Aggie Football Signing Day Press Conference
Feb 03, 2010 | Football
Feb. 3, 2010
2010 Signing Class and Bios (PDF)
Press Conference Video
College Station, TX - Head Coach Mike Sherman met with the media today to speak about the Aggie Football 2010 recruiting class. Signees and their bios are available on the Signing Day website by clicking here.
Audio from today's press conference is available below.
Opening statements...
"I'm excited to get to this point today. I think we took a huge step in our program with the signees we have in this class. This is really a happy day for me. I've always said that you can win games with talent and you can win games with character, but you win championships with talent and character. I really feel like this is that type of group, the type of group that has both of those qualities, plus a strong desire to help A&M win championships. We've recruited players who want to graduate from Texas A&M. We've recruited players who came here for all the right reasons. They know what it means to be an Aggie. They're excited about that. They're out of winning programs and they want to build something special. I've had an opportunity to be in the homes of these recruits and see how they grew up and what motivates them and the important people in their lives. It really has been an education for me. There are some great coaches out there, but there are some great parents out there doing some wonderful things and fortunately we are able to get those guys to come here to Texas A&M and be a part of our football team.
"Overall, when you break down our class, we recruited 11 linemen, and that was very important to me. Of these linemen, they are all long players, have great length, big hands...kind of what I'm looking for. The offensive line, their GPAs and SAT scores are off the charts. So we have smart, tough guys on the offensive line, as well as the defensive line. I think in order to win a championship you have to good up front on both sides of the ball. That was an area we really had to address in this recruiting class, and I feel like we did. Some of these guys will be forced into playing right away. With the plan we have for them in place, where today they get a workout schedule from us which is followed up every seven to 10 days by conversation with Coach (Dave) Kennedy, our strength and conditioning coach. We start taking the steps that allow these players to develop even before they get here. Then we get them here in the summer time, and summer school, and off-season workouts, and that just continues their development. Every one of these players has come here because we have a very specific plan for them for their success and it's our job to make sure they get there.
"From the skill positions, we were able to attack just about every position that we needed to. We got kids who are playmakers, kids who are tough, and kids who are very competitive. I'm excited about that group as well. The quarterback position, obviously with Jerrod Johnson and Ryan Tannehill moving up in the ranks, was important for us. We were able to find three guys who will compete at that this spring. They'll get a lot of reps. They are here in school right now as well as one of our offensive line recruits. We also have a recruit that we can't talk about that's committed as a junior. He also is able to come in a year from now and enter into our program in January and be part of our offensive line. To say the least I'm very excited about the process and how we got to this point. I'm excited about the results, and that's the players who have decided to become Aggies."
Almost all of your defensive recruits were committed before (new defensive coordinator) Tim DeRuyter got the job. Could you talk about the defensive recruits as a whole and how they fit into the new philosophy and scheme?
"The type of players that I want to be able to recruit on all sides of the ball, but they really play out on defense, I want real lanky players who are able to get on or off blocks without hesitation. I think we were able to do that. We've increased the speed. Last year, I didn't feel that when we took the field we were speed deficient. You can always get faster. I thought we needed to mature more physically last year. This group comes in and they all can run, and all can add to that type of defense that we so want to play here at Texas A&M--a fast, aggressive type defense. I believe the players we recruited fit the style of defense that we're about to undertake."
Discuss your philosophy with the running backs you've recruited. It seems this class is more of a power class, did you see that as a weakness in 2009 in short-yardage situations?
"I didn't see a weakness necessarily. Our guys were very physical. I'm very proud of the running backs who are here and how they competed, and how they developed during the course of the season. But I did want to address the fact that we wanted to get some big guys to be able to run between the tackles, which I think is so important to be able to do that. Not to say the guys we have can't, they can. But I believe this group has the speed to get outside and also play between the tackles. It's such an important position for me, running backs, because of the durability factor. We were fortunate this year that we were fairly healthy throughout the course of season. But I was holding my breath throughout the season that we could maintain our health in spite of the fact that these guys were being tackled on a regular basis, sometimes in practice and also in games. These guys add to that mix. In order to win championships I said you need talent, you need character and you need to be good up front, but you've got to run the dang ball. You have to be able to do that as well as play great defense. I think the guys coming in can help us in that regard."
You thought you had 25 guys before the morning started. With the two scholarships now open will you use those last two?
