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**Herb Street** · 02-02-2022, 09:26 PM

Originally posted by Great White Buffalo View Post

WEST TEXAS A&M HIGH SCHOOL SIGNING CLASS

NAME	POS.	HT.	WT.	HOMETOWN	HIGH SCHOOL	HUDL
Leonard Adams	DB	6-3	185	San Antonio, Texas	Stevens	LINK
Daniel Ajaya	LB	5-11	205	Plano, Texas	Frisco Liberty	LINK
Charles Allen	WR	6-2	190	Garland, Texas	Garland	LINK
Tovo Asaeli	DB	6-2	195	Euless, Texas	Trinity	LINK
Joe Cavender	OL	6-2	265	Midlothian, Texas	Midlothian	LINK
Leo Covington	LB	6-0	200	Grapevine, Texas	Colleyville Heritage	LINK
Tavori Donaldson	LB	6-2	255	Round Rock, Texas	Round Rock	LINK
Jackson Donohoe	DB	6-1	190	Round Rock, Texas	Cedar Ridge	LINK
Quinton Evans	DB	5-11	170	Mesquite, Texas	Mesquite	LINK
Jimmy Fex	LB	6-1	215	McKinney, Texas	Boyd	LINK
Michael Geeker	OL	6-5	270	Houston, Texas	Cypress Lakes	LINK
Jarrett Hutson	LB	6-3	200	Prosper, Texas	Rock Hill	LINK
Hayden Jansky	DL	6-3	240	Magnolia, Texas	Magnolia West	LINK
Gervin McCarthy Jr.	WR	6-1	160	Mesquite, Texas	Mesquite	LINK
Benjamin McCreary	RB	5-10	190	San Antonio, Texas	Johnson	LINK
Christian Morris	LB	6-0	210	Houston, Texas	Klein Forest	LINK
Omarion Jackson	DB	6-0	185	Salt Lake City, Utah	Hunter	LINK
Tyler Jackson	LB	6-1	190	Wylie, Texas	Wylie East	LINK
Taj Johnson	LB	6-1	225	Pflugerville, Texas	Dal Valle	LINK
Kentell Mathews	OL	6-6	300	Fort Worth, Texas	Justin Northwest	LINK
Gregory Meeks	LB	6-2	205	Houston, Texas	Mayde Creek	LINK
John Mitcham	OL	6-5	265	Magnolia, Texas	Magnolia	LINK
Favour Osizugbo	DL	6-3	240	Houston, Texas	Dobie	LINK
Joseph Overton	DL	6-2	210	Bastrop, Texas	Bastrop	LINK
Marqeese Owens	DL	6-3	225	Dallas, Texas	Adams	LINK
Tashaun Pennington	OL	6-6	275	Houston, Texas	Alief Hastings	LINK
Brennan Ray	TE	6-2	240	Rockwall, Texas	Rockwall	LINK
Caden Rodebaugh	DL	6-4	200	Bastrop, Texas	Bastrop	LINK
Tavian Scruggs	OL	6-3	265	Sherman, Texas	Sherman	LINK
Sosa Sokimi	DL	6-0	260	Lampasas, Texas	Lampasas	LINK
Marlon Thompson-Leatch	DL	5-10	295	Mesquite, Texas	Mesquite	LINK
Thomas Thornburg	LB	5-10	220	Georgetown, Texas	East View	LINK
Junior Tuipulotu	TE	6-3	245	Euless, Texas	Trinity	LINK
Brady Reed	OL	6-4	250	Shallowater, Texas	Shallowater	LINK
Adam Whitfield	DL	6-3	205	Round Rock, Texas	Stony Point	LINK
Tyree Woods	LB	6-2	235	Dickinson, Texas	Dickinson	LINK

Interesting that out of 40-something prospects, not a single one is from Amarillo, or even the Texas Panhandle for that matter. Only one from the South Plains. That strikes me as odd.

**WT_TKW** · 02-02-2022, 11:45 PM

No QBs. I guess if you are just going to run up the middle, doing a direct snap is probably more efficient.

**Buffalo/Islander Alum** · 02-03-2022, 06:41 AM

Originally posted by Herb Street View Post

Interesting that out of 40-something prospects, not a single one is from Amarillo, or even the Texas Panhandle for that matter. Only one from the South Plains. That strikes me as odd.

Yes and no. Unfortunately 95% of the elite talent is downstate.

**Buffalo/Islander Alum** · 02-03-2022, 06:42 AM

Originally posted by WT_TKW View Post

No QBs. I guess if you are just going to run up the middle, doing a direct snap is probably more efficient.

