Another year, another hard-charging class for Kevin Sumlin.
Texas A&M wrapped up National Signing Day with 25 signees — seven of which enrolled early and are already in College Station — and a class ranked No. 12 by ESPN.
While Sumlin and his staff already had a decent idea of who would be finalizing their commitments Wednesday, they still awaited the faxed letters of intent from a few key pieces in the class.
The recruiting rollercoaster of five-star, 6-foot-1, 320-pound defensive lineman Daylon Mack kept analysts guessing. In the end the Gladewater, Texas, product — who once decommitted from A&M — chose A&M over TCU and Texas live on ESPNU. The addition of defensive coordinator John Chavis helped land Mack.
“In his situation, defensively, schematically, from a coach who has a track record of playing not good defense but great defense and placing guys in the National Football League, he saw where the situation at Texas A&M got better for him personally. Again, he came here for all the right reasons,” Sumlin said at a press conference Wednesday.
Kyler Murray, the three-time state champion who never lost a game at Allen High School, signed his letter of intent after having entertained the possibility of pledging to the University of Texas late in his recruiting process.
Murray, whose father, Kevin, played quarterback for the Aggies from 1983-1986, threw for 4,713 yards and rushing for 1,485 his senior season. Murray expects to compete with Kyle Allen for the starting job under center come this fall.
“We didn’t even promise Myles Garrett he would start, which was hard for me to bite my tongue on,” Sumlin said. “With Kyler it was the same conversation we had with Kyle Allen — if you win the starting job against Arizona State you’ve got to keep competing, because the other guy isn’t going to give in; if you don’t win it, you’ve got to keep competing because you’re only one play away.”
Murray will have several potential throwing targets joining him in College Station, including five-star wide receiver Christian Kirk and four-star tight end Jordan Davis, both of whom are already enrolled to partake in spring drills.
Kirk ranked as the top prospect in the state of Arizona, marking the second straight year the Aggies signed the top player from the Grand Canyon State. Kirk logged 1,187 receiving yards while rushing for 1,692 yards in his senior season at Saguaro High School. Davis rings in at 6-foot 4, 255 pounds and had 34 receptions for 535 yards and two touchdowns his senior season.
This year’s recruiting class slightly favors the defensive side of the ball. A&M signed 13 defensive players who have their work cut out for them as they join a defense that ranked near the bottom of the NCAA in total yards allowed for two consecutive years.
Within the defensive group, A&M signed four defensive backs, all of whom are at least 6 feet tall. Four-star Justin Dunning, who hails from Whitehouse, Texas, is the tallest of the group at 6-foot-4. He is joined by Deshawn Capers-Smith, Roney Elam, Justin Evans and Larry Pryor.
All four of the defensive backs likely will have a shot at filling the shoes of graduated seniors such as Deshazor Everett and Floyd Raven in the fall.
The recruiting trail helped stoke a dormant rivalry with the University of Texas as the two teams battled it out for much of the state’s top talent.
“We’ve got a lot of kids in this state that are tremendous student-athletes and a lot of great coaches,” Sumlin said. “That creates opportunities for kids in this state to not have to leave [Texas] to go play. It creates trouble for us, but for student-athletes it couldn’t be a better time to go a lot of different places and play at a high level.”