"Well, I think that's where you get in trouble. I think what happens sometimes, you go out, and you're so impatient and you feel like you have to fill up. We have a midterm commit that we can put on with that scholarship. We looked at a bunch of guys yesterday in anticipation of that, and almost made the move, but I said, no, I wanted to go after guys that I've really researched, that have been on our campus, that know what we're about and we know what they are about. I think you have a tendency to make a mistake at this time in recruiting to try to fill up that way. We've got plenty of areas, we can bump guys forward and push guys back, and because we're getting a fair amount of midterm guys that scholarship falls into there. Plus, our numbers going into next season aren't very high anyways. With 65 percent of our team being this class and our freshman class from last year, we don't have a lot of scholarships next year. So I don't feel a need to go give one away. I'd rather research a guy and get a guy that I feel really comfortable with to be a part of our program, where we'd be a good fit for him and he'd be a good fit for us."
It seems like this offensive line class is pretty star-studded. How does it mix in with what you brought in last year and how quickly do you think this will be a strength of your football team?
"Offensive linemen normally take a natural maturation period. But the guys we have coming in have the strength and the size and they are pretty good athletes. Now to learn the system, that's going to hopefully occur. We send them video tapes and we send them plays. We start the process of them learning our offense previous to them even getting here, so they have familiarity with the tapes we send--if they apply themselves. And this group I believe is going to do that. It's a very interesting group of offensive linemen. They're very intelligent and very motivated. They have great size and athletic ability. I envision three out of the five being a factor for us this upcoming season. I know that's putting a lot of pressure on these guys, but they're very highly recruited men. A lot of people around the country wanted these young men--as did we, and we were fortunate enough to get them. We're really going to push the envelope with them. I think they have the size, strength and speed to play, it's just the knowledge. And that's coaching. That's us. We've got to get that done and get them on the field. But they are a big part of what we want to get done. I feel like in my times at A&M previously, and then coming in here, I feel like this is as good a group as we've been around. Now what the future holds is in our hands as coaches and theirs as players. But at this point they're as good a group as I've been around. I always look at them like I looked at players as a general manager, at what their future holds. I think they have a very long future as offensive linemen if they stay healthy and develop the way I see them developing."
One of those offensive linemen, Luke Joeckel, is on campus now. Can you touch on that and how he's going to benefit from going through spring ball?
"Without a doubt he's going to be a little bit ahead from a knowledge standpoint. But I want to make sure that the guys that aren't here, who didn't have the availability to come, are going to be educated as such. We're certainly going to have a good feel about Luke after this spring ball and throughout spring ball. As I told him he's going to have some good days and some bad days but every day he's going to work hard, and handle the adversity, and handle the success. Any freshman that comes in, particularly at this time of year, is going to be faced with challenges. You've got academic challenges. You've got athletic challenges--our offseason program is as hard a thing as he'll ever do. There's a lot of mornings he's going to wake up and wonder if he made the right decision. As long as he stays in there with us--which he will, he's a great kid. He's very smart, he's a very athletic guy. We have a lot of expectations for him and I think we'll meet those expectations sooner, because he has been here and will have been here this spring. I'm very excited about Luke."
Talk about Damontre Moore...I get the feeling you guys are excited about his addition today...
I am. He's one of a number of guys that we jumped on early as we watched the tape...and with all due respect to our recruiting experts in the room, we don't pay a whole lot of attention to their ratings and where they are. There are a number of times they can be a 3-star player that we see as a 5-star player, or some people may see a 5-star player that we see as a three. So we really don't pay a whole lot of attention to that stuff. The bottom line to me is how do they play the game of football. We really do due diligence and watch the tape. With Damontre, he played middle linebacker his junior year. He was a basketball player, and he moved on to the football field in his second or third year in high school. They put him at middle linebacker and he really didn't play much. He didn't even start as a junior, and we offered him a scholarship. But what I did was I saw a number of times he'd line up and chase and run to the football with a great passion. I said, `Okay, we can coach this guy up. He's kind of a diamond in the rough.' I really believe that he, as well as some other players that we have in that category, that may not be premier Parade all-American type players, that we feel here at A&M if we do 5-star coaching they can be 5-star players. We're real excited about him."
In moving to the 3-4, do you think you have enough linebackers on campus now and can you talk about the disappointment of having just one linebacker in this class?
