With a few days left until bowl games kick off, it is a relatively slow week in the world of college football. Well, except in College Station, TX, where Kevin Sumlin just put a new toy under the Christmas tree for Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Johnny Manziel.
That toy is Ricky Seals-Jones, the top high school wide receiver in the country who on Monday, announced via Twitter that he was taking his talents to College Station to play for Texas A&M.
The news was hardly surprising, although it was significant.
For Seals-Jones, the 6’5, 230 lb. monster receiver from Sealy, TX had long ago narrowed his college choice down to A&M and LSU, after electing to decommit from the Texas Longhorns in the spring. And given that Seals-Jones took three separate trips to College Station this season, it seemed like more a matter of “if” and not “when” he’d elect to give a verbal commitment to the Aggies.
Still, the news is significant none the less.
Even before Seals-Jones commitment Monday, and heck, even before the 2012 season even played out, Sumlin announced his arrival during the summer recruiting period, when he put together one of the most impressive early hauls of anyone in college football. Since August, virtually every service on the internet had Texas A&M with one of the Top 10 recruiting classes in the country.
Still, Seals-Jones commitment speaks volumes about who A&M is now, versus where they were back in August.
For the players who committed over the summer, they were choosing the Aggies based on a vision; a vision on what Sumlin might be able to do with time at Texas A&M. Take a great coach, a unique offense and all the high school talent in Texas, bring it to college football’s best conference, and maybe, just maybe in time they could compete with anyone in college football.
Only after four months, that time is now and nothing signifies that better than Seals-Jones’ commitment.
Who’s to say what Seals-Jones might’ve elected to do if A&M went, say 6-6 this year, but the simple truth is that we’ll never know that. Instead the Aggies took the college football world by storm, and won 10 games in 2012, including an upset of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. That vision that Sumlin was selling just six months ago, has now come to fruition. As I wrote six weeks ago, Texas A&M is an emerging college football super-power.
Add in the fact that Seals-Jones will now get to play with a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback for (very likely) the next three years of his college career and it’s clear why this choice was so easy for him.
Either way, it’s a huge day for A&M and a potential game-changer for college football.
For all his opinion, insight and analysis, please follow Aaron on Twitter @Aaron_Torres.
