Spring Break
Signing Day Recap
Aggies ups and downs at football signing day
By: Eric Pedersen
Issue date: 2/7/08 Section: Sports
When new A&M Head Coach Mike Sherman took over the reigns from Dennis Franchione in November, Franchione left him a formidable recruiting class to keep in tact. And all things considered, Sherman did a satisfactory job.
Consider the two things that generally happen to a school that makes a coaching change.
One is the attempted recruit hijackings by rival coaches. They flock to the program's top prospects like vultures around road kill. The Aggies had several commitments get pampered by the likes of Oklahoma Head Coach Bob Stoops, Notre Dame Head Coach Charlie Weis and Texas Head Coach Mack Brown.
Some were more successful than others.
Stoops came in and grabbed Gilmer wide receiver Lamar Harris, who had been flirting with OU from the get go. Weis won a battle over Kapron Lewis-Moore, a defensive end from Weatherford.
But back-to-back victories against Texas seem to be paying dividends already, because Brown wasn't able to steal any Aggie commits after Sherman arrived. He made offers to Lewis-Moore, DeSoto defensive end Tony Jerod and Eisenhower defensive tackle Rod Davis in the final two months of the recruiting season, only to be rejected.
The more positive aspect of a coaching change, however, is the new coach's ability to lure recruits that would have otherwise gone elsewhere. That's where Sherman made his mark.
The top two recruits in the class, McKinney wide receiver Jeff Fuller and DeSoto running back Cyrus Gray, were both enticed to come to A&M by the new coach. It's likely that neither would have come had Franchione still been in charge.
And that's especially true in Fuller's case.
Fuller comes from an A&M legacy. His father was a defensive back for the Aggies in the early 1980's and played in the Pro Bowl as a member of the San Francisco 49ers.
But as much as he wanted to go to A&M like his father, the younger Fuller's potential would not have been utilized in Franchione's spread option attack. Thus he committed to Oklahoma at the time. But as soon as Sherman arrived in and preached his Pro-Style attack, Fuller de-committed from Oklahoma and pledged his services to A&M.
Consider the two things that generally happen to a school that makes a coaching change.
One is the attempted recruit hijackings by rival coaches. They flock to the program's top prospects like vultures around road kill. The Aggies had several commitments get pampered by the likes of Oklahoma Head Coach Bob Stoops, Notre Dame Head Coach Charlie Weis and Texas Head Coach Mack Brown.
Some were more successful than others.
Stoops came in and grabbed Gilmer wide receiver Lamar Harris, who had been flirting with OU from the get go. Weis won a battle over Kapron Lewis-Moore, a defensive end from Weatherford.
But back-to-back victories against Texas seem to be paying dividends already, because Brown wasn't able to steal any Aggie commits after Sherman arrived. He made offers to Lewis-Moore, DeSoto defensive end Tony Jerod and Eisenhower defensive tackle Rod Davis in the final two months of the recruiting season, only to be rejected.
The more positive aspect of a coaching change, however, is the new coach's ability to lure recruits that would have otherwise gone elsewhere. That's where Sherman made his mark.
The top two recruits in the class, McKinney wide receiver Jeff Fuller and DeSoto running back Cyrus Gray, were both enticed to come to A&M by the new coach. It's likely that neither would have come had Franchione still been in charge.
And that's especially true in Fuller's case.
Fuller comes from an A&M legacy. His father was a defensive back for the Aggies in the early 1980's and played in the Pro Bowl as a member of the San Francisco 49ers.
But as much as he wanted to go to A&M like his father, the younger Fuller's potential would not have been utilized in Franchione's spread option attack. Thus he committed to Oklahoma at the time. But as soon as Sherman arrived in and preached his Pro-Style attack, Fuller de-committed from Oklahoma and pledged his services to A&M.
Be sure to include your name, major, and class year. Submissions without this information are subject to deletion.
By submitting a comment, you agree to thebatt.com's Terms of Use.
You may also send a Mail Call to The Battalion at mailcall@thebatt.com