Yeah this is the one that struck me as odd. My assumption is they may try to pull someone in late via transfer portal?

**WT_TKW** · 02-03-2022, 10:34 AM

Originally posted by Buffalo/Islander Alum View Post

Yeah this is the one that struck me as odd. My assumption is they may try to pull someone in late via transfer portal?

There is more recruiting in progress.

https://youtu.be/uRachac-tWA

**WPHB** · 02-03-2022, 01:13 PM

Originally posted by Herb Street View Post

Interesting that out of 40-something prospects, not a single one is from Amarillo or even the Texas Panhandle for that matter. Only one from the South Plains. That strikes me as odd.

I will respectfully disagree with Buffalo/Islander Alum. 95 % of the talent is not downstate. 95% of the population may be congregated on the I-35 corridor but not the talent. It should be obvious from some of my posts that I have a person close to me who just went through the recruiting process and recently signed to play D2 football. I will tell you that in the biggest metropolitan area in West Texas, WT was either absent or extremely lax on their recruiting of high-quality area players. Between Odessa/Midland, Lubbock, and Amarillo, you are telling me that there were no kids "good enough" for WT? Several from Lubbock signed for teams that beat WT regularly. Angelo State, UTPB, and Midwestern recruit local kids as well as non-local kids, they do alright it seems.

The product that WT is pushing, the people pushing that product, and the relationships formed between recruiters, coaches, and athlete is subpar at best. Sorely disappointed when I see a kid who wants to play close to home leave because WT has failed (intentionally or not) at recruiting good players.

However, to speak to Buffalo's assertion, what it feels like to me, is that there is an intentional effort to recruit major metro areas to the exclusion of West, East, and South Texas. To me, that seems to set WT up for failure when some of those kids come out here and get a huge culture shock from the Dallas, San Antonio, Houston lifestyle. While it may establish short-term inroads to those areas, the long-term loss would seem to outweigh any gains.

My hope is that the coach who recruits those areas is just phenomenal and does a good job recruiting, while the coach assigned to West Texas, Far East Texas, and South Texas is just getting beat by other schools for good kids. Just to make a long post longer, a couple of the kids at my person's school had double-digit offers, both went D2, neither had an offer from WT. The same school, out of 100 plus offers to football student-athletes (D1, D2, D3, NAIA, Juco), none from WT.

**WT_TKW** · 02-03-2022, 02:24 PM

Originally posted by WPHB View Post

I will respectfully disagree with Buffalo/Islander Alum. 95 % of the talent is not downstate. 95% of the population may be congregated on the I-35 corridor but not the talent. It should be obvious from some of my posts that I have a person close to me who just went through the recruiting process and recently signed to play D2 football. I will tell you that in the biggest metropolitan area in West Texas, WT was either absent or extremely lax on their recruiting of high-quality area players. Between Odessa/Midland, Lubbock, and Amarillo, you are telling me that there were no kids "good enough" for WT? Several from Lubbock signed for teams that beat WT regularly. Angelo State, UTPB, and Midwestern recruit local kids as well as non-local kids, they do alright it seems.

The product that WT is pushing, the people pushing that product, and the relationships formed between recruiters, coaches, and athlete is subpar at best. Sorely disappointed when I see a kid who wants to play close to home leave because WT has failed (intentionally or not) at recruiting good players.

However, to speak to Buffalo's assertion, what it feels like to me, is that there is an intentional effort to recruit major metro areas to the exclusion of West, East, and South Texas. To me, that seems to set WT up for failure when some of those kids come out here and get a huge culture shock from the Dallas, San Antonio, Houston lifestyle. While it may establish short-term inroads to those areas, the long-term loss would seem to outweigh any gains.

My hope is that the coach who recruits those areas is just phenomenal and does a good job recruiting, while the coach assigned to West Texas, Far East Texas, and South Texas is just getting beat by other schools for good kids. Just to make a long post longer, a couple of the kids at my person's school had double-digit offers, both went D2, neither had an offer from WT. The same school, out of 100 plus offers to football student-athletes (D1, D2, D3, NAIA, Juco), none from WT.

Wow!

It does seem like the WT administration is trying to recruit from everywhere - except Amarillo. I do keep reading about "great" Amarillo football players heading for Tech. However Angelo and Midwestern are following WT's lead with NO Amarillo players.

https://news.yahoo.com/angelo-state-...025014480.html

https://msumustangs.com/news/2022/2/...gning-day.aspx

**BuffaloChip** · 02-03-2022, 03:33 PM

Originally posted by WT_TKW View Post

No QBs. I guess if you are just going to run up the middle, doing a direct snap is probably more efficient.

