A&M football team signs 19 recruits

Texas A&M head football coach Kevin Sumlin fine-tuned the recruiting class he inherited, beefing up the defensive line and making sure the players he signed were academically good enough for Texas A&M and physical enough to win in the Southeastern Conference.

Sumlin retained 11 of the players who had pledged to former head coach Mike Sherman and added eight since he was hired on Dec. 10 for a total of 19.

"The numbers were inflated by a number of those guys that were committed, and a number of them did not sign today," Sumlin said at Wednesday's press conference. "With the new SEC recruiting rules, you can only sign 25 guys. You can't oversign. The risk academically to get to that number was greater than the possible reward. We had to evaluate there and go out and still try to find more."

A&M added defensive lineman Edmond Ray from St. Louis late. Ray had been orally committed to Missouri. Sumlin was able to get Ray on campus for an official recruiting visit without the fan-based web sites learning about it, and the 6-foot-5, 290-pounder was among four defensive linemen A&M signed as it switches from a 3-4 defensive alignment to a 4-3 under new defensive coordinator Mark Snyder. A&M also signed New Orleans' Julien Obiola (6-4, 255), DeSoto's Michael Richardson (6-2, 230) and Euless Trinity's Polo Manukainiu (6-5, 255) for the defensive line.

"Big guys like that are hard to get," Sumlin said. "You either get junior college [players], or you grow your own. We have some guys in there with big size, and we're going to recruit defensive ends like that. For us it's an area of need and one we were successful in addressing."

Senior Spencer Nealy is the only defensive linemen returning with more than two career starts.

"Any time when you're building a championship team, you have to be strong and have some depth in the front," Sumlin said. "In a short period of time, I think we were able to answer some of those questions."

Manukainiu was another addition by Sumlin along with Mesquite Horn defensive back DeVante Harris, Southlake Carroll wide receiver Sabian Holmes, Dallas Skyline wide receiver Thomas Johnson, defensive back Tremaine Jacobs from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Carthage wide receiver/defensive back Edmond Pope and wide receiver Darel Walker, a junior college transfer who played at Hillsboro High. Walker is already enrolled at A&M along with Jacobs and Klein Forest quarterback Matt Davis.

Sumlin said Davis (6-2, 202) will compete with sophomores Matt Joeckel and Jameill Showers along with redshirt freshman Johnny Manziel to replace Ryan Tannehill at quarterback.

Sumlin said he recruited Joeckel, Showers and Manziel while he was at Houston to replace Case Keenum, but he didn't get any takers.

"They threw our mail away or didn't return our calls," Sumlin said with a laugh. "All of a sudden we got here and they answered the phone."

Dekaney running back Trey Williams was the group's highest ranked recruit. He also excels at kick returns.

"Trey is as good as advertised," Sumlin said. "He's not a very big guy but very quick, very elusive and surprisingly strong."

Williams rushed for 3,890 yards and 48 touchdowns as a senior, leading his team to a state championship.

"Trey is one of the best players in the history of Texas high school football statistically," Sumlin said. "He can be a 10- to 15-touch guy early in his career and maybe eventually get to 20, and they don't all have to be carries."

Sumlin refused to put a number on how many incoming freshmen would be ready to play for a program coming off a 7-6 season that is losing eight seniors who started.

"We wouldn't have signed them if we didn't think they can play here," Sumlin said. "We don't sign guys to redshirt. I've never gone into a home and said we're signing you so you can sit on the bench. We get guys in here that want to compete to play."

A&M's class ranked 14th in the country by rivals.com, which was fourth in the SEC behind No. 1 Alabama, No. 3 Florida and No. 11 Auburn. The Aggies were 17th by Scout.com which had current Big 12 rival Texas ranked No. 1 and five other SEC schools ahead of the Aggies -- No. 2 Alabama, No. 5 Florida, No. 12 South Carolina, No. 13 Georgia and No. 14 Auburn.

Not all late news was good.

A&M lost out Wednesday on Hightower quarterback Bralon Addison, who signed with Oregon. He orally committed to Oklahoma State but changed to A&M in May. Addison said Oregon's broadcast journalism department was a factor in his decision.

Sumlin's tweaking of the recruiting class is the same thing Sherman did in 2007 when he replaced Dennis Franchione, adding seven players to a Top 20 class that included defensive tackle Eddie Brown, cornerbacks Terrence Frederick and Trent Hunter, running back Cyrus Gray and wide receiver Jeff Fuller -- a group that combined for 192 career starts.