SEC making dent in Texas recruiting

Conventional wisdom - conventional doom and gloom might be a better description - four years ago declared that Texas A&M joining the Southeastern Conference was akin to letting the SEC foxes into the henhouse that is Texas high school football, one of the nation's most fertile recruiting strongholds.

And, in fact, the Sabine River has proved to be a porous boundary between Texas and pre-2012 SEC country. Not including Texas A&M, the 13 non-Texas SEC football rosters in 2015 included 81 former Texas high school players, almost enough to field a team on their own.

Since 2011, the year in which the redshirt seniors of 2015-16 entered college and one year before the Aggies' SEC debut, the 13 non-Texas SEC schools have signed 79 Texas high school and junior college players. Another two dozen played for SEC schools as walk-ons.

A few have made a considerable impact - among them Alabama defensive lineman A'Shawn Robinson of Fort Worth, an All-America defender for the 2015 national champions. However, only one Texas player at an SEC school other than A&M among the post-2011 group has been selected in the NFL Draft, and only three have made an all-SEC squad.

"It's been a cascading effect, where a kid is choosing between two or three schools (including an SEC school)," said Bobby Burton of 247Sports.com, the longtime Texas recruiting observer. "The floodgates haven't opened, but it's made a dent in things."

Trending upward

As is generally the case in recruiting, SEC schools have won some, lost some, by recruiting Texas. Twenty of the 79 who signed letters of intent or transferred from junior colleges since 2011 have started at least one season. Twenty-one either transferred or were academic casualties.

The trend, however, is pointing upward for the SEC. Of 17 Texas high school recruits who signed in February 2015, nine lettered as true freshmen. And the 13 non-Texas SEC schools this year are on track to sign the most players from Texas since 2009.

Among 18 commitments as of mid-January are two players from local powerhouse Manvel, running back D'Vaughn Pennamon (Mississippi) and quarterback Kyle Trask (Florida), North Shore safety Eric Moore (LSU) and two from perennial contender Allen, offensive lineman Gregory Little and defensive back Jalon Jones (both to Ole Miss). Channelview quarterback Jalen Hurts enrolled early at Alabama and even ran the scout team in the Crimson Tide's preparation for the national title game against Clemson.

"The SEC has the best competition and some of the best athletes," Pennamon said. "I was talking to some of the guys at an all-star game and they were saying, 'Man, you're in the SEC. That's big time.' It's rare to get an SEC offer. It's a big deal."

Manvel safety Deontay Anderson, Elsik linebacker Dontavious Jackson and Katy running back Kyle Porter are among the remaining top area players considering SEC schools that have yet to commit.

SEC recruiting trends in Texas are not unlike that for the state as a whole. All but a handful hail from the Houston or Dallas-Fort Worth markets. Only a dozen were recruited from outside the DFW-Houston-San Antonio triangle, and none hail from west of the Interstate 35 corridor.

More than 40 percent of Texas recruits to the 13 non-Texas SEC schools were wide receivers or defensive backs. Only five were offensive linemen, which may reflect the more run-oriented offenses in the SEC as opposed to the spread concepts that dominate Texas high school football.

LSU and Arkansas, of course, have been recruiting Texas heavily for years, and Missouri made inroads into the state during its Big 12 era. Since the Aggies joined the SEC, however, Mississippi and Mississippi State in particular have increased their presence in Texas, and Alabama has focused more on Texas during the Nick Saban era.

Increasing presence

Tom Westerberg, who as coach at Allen sent four players to SEC schools before recently becoming coach and athletic director at Barbers Hill, said the SEC schools now recruit a larger slide of Texas talent.

"Before, they would come in for just the very top national people and not full time per se," Westerberg said. "Ole Miss increased their presence, and others did, too, and it's had an impact. The lure of the SEC really grabs some guys."

LSU, Burton said, also has capitalized on family ties by recruiting several Texas players whose families moved a decade ago to Texas in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Among that group was defensive back Jalen Mills, whose family moved to DeSoto after Katrina but just finished up his career with the Tigers as an All-America defensive back.

Just as recruits are subject to being swayed by the added attention, so are coaches, as witnessed by star-struck Manvel coach Kirk Martin.

"Nick Saban was in my office last week for one of my players," he said. "I've gotten to meet a lot of heavy hitters. It's been fun."

The groundwork, of course, is done by the heavy hitters' assistant coaches, and a lot of them are familiar faces, too. Almost every SEC staff that recruits Texas has at least one assistant coach or staff member with ties to the state.

Alabama assistant coach Bo Davis was an assistant at North Shore in the late 1990s and early 2000s. LSU and Arkansas each have four assistants with Texas ties (former Orangefield quarterback Bradley Dale Peveto, whose father, Ed, was a longtime Texas high school coach, is at LSU, and Arkansas has two former University of Houston staff members, Vernon Hargreaves and Clay Jennings, and former Rice assistant Michael Smith).

Missouri's staff includes former Arlington and Oklahoma quarterback Joe Jon Finley, and Kevin Barbay, the nephew of former Newton coach Curtis Barbay, is a staff member at Florida.

Recruiting hype, of course, gives way to reality, and the reality of college athletics is that some student-athletes who head out of state not only will fail to make the grade on the field but will run into issues off the field as well. A handful of Texas players were kicked off SEC rosters because of team violations, and at least four have faced legal issues at their current school or after transferring.

Lost opportunities

Even a miss, however, can put a school in line for future success, said Randy Rodgers, the former University of Texas recruiting coordinator who works as a consultant and selects the annual Super Team for Dave Campbell's Texas Football.

"You have to get the first guy before you get the second and third," Rodgers said. "Now the buzz is out there. Even if you get a couple of so-so guys, that can put you in position to get a great one."

Even though many Texans in the SEC have yet to make a substantial impact, the fact remains that their presence frequently represents an opportunity lost for a Texas school in the Big 12 or another Football Bowl Subdivision league.

"Could Maurice Smith (a defensive back at Alabama from Fort Bend Dulles who was a reserve this year for the Crimson Tide) have started for Texas? Probably," Burton said.

"The fact is that the SEC West, with the exception of Auburn, is all recruiting Texas. Their profile is higher and their visibility is higher. Whether that translates into getting more top-flight recruits remains to be seen."