WT has 5 QBs returning next year. 3 are freshmen. Keep a future eye of the Culwell kid from Canadian. Redshirted last year, I predict he'll be a sophomore starter in '23.

**BuffaloChip** · 02-03-2022, 03:35 PM

Originally posted by Buffalo/Islander Alum View Post

Yeah this is the one that struck me as odd. My assumption is they may try to pull someone in late via transfer portal?

Tra'vion Brown, DB from Tascosa, is supposed to sign. I believe I heard an Amarillo High kid is also in the works. The Kafka kid from Spearman has signed.

**BuffaloChip** · 02-03-2022, 04:04 PM

Originally posted by WPHB View Post

I will respectfully disagree with Buffalo/Islander Alum. 95 % of the talent is not downstate. 95% of the population may be congregated on the I-35 corridor but not the talent. It should be obvious from some of my posts that I have a person close to me who just went through the recruiting process and recently signed to play D2 football. I will tell you that in the biggest metropolitan area in West Texas, WT was either absent or extremely lax on their recruiting of high-quality area players. Between Odessa/Midland, Lubbock, and Amarillo, you are telling me that there were no kids "good enough" for WT? Several from Lubbock signed for teams that beat WT regularly. Angelo State, UTPB, and Midwestern recruit local kids as well as non-local kids, they do alright it seems.

The product that WT is pushing, the people pushing that product, and the relationships formed between recruiters, coaches, and athlete is subpar at best. Sorely disappointed when I see a kid who wants to play close to home leave because WT has failed (intentionally or not) at recruiting good players.

However, to speak to Buffalo's assertion, what it feels like to me, is that there is an intentional effort to recruit major metro areas to the exclusion of West, East, and South Texas. To me, that seems to set WT up for failure when some of those kids come out here and get a huge culture shock from the Dallas, San Antonio, Houston lifestyle. While it may establish short-term inroads to those areas, the long-term loss would seem to outweigh any gains.

My hope is that the coach who recruits those areas is just phenomenal and does a good job recruiting, while the coach assigned to West Texas, Far East Texas, and South Texas is just getting beat by other schools for good kids. Just to make a long post longer, a couple of the kids at my person's school had double-digit offers, both went D2, neither had an offer from WT. The same school, out of 100 plus offers to football student-athletes (D1, D2, D3, NAIA, Juco), none from WT.

Just a thought.......I've watched every video of the WT recruits, many more than once. The difference in talent, size, and speed between a 5A or 6A DFW, Houston, SA, or Austin metro school and our local Panhandle schools (with the exception this season of Amarillo High and Tascosa) is visceral. The level of competition in Texas' metro areas better prepares most kids to play at the college level sooner and successfully.

I'm not surprised to see so many kids signed from the metro areas and already on the Buff roster. We'll see how it shakes out when all the final signees are released.

**Buffalo/Islander Alum** · 02-03-2022, 06:54 PM

Originally posted by WPHB View Post

I will respectfully disagree with Buffalo/Islander Alum. 95 % of the talent is not downstate. 95% of the population may be congregated on the I-35 corridor but not the talent. It should be obvious from some of my posts that I have a person close to me who just went through the recruiting process and recently signed to play D2 football. I will tell you that in the biggest metropolitan area in West Texas, WT was either absent or extremely lax on their recruiting of high-quality area players. Between Odessa/Midland, Lubbock, and Amarillo, you are telling me that there were no kids "good enough" for WT? Several from Lubbock signed for teams that beat WT regularly. Angelo State, UTPB, and Midwestern recruit local kids as well as non-local kids, they do alright it seems.

The product that WT is pushing, the people pushing that product, and the relationships formed between recruiters, coaches, and athlete is subpar at best. Sorely disappointed when I see a kid who wants to play close to home leave because WT has failed (intentionally or not) at recruiting good players.

However, to speak to Buffalo's assertion, what it feels like to me, is that there is an intentional effort to recruit major metro areas to the exclusion of West, East, and South Texas. To me, that seems to set WT up for failure when some of those kids come out here and get a huge culture shock from the Dallas, San Antonio, Houston lifestyle. While it may establish short-term inroads to those areas, the long-term loss would seem to outweigh any gains.

My hope is that the coach who recruits those areas is just phenomenal and does a good job recruiting, while the coach assigned to West Texas, Far East Texas, and South Texas is just getting beat by other schools for good kids. Just to make a long post longer, a couple of the kids at my person's school had double-digit offers, both went D2, neither had an offer from WT. The same school, out of 100 plus offers to football student-athletes (D1, D2, D3, NAIA, Juco), none from WT.

OK. 95% is a sarcastic number but most of the talent is downstate and its foolish to not know that.

