It seems that tradition and family is important for Kyler Murray, the top ranked high school quarterback in the nation, committing to Texas A&M to be his College Football program, following in the footsteps of his father Kevin Murray, a two-time All-American during the mid 80’s, while his son rejected offers from Oregon and Auburn.
The success of the Aggies under Kevin Sumlin and the exposure through Johnny Manziel has certainly helped, just like the move to the SEC has. According to the ESPN recruiting rankings, they’ve improved their recruiting class each year by going from No. 15 in 2012 to No. 8 in 2014 and No. 4 this past year. They are now second behind Alabama in the class ranking for 2015, with a group that includes eight ESPN 300 prospects.
The Aggies have commitments from two of the state’s top three prospects in Murray and defensive tackle Daylon Mack. Texas’ top ranked defensive prospect for 2014, defensive end Myles Garrett, is also signed with them. They’re still in the mix for the top-ranked Texas prospect, cornerback Kendall Sheffield.
The Aggies had five players drafted in the 2013 NFL draft including offensive tackle Luke Joeckel being a second overall pick. Only three Aggies were selected in the 2014 NFL draft but all of them were taken in the first round: Jake Matthews, Mike Evans and Manziel.
With Manziel gone, there aren’t high expectations of the Aggies like they were last season, when many built on their wins over Oklahoma and Alabama to make them national title contenders. They were ranked in the top 3 by most heading into the 2013 season but disappointed, losing four times. With Manziel gone, most expect them to be in the top 15 but not a top 10 team (ESPN has them at 14), but things obviously don’t mean much at the moment, and due to their recruiting success we should see them a lot higher in the preseason polls before the 2015 season.
Obviously, things can always change heading into national signing day, with kids flipping their choices quite often when a better offer (hopefully a legal one) comes along. However, with Murray, who has been linked to the program his entire life and had a father who was a big star at the school, which makes it a lot more difficult to believe he’ll change his mind. It’s worth mentioning that other rankings services don’t have him as the number one quarterback.