right there. Based on everything I have heard, the door isn't shut on A&M with Drelon. Now, you have to win. If you could win the next two, that would be massive to keep what you got on the recruiting front. If you win against South Carolina and beat a ranked Ole Miss team, you will be heavily favored against Mississippi State and ACU, which means you roll into Baton Rouge at 8-3 with a four-game winning streak, playing the best football you have, spoil LSU and go 9-3 at their place. There is an argument to be made that they need to win, and it needs to look a certain way. You have to get to Ole Miss without losing anybody else. Keep the ship afloat. Don't let any more cracks happen. To me, it's more important to beat Ole Miss than LSU. You would set yourself up for that month with a couple of home games to get guys to visit. From a recruiting lens, go to Baton Rouge 8-3, and that will keep everybody in the class and remain in the conversations for top targets. There is real pressure to perform on Saturday now. They have completely eliminated their wiggle room. You have to win the games. I know Conner Weigman went hunting during the bye week with a cast on. I have not talked to him directly about how he is feeling. I think if they get to 8-3, and Weigman is on the sideline for the majority of it? That helps. At 7-5 or 6-6, nobody will care. It's happened three years in a row where the starter got hurt, and they have to play with a backup. Does that mean they will lose games? Having the selling point of Weigman being out and winning eight to nine games, then you could say they would be a 10-win team with him, at least. Every case for every kid is different. 8-4, you can sign a top-10 class. 9-3 with a bowl win, I think you sign a top-5 class. In this 2024 offensive line recruiting class, you haven't lost any of those kids. You have rock-solid guys with you, like Ashton Funk‍ and Coen Echols‍. You have sensational athletes in Weston Davis‍ and Blake Ivy‍. You pulled in Isendre Ahfua‍. Echols is getting pushed hard by Auburn. He could visit there. Davis is hearing from LSU, Texas and Oklahoma. Ivy is a private kid. He chose A&M over LSU. Tristan Jernigan‍ is taking an official visit to Alabama for the LSU game. He is originally from Alabama. It's not nothing. It's a legitimate threat. It's definitely something to watch. The Aggies can put out all of these fires with performances on the field. These are impressionable kids who have impressionable inner circles. There could be little cracks in the belief, and that is all those opposing schools need
  5. What a beautiful day. Hamm has finally come out of hiding just to make an ass out of himself. Some things never change
  6. The aggy propaganda ministry has now nuked 3 Terry Bussey threads in the past 15 minutes. Fucking hilarious how they try to control the narrative. They don't realize they're actually making it worse for the subs. If Bussey decommits it will be a meltdown of epic proportions.
  7. Recruiting Country: The latest recruiting news surrounding the Maroon & White By Ryan Brauninger Key notes from Recruiting Country Drelon Miller‍ mentioned he was not a fan of losing. It led me to believe the recruiting rivals were hammering that. He watched LSU light up Auburn. I got a phone call Monday that said things were happening. It comes down to winning games and Drelon playing on a team with a team to maximize his production and development. It had nothing to do with a disdain for A&M. They loved College Station. His parents were comfortable sending him here. They acted remorseful that he had to decommit. They are looking out for the future of the kid. It comes down to winning games and being productive. They have preached to Drelon the Ainias Smith role, but they have had trouble getting Ainias the ball. Losing Conner Weigman hurts. Brian Kelly is in year two. Billy Napier in year two. Steve Sarkisian is in year three. A&M is scrambling to put out fires. They have eliminated any margin for error. I don't know what 8-4 tastes like to a lot of kids. The defensive kids see a defense playing lights out and young guys. Myles Davis‍ knows Demani Richardson is leaving. There are schools that are trying to pluck A&M commits right now. A&M has rebounded nicely last year. We will have to see. You can talk about Weigman and say look at what we were doing with this guy pulling the trigger. The bye week is a good and bad time. The coaches are on the road this week. They need to see these kids. You only have two big home games. You have one at 11 a.m. It makes things tough. You have things working against you. It's too early to say, but it could ripple into the 2025 class. The coaches on staff have gotten off to great starts with the top targets. I have talked a lot about the 2025 talent in Houston. Offensive and defensive lines are loaded. You don't want it to have a carry-over into 2025. It's not all doom and gloom. There are kids that are still good right now. We have checked in with Myles Davis, Dealyn Evans‍ and Gabriel Reliford‍. I have not heard anything definitive on Tyanthony Smith‍ and Weston Davis‍. If you see them popping up on visits, that's a good indicator. I don't think it will come folding in all at once. You have to keep trying to sell Texas A&M and the value of this place. No matter what is going on with wins and losses, there are cranes moving. Kids can see that. You have sold the sizzle for a long time. You have to have the steak tasting good. They could 9-3 and sign the rest of them. You could sign Drelon too. Drelon wants to be given a reason to come to A&M. The staff will start looking at prospects on their board that weren't really on your radar and go watch them. We will see some of those names pop up. There is a name getting a really strong look right now that I put on the Premium boards. Weather the storm and keep what you got. Hold your ground recruiting-wise. Beat South Carolina. Find a way to beat Ole Miss, and you are looking good for a while. In the meantime, keep it all together
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