Vol. 2 No. 2, March 1997
Defense, Defense, Defense -- Aggies fill needs in defensive line, secondary
1997 Football Recruits | Other Big 12 Schools Recruiting Classes

Defense, Defense, Defense

Aggies fill needs in defensive line, secondary

By Homer Jacobs

It was all about filling needs on National Signing Day for the Texas Aggies.

Texas A&M filled its physical needs, signing 17 defensive players, including seven defensive linemen and six defensive backs.

The Aggies also filled their mental needs — regaining their perch atop the recruiting fields and their swagger that was lost when a sub-par recruiting year and football season tainted 1996.

Most recruiting experts ranked the Aggies' class in the top 15 nationally, and had A&M been able to hold onto a few recruits on Feb. 5, many believed the Aggies were headed toward a top-10 class in 1997.

The Aggies signed 13 players off of the Houston Chronicle's state Top 100 list, with Texas signing 14. Last year, the Aggies landed just six from the Chronicle Top 100.

But as subjective as recruiting experts and rankings can be, the A&M coaches reached for tangibles from this class: Good athletes with good academics equal the possibility for success down the road.

"When you actually sign a young man to a scholarship, that is a big, big bet on our part that this young man will develop into a player," coach R.C. Slocum said. "We all know, and it has been pointed out recently in several newspaper accounts, that many of these Signing Day wonders sometimes don't turn out to be future great college players. We're obviously pleased with these players or we wouldn't have offered them a scholarship."

The Aggies signed 22 players this recruiting season, with one of those players — junior college defensive back Eric Jennings — already enrolled for the spring semester. Jennings' scholarship will count against last year's total, giving the Aggies two scholarships still left over in 1997.

Those two scholarships could have been filled by receiver Robert Williams of Dallas Bishop Lynch or junior college defensive back Brandon Harrison. Both were national recruits who signed with Miami and Nebraska, respectively, at the 11th hour. A&M also lost out on mammoth offensive/defensive lineman Leonard Davis of Wortham. Davis had been an A&M follower for years, but opted surprisingly to sign with Texas.

Williams, who had committed to the Aggies publicly in a Dallas Morning News diary a week before Signing Day, was a big loss, considering he could have made an immediate impact with a thin receiving corps on campus.

"I was disappointed we didn't do better in the receiver area," Slocum said. "That was an area we also needed help. I would have liked to have more numbers at that position. And we could have used maybe another coverage corner or two."

But for all of the players who got away — and it happens every year to every school — there were too many solid prospects on the A&M list to second-guess the class.

Leading the way was the state's top linebacker and No. 2 prospect in the state, La Marque linebacker Roylin Bradley. The 6-2, 222-pounder was a dominant force on a dominant state championship team.

Bradley — who is comparable to the state's most talked about recruit, Tyler John Tyler's David Warren — will play rush linebacker on the Wrecking Crew.

"He's a guy in the mold of Antonio Armstrong, Aaron Wallace and Marcus Buckley," Slocum said. "That's what we recruited him to play."

Bradley capped off a typical A&M defensive class, complete with big-name linebackers and cat-quick defensive linemen.

Included in the seven defensive linemen the Aggies signed were Baytown Sterling interior lineman Robert Bernard and Klein Forest's Ronald Edwards.

The Austin-based National Recruiting Advisor listed Bernard as the state's top nose guard in the state and a prep All-America selection, with Edwards tabbed as the state's No. 2 defensive rush end.

Slocum is hoping those two players or any of the other five defensive linemen can step in immediately and help a depleted unit maintain A&M standards up front.

"I told our (coaches) we need to go through spring and get a good feeling of where we were with the players we have here," Slocum said. "A number of these (signees) will play for us next fall, and some of them could perhaps start for us. And I'm not opposed to that at all. Sam Adams started for us a true freshman and helped us be a better team that year. I'm counting on several of these guys playing for us. Somebody's going to be in the two-deep just by showing up."

Defensive back was the next pressing need for the Aggies, and although A&M signed six a year ago, Slocum hauled in six more in '97. Defensive backs are hard to come by, and they are an invaluable part of a team, often comprising many of the special teams as well as the secondary.