I scrolled through the top 150 on this list and only found 5 Lubbock kids and no Amarillo kids:
https://247sports.com/Season/2021-Fo...ings/?State=TX

I even looked up the Texas A&M Commerce roster from their 2017 championship team and only 7 panhandle kids.
https://lionathletics.com/sports/football/roster/2017

There are reasons teams like Tascosa, Lubbock Cooper, and Lubbock Roosevelt get thrashed by metroplex schools by the quarterfinal round plus. Depth and talent are king downstate. Same with Valley schools when they play SA, Austin, and Houston schools. News flash the valley isnt heavily recruited either.

Ive been a high school coach and lived all over Texas. I see it on display down here where I currently live in the Houston area.

There are players sporadically around the panhandle that are great talents. This year Major Everheart from Tascosa comes to mind.

The LSC schools that are looking for "talent" from the panhandle are going to be Eastern New Mexico level schools.

**Buffalo/Islander Alum** · 02-03-2022, 07:13 PM

Originally posted by BuffaloChip View Post

Tra'vion Brown, DB from Tascosa, is supposed to sign. I believe I heard an Amarillo High kid is also in the works. The Kafka kid from Spearman has signed.

Brown would be a great get.

**WPHB** · 02-04-2022, 11:03 AM

Originally posted by Buffalo/Islander Alum View Post

OK. 95% is a sarcastic number but most of the talent is downstate and its foolish to not know that.

I scrolled through the top 150 on this list and only found 5 Lubbock kids and no Amarillo kids:
https://247sports.com/Season/2021-Fo...ings/?State=TX

I even looked up the Texas A&M Commerce roster from their 2017 championship team and only 7 panhandle kids.
https://lionathletics.com/sports/football/roster/2017

There are reasons teams like Tascosa, Lubbock Cooper, and Lubbock Roosevelt get thrashed by metroplex schools by the quarterfinal round plus. Depth and talent are king downstate. Same with Valley schools when they play SA, Austin, and Houston schools. News flash the valley isnt heavily recruited either.

Ive been a high school coach and lived all over Texas. I see it on display down here where I currently live in the Houston area.

There are players sporadically around the panhandle that are great talents. This year Major Everheart from Tascosa comes to mind.

The LSC schools that are looking for "talent" from the panhandle are going to be Eastern New Mexico level schools.

Buffalo/Islander Alum, I apologize for taking your numbers out of context. Undeniably, the large metro areas have more talent and more depth. I just don't believe the disparity in talent is as large a gap as people think or that they say. Depth is a whole other issue. Metro areas have more kids, more schools. Just a fact of life that more kids and more schools will equal more quantitative talent and depth. Regional Quarters, Regional Semis, and Regional Finals are typically the rounds where West Texas teams fail. No argument there. Buffalo Chip brings up a good point too, iron sharpens iron. Those metro area kids face better quality opponents on a weekly basis and that surely helps develop those athletes' skill sets.

My complaint was specifically with WT, not with statewide recruiting. I do have beef there as well, but that is for another forum I am quite sure. But to speak to what was said...I cannot believe that 24/7 Sports' top 150 rankings are the barometer of talent state-wide. You as a former Coach around the state know that those rankings are heavily skewed to metro area kids, teams, and districts, not completely but definitely weighted that direction. I agree that there are highly talented players around West Texas sporadically, but those are D1 FBS players. The 3, 4, and 5-star athletes like Everhart, Gray, Robertson, McKensie, Jordan are all D1 bound for a reason. But there is another group of kids that are very talented, hard-working, skilled kids that can play college football beyond that group, but maybe at a different classification. I was thinking of D2 players and specifically the D2 players that WT was recruiting.

I am relatively new to D2 football and am not sure what the ENMU "talent" level is, or what the difference is between LSC talent at ENMU vs. Angelo vs. UTPB vs. WT, or versus any other LSC school. What I do know is that certain coaches at HS in West Texas could not get WT to look at, visit, or offer their kids. That just sucks for those kids who could stay close to home, play in front of their family, get an education, and hopefully return back to the local community and inspire other talented student-athletes to stay close to home. My person wanted to get as far away from here as possible, so maybe that proves your point more than anything else, but I meant my prior post to say that there are really talented kids locally who were not given the time of day by WT. That seems harmful to WT in the bigger picture, especially if you are trying to fill up a new beautiful stadium.

Please know that I am not a WT fan. I played football at Arlington Lamar in the metroplex, graduated from UTPB decades before they ever had a football team, raised my kid to root for Texas Tech, and have never been anywhere near the WT campus other than passing by on I-27. I will say that I sincerely want them to succeed because a successful football team can help a University succeed writ large, and a successful University can help a community flourish. I am all about West Texas towns flourishing and being successful, so please know that was the impetus for my posting about the failures of WT recruiting talented local athletes.