"Well, I'm not disappointed about anything with this recruiting class. They have me very excited. We have a number of options at linebacker. We redshirted some linebackers last year that are going to be a factor for us this year. We have numbers at the linebacker position and we have quality at the linebacker position. I think this system is going to allow those guys to advance even faster. There are some guys in recruiting that may be recruited as defensive ends that may end up playing an outside linebacker position in this scheme. When we get them in offseason and get a chance to work with them, it's going to be exciting to try and find the right spots for these guys. I don't feel like we're deficient in that area in any shape or form."
You've already got two good backs and you've recruited three more, is there a chance any of those could play the slot or maybe even receiver?
"I think with running backs, when you recruit running backs, you want to recruit a guy that can run, has toughness, and competes. If we feel like we've overloaded that position, maybe there's an opportunity down the road that one of these guys will agree or see the light that maybe he is a linebacker. Maybe he is a safety. That's certainly a possibility. If we have guys stacked up, obviously that's a possibility."
How does the speed and athleticism of last year's class and this year's class add into your special teams? Every highlight we've seen, it seems like you'd be excited to have LeKendrick Williams have the ball in his hands...
"Speaking on LeKendrick first, he's a guy that was one of early offers and early commitments that we had. We specifically wanted someone that could add to our return game. Whether he plays corner or a receiver position, he's definitely going to be on that first day of practice back there catching punts and kickoffs. He's a very explosive player. Primarily that's what I recruited him for, that specific job, because we certainly have to be better in those areas. He can help with that. As far as the guys coming in, I think the biggest challenge you have--and I know Coach Doll had that challenge last year with all those freshmen--is trying to get them into the nuances of special teams. A lot of them haven't spent the time on it in high school to the level that we do here, and see the complexities of scheme that we face here. So it is important to get this group educated in terms of special teams, and we are planning on doing that very early once they get here."
Can you talk a bit about your defensive linemen and where you see them fitting in to the 3-4 defense?
"Well, I don't want to pin-point anybody just yet. I don't want to lock anybody in to any specific position just yet. The thing about the 3-4, and in this conference in particular--I felt this when I first got here. When I hired Reggie (Herring), this is where we were going, and then I lost Reggie to the Dallas Cowboys, who obviously play a 3-4. I had to hire the best coach I could, and that was Joe Kines. Joe did a phenomenal job for me in the two years he was here. But I feel like you match up better in this conference in the 3-4. I also think you can recruit to this front a lot easier in this state. But you don't have to be like in the National Football League, where you have to have three big guys because of the power run game that occurs, and the double teams on those five techniques. We don't get that necessarily a lot. You get a little bit from Kansas State and you're going to get some from Nebraska, but we don't get a really strong dose of power football. So the length is more important than the actual size and weight those guys have who play those defensive end positions. I think on campus right now we have some very natural nose guards. I think Eddie Brown will be a great nose guard. I think he'll really thrive in this system. And the guys who we've recruited who are longer guys, who are going to be 260, 265, 270, can play that defensive end position and thrive. The biggest thing about it is play your gap, use your hands and get off the blocks. All these guys have great length which I think is very, very important. So without pin-pointing guys in specific spots, I feel very good about this group particularly from the defensive end standpoint. I think we have natural nose guards on campus right now.
Talk about your recruiting philosophy to go to Louisiana? How important is it to go in and get some Aggie roots into what seems to be LSU-run territory?
"It's very important. When I took this job, as I looked around I saw areas that we could do better in recruiting. One was in the Metroplex, and in two years we've taken 13 players out of the Metroplex. Certainly playing Arkansas there every year is just going to contribute to that. We also felt that Louisiana is a big state, per capita they have more players in the NFL than any state in the country. They have a lot of good football players there, in little country towns and on the bayous of Louisiana. I took my Yankee coach (offensive line coach) Jimmy Turner...there's not a big difference in accents between a coon ass and a Yankee (laughter), once you get down in there. So he speaks their language really well and did a real nice job. (Running backs coach) Randy Jordan, he's a Baptist, and we keep him up there in the Baptist belt (laughter) up there in Shreveport and northern Louisiana. He's done a phenomenal job at those high schools and developing relationships. Over the last couple of years we've been able to get about six guys out of Louisiana, all good kids, all good character, all family kids. These kinds from Louisiana really come from a good family structure, as do the kids from Texas. We're excited about the ability to go into that state and get some pretty good players out of there. We're going to continue that. Obviously LSU is an attractive pull in-state. There's a lot of forces working against you when you cross that line, because LSU is very strong and a great program. But there are enough players in that state that we can go in there and help enhance our Texas recruits with kids from Louisiana."
