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AggieYell Mailbag

Here's the AY Mailbag for the second week of March, 2019:

Q: Kyler to Arizona seems to be a popular possibility on draft day. Would Kliff look to Sumlin or any of the Ags on his team for input, and would you expect that input to be good or bad? (TAMU-83)

A: I doubt he would, and if he did it would be very negative.

Q: Whats Anthony Hines progress looking like? Do the coaches want him to put on more weight? (ChampKindKHOU11)

A: He’s supposedly progressing well, even though I wouldn’t be surprised if he was non-contact in the spring. As far as his weight, I think he’s fine.

Q: What's the deal with Hornsby and the "confusion" about whether he was committed to us or not? (Slixey)

A: He told some kids at the Clemson game he was going to and one individual decided to say that he had and it got around. Then he refused to say whether he had or not, so after a while we just decided silence means “no”.

Q: How big a threat are Mack/Brewster with respect to Hornsby? (tsip despiser)

A: right now, not much. But time can change things.

Q: Does Jimbo have a backup to Hornsby in case things go south (h273)

A: Yes, he has a couple of options.

Q: What grade (A-F) do you give Woodward as an AD for all sport at A$M, and why? How can he do better? (Big Smoothie)

A: I’m going to wait on grading him until after basketball season and we see what happens there.

Q: What position on offense and defense do we need to recruit well to feel confident in our depth as a team in 2020?

A: Linebacker, corner and offensive line.

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Anthony Hines looks like he'll be fully ready for summer at the latest.
Anthony Hines looks like he'll be fully ready for summer at the latest.

What's the deal with C. Richardson? He was a highly coveted 4 star back who was proven at UCF. It doesn't seem like he's getting much attention as a potential backup to Corbin; we're instead hearing a lot about V. Jackson. (oamj)

A: That almost comes across as a shot at Jackson, who’s pretty athletic in his own right. Richardson needs to fight his way through the depth chart, which may not be an easy task. We’ll see what happens this spring.

Q: Be honest: Will Johnny ever play in the NFL again? (BIMSAg02)

A: It may be a couple of years, but yes.

Q: Talk to us about position groups going into Spring ball...

1. Which position group has the most potential talent waiting in the wings?

2. Which group are you looking at to take the biggest step forward and be a strength in the Fall?

3. Which group do you feel that we will still not know much about after this Spring due to guys sitting out with injuries, or not on campus just yet, etc? (DXB19)

A: 1. Wideout

2. Wideout

3. Corner and safety.

Q: Give me 3 things needed for A&M to take the next step this year and win 10 games or more? (El Capullo)

A: 1. Better play in the secondary

2. More turnovers forced

3. Continued maturation and improvement by the offensive line and QB.

Q: After a 15 point loss to USC, I say Kennedy has to make the semi-final round of the SEC tournament to have a respectable chance of keeping his job. Is that too high or too low? (boone8466)

A: That might do it. But it may take more than that to save him.

Q: Will Brian Johnson ever see meaningful snaps on the field other than on special teams? (X-Ray Ag)

A: That gets a definite maybe. He's got tremendous speed, but he’s undersized as a linebacker, not agile enough to be a nickel and facing a ton of talented competition at safety.

A&M's receivers could be on the cusp of a breakout season.
A&M's receivers could be on the cusp of a breakout season.

Q: I was reviewing your pipeline going into spring. At CB, we have 2 seniors, 7 juniors, 1 sophomore, and 1 incoming freshman. This seems absurd. In two years, we will have 2 upperclassmen at most. I realize there are some issues with redshirting and juco transfers, but (1)how do we get out of this ridiculous pattern? It’s not just corner, look at LB. we recruit 1 and then 5. (2)Is this normal for high quality programs getting best available, or is this the difference of being good vs. great? It seems that consistency requires recruiting every position well every year...(3) doesn’t over signing one position this year to try to plug a hole from a previous year just create a problem for future classes? (elicrow)

A: It’s not that simple. Take a look at A&M’s offensive line recruiting from several years ago: Zach Ledwik and Trevor Elbert got hurt and retired. Players who could have helped before them, like Nate Gutekunst and J.J. Gustafson, also had to retire. Ish Wilson transferred to Baylor. So now you’re in a position where you have to oversign to refill a depth chart.

You’re also forgetting something major in your criticism: a change in coach and an approach. The last one’s approach began to fail consistently and now the new one has to fix that. Hopefully, A&M can have a couple of years with solid contributors who don’t get hurt that fill the holes that currently exist.

Q: Anyone can see Evans isn’t coming to A&M. McClellen is committed to OU. That leaves McGowan out of the big three in state. We hear almost nothing about his recruitment. Is he interested in us? Are we going to go all in for him? If so, why have we not heard anything about it? (agccatter123)

A: rather accusatory, aren’t we? Anyway, A&M isn’t out of it for Evans. Sorry about that. But the Aggies are not all in for McGowan and probably will not be at any point. They have a number of very good options they are in on, which you can see here. The Aggies have the ability to go out of state to get a back, and they just might do it.

Q: 1.Why has the staff not really shown interest(offered) in Haynes King from Longview?

A: Because they like other options better, it would appear.

2. I trust Jimbo, so I am not panicking or worried, just wondering your thoughts... Based off Henson's group of new offers when he got here, are they using his arrival as an opportunity to go after more tackles b/c they feel they need them or is Henson's "type" of guy different from Turner's? Do you think they want to take 4 or 5 OL?

A: I think it’s very possible that A&M makes a couple of changes based on the coaching change. They definitely need to get a couple of tackles, and they had four guards. They need two tackles at least, so that may require them to take five. I don’t think they will be placed in that position, though.

3. Seems like out of all the 2020 position groups, we have a large number of DBs showing legit interest (Slusher, McGlothern, J. Williams, Kimber, Eaton, throw Meredith, Thompson Jr & Snow in there too) with 2 already committed, how many more do you think they realistically take? Are there any in that group that you take no matter what, even at the expense of "taking a spot" from another position group?

A: I really don’t know how many more they’re going to take. It may be a tough task trying to narrow things down.

4. We haven't heard much about the recruitment of James Sylvester, is he still a target? If so , do you think he translates to a rush DE or possibly a LB at the college level? (Txawc31)

A: So far as I know, he’s still a target and an A&M lean. If he stays at his current size, he projects as an outside linebacker or a stand-up pass rusher. He’s about 40 pounds away from being an every down end.

Q: Fastest guys on the field this fall? (TAMU-83)

A: Define “on the field”. If special teams are included, Speedy Howard and Brian Johnson go to the top of the list.

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