A&M preaches a family atmosphere, and the signing of 6-2, 205-pound safety Jason Glenn was a prime example. Jason Glenn is the brother of Aaron Glenn, the Aggies' All-America coverage corner in 1992-93. Bryan's Joel Bryan, whose namesake obviously means a lot in this area, also realized his dream of playing at Kyle Field and signed with the Aggies as a defensive back.

The Aggies also finally brought in Jennings, who missed playing for the Aggies last fall after he received a D in a summer course at Mount San Antonio College in California. Jennings graduated and enrolled at A&M in January. Jennings could give A&M immediate help at one cornerback spot vacated by the departed Donovan Greer.

While Bradley headlined the linebacking class, big-time players abound with North Mesquite's Christian Rodriguez, Houston Smiley's Amon Simon and Dallas Lincoln's Harold Robertson. This wasn't the "Fab Five" linebacking class of 1994, but the "Fantastic Four" has a fitting ring to this group.

Offensively, the Aggies signed just five players as obvious needs were prevalent only at the wide receiver position.

A&M signed just one true receiver - Irving speedster Antoine Gandy - although Madisonville athlete Chris Taylor could play the position as well. Taylor was projected on Feb. 5 as a defensive back for the Aggies.

"I don't know where he's going to play, and I told him that," Slocum said of Taylor. "Here's a guy who is obviously a good athlete; he's a good person; he has excellent speed; he's a good student. You're just throwing darts anyway, so I'm going to throw darts at him."

A&M then cherry-picked for a quarterback and running back and landed plums in the process.

Columbus quarterback Matt Schobel, considered one of the state's top players at the position, brings a cannon arm and good running ability to the Aggie roster. Schobel is 6-4, 220 pounds and runs a 4.6 40-yard dash. A SuperPrep All-American, Schobel passed for 1,134 yards and rushed for 1,568 yards as a senior at Class 3A Columbus.

Burnest Rhodes at tailback rushed for more than 2,000 yards as a senior and had a career-high 378 yards in a game with McKinney this past fall.

While Davis would have given A&M a premier offensive linemen, the Aggies signed two quality players in Seth McKinney of Austin Westlake and Moses Vakalahi of Euless Trinity. Both players had strong ties to A&M, with McKinney being the brother of senior offensive lineman Steve McKinney, and Vakalahi being the cousin of sophomore guard Semisi Heimuli.

Slocum was especially pleased with what he called a very confident group of players who weren't fazed by rival recruiters hammering away at them for signing with the Aggies.

"These guys had good confidence levels in themselves," Slocum added. "You didn't see a bunch of scrambling early. Every school that recruited against us tried to tell every one of these defensive linemen, 'They've got all these guys. You could play quicker for us.'

"I think it's significant that these guys said, 'I don't care. I feel good about myself and my abilities.' Dante Hall, that's why he's a good player and will be a great player. He knew we had running backs here but he didn't care. He believed in Dante. He's competing with good players, and he will be much better for that."

Now it will be up to the Class of '97 to adjust to life in college and live up to the Signing Day rankings and expectations. If history is any indication, about half of the Aggies' 22 signees will make major contributions to the program.

"We're betting they can come in and make the transition from the environment they've been in — their high school program, with their parents and their hometown — taking them from there and moving them to College Station to big-time football," Slocum said. "There's bigger academic pressures and bigger athletic pressures. And being away from the parental situation, there's probably more social pressures."

And there was pressure on Slocum, Director of Football Operations Tim Cassidy and the rest of the A&M coaching staff to produce a solid recruiting class coming off a 6-6 year. Just by glancing at the teams listed ahead of the Aggies in SuperPrep's national rankings, A&M fared especially well against teams with sparkling records and bowl memories from 1996.

"We feel very good about it," Cassidy said. "There were some guys we would have liked to have gotten at the end. But when you're recruiting against some of the best schools in the country, you're going to lose some kids from time to time. I don't want to take anything away from the guys we have signed."