Talk about the ability to get Jonathan Mathis out of Blinn College, a kind of local kid and one who's won a championship...
"Jonathan Mathis is a very interesting recruit for us. He comes in with the ability to play a lot of different positions. He can play nose or defensive end. He has great length. He's a very tough, physical player. Coach (Brad) Franchione runs a great program down there, and he is very disciplined coming out of junior college. We're very excited to get him. I think he'll contribute significantly to our defense, almost immediately. I think he'll come in here ready to go. We're excited about Jonathan."
You talked about LeKendrick Williams, but you also have another player listed as an athlete in Nehemiah Hicks. What do you think of him starting out?
"That's a great question because at this point there's a debate to whether he's a tight end or a defensive end. He's been recruited I believe by different universities as both. That's going to be a challenge we are going to have to face once we get him up here and see him, and see how he learns. We'll put him on both sides of the ball we'll try to get him in a spot that will best enhance him. The position that he can play the best we'll put him in. He's agreeable to do either/or. I know the defensive coaches are a little bit concerned that with my offensive background he may just end up on the offensive side of the ball as a tight end. We'll try to get him in the best spot."
Talk about the emotional rollercoaster of the last 24 hours...does that just come with the territory in recruiting?
"Well, I think you have to understand something. When we are in the game we're in, the big thing about our recruiting efforts is that we're not recruiting against Timbuktu U. We're recruiting against some pretty dang good universities. It's very competitive. We're going to win some and we're going to lose some. The last 24 hours, obviously we've been on the phone working it pretty good, but that's the way it goes. I'd rather be in that arena, competing on a regular basis and identifying the right players, than getting someone who really wasn't a good fit for our offense or defense. It's the nature of the game. If you can't handle that you've got to get out of it. I'm very excited about the guys we have and that they fit what we do. This place is not a place for everybody. It's a very special place. When we recruit them we try to talk to them about being a football family. We talk to them about how what overlaps that is the Aggie family, that you have a chance to be taught in class by the best university professors in the world. There are so many great things here. Some guys opted that maybe that part isn't as important as something else, and if that's the case, then so be it. But I promise you, they won't get a better education anywhere than Texas A&M. If that part isn't important, and we sell that real strong as well as we sell the football side of building this program, then people are going to make their decisions and we move on and they move on. We don't lose sleep over that I promise you."
It looks like you may have a Jeff Fuller starter kit in Nate Askew...can you talk about his skills?
"I tell you, Nate is a heck of an athlete. He really surprised me. (Quarterbacks coach) Tom Rossley brought him to my attention a year ago and we watched him on tape. He comes out of a phenomenal program (San Antonio Madison) under Coach (Jim) Streety down there, one of the winningest coaches in the state of Texas. This kid is fast for a big guy. I think he runs a 10.7 or 10.8 100 meters, for someone that is probably going to end up coming here at 220 pounds. He has great length, he can jump, he's very competitive. And what a phenomenal personality he has. He's just a high-energy guy. We're excited about him. Certainly I see him as a guy that will be able to step in very early in his career and help us win football games. He'll be a great target down in the red zone. He uses his body really well, really torques his body well. He reminds me of a player I had in Green Bay named Javon Walker. I really have high hopes for Nate Askew."
Can you tell us what you saw in Mister Jones, taking him out of Littleton, Colorado?
"He's a big guy that can run fast. He runs hard and is physical. When we venture north like that, outside of Louisiana or Texas or a little bit in Oklahoma, there's usually an interest. Coach Doll has done a great job, having lived up there, of cultivating relationships with coaches. So he was able to get in there and do some ground work for us. It was profitable. He's a neat kid. I was out there visiting him a week or so ago. He's just a phenomenal kid, and so appreciative for the opportunity to come to Texas A&M. He says all the right things. He may be a young man from Colorado but this guy is as Aggie as I've ever talked to. He says and does all the right things. We're excited about Mister."
