Ick’s Corner

Here’s an early round trivia question:  What state is home to the best high school football in the country?  Florida?  Ohio?  California?  All also-rans after Texas.  This is no contest.   I’m writing this from Nashville, TN no bias here.

As with any state, there is a tug at the top.  Tech and TCU have had recent success but even in a state with 10 D1 programs, there are two schools that sit atop of the heap.  Texas and Texas A&M.  For those of you under the age of 20, here’s a very quick recap.  A&M used to go to bowl games and get recruits.  Facilities?  A&M is a showplace.  Fan support?  Longhorn home games are easier to get tickets to than a game at Kyle Field.  People all over the state have maroon cars with “Aggie” stickers on the bumper.  You know where you stand when recruiting in the Lone Star State when you walk up to the door of a kids house.  Unless your kid is in the basement doing lab experiments after football practice he’s not Rice or SMU bound.  That welcome mat in the past under the coach’s feet was usually burnt orange or maroon.  So what has happened to this program?  I had a conversation about this with SportsBean co-founder, JY over the weekend.  He pointed to the following from NFLblogs.com/combine.  He believes that it’s coaching.  I asked if it was having that bowling ball of a running back, Lane on the sidelines on goal line plays?  Sending this same running back around the end on short yardage plays?  Beating Army in overtime?  Yes.  All of that.  See below from the blog…

Stephen McGee.

Remember this name because he could be a real sleeper in next month’s draft:

Certainly the 17 NFL scouts and one coach who showed up at Texas A&M’s pro day will remember the quarterback and his workout. The Aggies held their pro day on Wednesday, but it actually began with meet-and-greets Tuesday night at Wings-n-More in College Station, where scouts had an opportunity to conduct personal player interviews as well as ask questions of the A&M coaching staff.

The only non-scout at the pro day was Jaguars quarterbacks coach Mike Shula, who put McGee through QB drills. And let me tell you, McGee looked outstanding.

McGee, who ran the second-fastest 40 among quarterbacks at the combine (4.66), measured 6-2 7/8 and weighed 222 pounds, down 3 from his combine weigh-in.

Watch out for this kid on draft day.

What?  When did this happen?  If he’s in Oklahoma, Kansas, Tech, or Texas’ backfield is he a sleeper?  Probably not.  A&M is broken and I don’t see a fix.  Texas A&M needs to be good for the Big XII.  They are were never an Oklahoma or Nebraska but the program Bear Bryant started is a shadow of what it once was.  What a shame for the Big XII.  With this crazed, willing to travel fan base and tradition.

A few more years of this and this state will see a permanent power shift to Austin and Lubbock and Texas A&M will be watching the rest of the conference play in bowl games every year from Buffalo Wild Wings with Baylor.