And I do need to correct my prior post, apparently, there is a discussion of at least two Amarillo area kids who WT is trying to get. I saw the Tascosa kid play in person and he will transition nicely to the next level, not sure who the Amarillo High kid is, but they played us tough across the board and always have good skilled hardnosed kids. No idea about the Klafka kid but have heard good things out of Spearman.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't say thank you Buffalo/Islander Alum for your work coaching, teaching, and raising young kids as a High School Coach. I have the utmost respect for folks who spend an entire career working with kids to make them better people.

**Buffalo/Islander Alum** · 02-04-2022, 01:55 PM

Originally posted by WPHB View Post

Buffalo/Islander Alum, I apologize for taking your numbers out of context. Undeniably, the large metro areas have more talent and more depth. I just don't believe the disparity in talent is as large a gap as people think or that they say. Depth is a whole other issue. Metro areas have more kids, more schools. Just a fact of life that more kids and more schools will equal more quantitative talent and depth. Regional Quarters, Regional Semis, and Regional Finals are typically the rounds where West Texas teams fail. No argument there. Buffalo Chip brings up a good point too, iron sharpens iron. Those metro area kids face better quality opponents on a weekly basis and that surely helps develop those athletes' skill sets.

My complaint was specifically with WT, not with statewide recruiting. I do have beef there as well, but that is for another forum I am quite sure. But to speak to what was said...I cannot believe that 24/7 Sports' top 150 rankings are the barometer of talent state-wide. You as a former Coach around the state know that those rankings are heavily skewed to metro area kids, teams, and districts, not completely but definitely weighted that direction. I agree that there are highly talented players around West Texas sporadically, but those are D1 FBS players. The 3, 4, and 5-star athletes like Everhart, Gray, Robertson, McKensie, Jordan are all D1 bound for a reason. But there is another group of kids that are very talented, hard-working, skilled kids that can play college football beyond that group, but maybe at a different classification. I was thinking of D2 players and specifically the D2 players that WT was recruiting.

I am relatively new to D2 football and am not sure what the ENMU "talent" level is, or what the difference is between LSC talent at ENMU vs. Angelo vs. UTPB vs. WT, or versus any other LSC school. What I do know is that certain coaches at HS in West Texas could not get WT to look at, visit, or offer their kids. That just sucks for those kids who could stay close to home, play in front of their family, get an education, and hopefully return back to the local community and inspire other talented student-athletes to stay close to home. My person wanted to get as far away from here as possible, so maybe that proves your point more than anything else, but I meant my prior post to say that there are really talented kids locally who were not given the time of day by WT. That seems harmful to WT in the bigger picture, especially if you are trying to fill up a new beautiful stadium.

Please know that I am not a WT fan. I played football at Arlington Lamar in the metroplex, graduated from UTPB decades before they ever had a football team, raised my kid to root for Texas Tech, and have never been anywhere near the WT campus other than passing by on I-27. I will say that I sincerely want them to succeed because a successful football team can help a University succeed writ large, and a successful University can help a community flourish. I am all about West Texas towns flourishing and being successful, so please know that was the impetus for my posting about the failures of WT recruiting talented local athletes.

And I do need to correct my prior post, apparently, there is a discussion of at least two Amarillo area kids who WT is trying to get. I saw the Tascosa kid play in person and he will transition nicely to the next level, not sure who the Amarillo High kid is, but they played us tough across the board and always have good skilled hardnosed kids. No idea about the Klafka kid but have heard good things out of Spearman.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't say thank you Buffalo/Islander Alum for your work coaching, teaching, and raising young kids as a High School Coach. I have the utmost respect for folks who spend an entire career working with kids to make them better people.

No need to apologize. Welcome to the board and the difference of opinions are what makes the discussions fun and great. Thank you for the kind words.

I also agree with most of your comments.

That being said I think there is a huge elephant in the room that everyone is overlooking to this conversation.

Hunter Hughes is on thin ice this year to make the playoffs or find employment elsewhere.

This statement may ruffle some feathers. If my arse is in a sling and I need to win now to keep my job then filling up my roster with panhandle kids isnt going to save my job. He is going to go after proven talent downstate that has played against the best competition week in and week out as well as the transfer portal.

If he craps the bed and misses the playoffs then I will be interested to see how the next coach handles that philosophy of building a team.

Unfortunately I think the transfer portal has changed that game up a bit to strictly go by the model of 4 year high school kids.

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