Can you discuss the primary attributes of what you're looking for out of a defensive back and how Toney Hurd fits in that mold?
"Toney Hurd obviously doesn't have the length or size that you're always looking for at that corner position, particularly with the guys that we go against in this conference. But what Toney Hurd has, more than any player that I've seen this year at that position, is a great understanding of the game. This guy talks on the phone fundamentally on how to play the corner position. He studies it. He studies the best corners in the NFL. This is a true student of the game. He's also a true student in the classroom, fourth in his class. But this guy studies the game of football. He has a great feel for things. He reminds me of a kid we had in Green Bay, but doesn't have his length, Al Harris. Al wasn't the fastest. This guy is fast, but Al Harris in Green Bay was a guy that just studied the game so much that his speed was not a factor. He knew what was happening before it happened. He had a feel for DBs and read quarterback's eyes and knew when to break on the ball. That's Toney Hurd. He doesn't have great length but he has great speed and he has toughness. He's not a little guy in relationship to his demeanor. He plays big. He kind of is the exception. As far as corners go, I always argue with (secondary coach) Chuck McMillian--he says he's 5-10, he's probably more like 5-8 1/2 or 5-9--he says he likes the little guys. Toney Hurd is that little guy that plays real big. We're excited about him."
When this day comes is it sort of a relief after dealing with the whims of 17- and 18-year-olds and getting to signing day?
"Well you know, we've been fortunate, in the last two years...we haven't won a championship and we haven't arrived to the position that we hope to arrive to and plan to arrive to. But we've been able to hang on to our commitments. I think we've lost three I think in two years. We've held on to them for a long time. We get into these kids in the very early part of it. We make decisions in a very timely fashion and we're very aggressive in making our decisions. I have an opportunity to see every player on tape, so I know when I go in that home where he is going to play, what he's going to do and what the plan is. And I think they like that. But as far as emotional levels? I'll be honest with you, I think it's gone pretty well. I think at the end, when you are competing against different teams, some guys get locked in and feel very comfortable, and other guys get a little hairy at the end. It's just the way it is. If you can't handle that part of it I don't think you can do this job. I think it's gone pretty well in the last couple of years in relationship to holding on to our guys. A lot of our guys have been recruited by big schools and we've been able to hold on to them."
When does the process start for the next round of recruiting?
"That's an ongoing process. We've already started. We talked about it this past summer in looking a year ahead. We have spent a lot of discussion over the last couple of days and we'll continue to do that. We've already offered a fair number of incoming recruits in the 2011 class. We feel very comfortable that we're ahead of the game there. We have one commitment out of that class. If we push it I think we could get a couple of more. I want to make sure that when a young man commits to Texas A&M he is committed. We don't do smoke and mirrors. We give them the meat and potatoes part of the deal. If they want smoke and mirrors they probably need to go somewhere else. But we feel like we've done our due diligence with next year's class. We've identified needs at each position and we're aggressively going through the tape and making our offers as they unfold. We have three more junior days coming up. We've already had two and have three more coming up. It's a pretty active part. Recruiting today, unlike before when I was with Coach Slocum, it's year round. We don't have many weekends off anymore. It's a year-round process because of the nature of it. This day years ago, you just find out what your team is. We for the most part kind of knew what our team was going to be like well before today, and such will be the case with the next class."
With three quarterbacks here as freshmen in the spring, how important is it for one of those guys to develop into a sturdy backup to give you more options in using Ryan Tannehill?
"It's huge obviously. And we wouldn't have recruited them if we didn't think they had the chance to do that. We feel very comfortable with our quarterbacks that are here right now. There are a little bit of eye-openers in relation to the workouts and the training and what not. I don't think they've ever quite understood what a big step this is. But they've handled it very well. They're all bright kids and should have success and opportunities this spring. As I told them and as I tell all the kids I've already referenced, there's going to be some days where you walk off that field and you're going to throw three picks and you're going to feel like you want to go home. There's other days where you'll throw three touchdowns and you want to leave and go to the NFL. What you need to do is just be constant. They know coming in that spring is going to be a challenge and they're going to have some bad days. That's just part of the business. I think part of going through that process will better prepare them for the upcoming season, and to experience that in the spring as opposed to the preseason and the season. But I do think with Tannehill a rising junior and Jerrod Johnson going to be a senior, we have some guys in the fold that can help lead Texas A&M in the future."
