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"I go back to what Charlie Strong said a recruit told him when he first hit the recruiting trail inside the state," Jeff Howe, Texas Insider for Horns247, said. "A recruit told him that they wouldn't consider Texas because guys who go to Texas don't get better. Right or wrong, that's the perception prospects in this state have of the Longhorn right now.
That quote shows that Texas needs to show on the football field before recruiting will really take off.
SEC invades the Lone Star State
In Bruce Feldman's recruiting opus "Meat Market," then-Ole Miss assistant Art Kehoe flew to Pittsburgh to try and land a tight end recruit.
When it didn't work out, Feldman quoted head coach Ed Orgeron growling "Planes don't fly north," at the beleaguered assistant.
The point? Don't leave the country's most fertile ground for talent — the southeast — if you can help it. But in recent years, planes have flown west in increasing numbers as SEC schools have begun pounding the pavement (and pounding down the barbecue) in the Lone Star State, expanding their search for the next big thing.
And in an area once locked down by the Longhorns, Texas A&M and SEC schools are finding as much success as they've ever had.
Once Texas's State To Lose

When Mack Brown took over the Texas job, he often alluded to putting all the BBs back in the box, a Darrell Royal-ism that certainly included winning back over the state's high school coaches who felt alienated at times under previous 'Horns boss John Mackovic. Not only did Brown find quick success, but he worked throughout his Texas career to make it lasting.
Take a look at years 2010-2012, which weren't exactly Brown's best seasons at Texas. Yet, over that time period, Brown landed 10 of the top 20 prospects according to the 247 Sports Composite in the 2010 class, eight of 20 in 2011 and another eight of 20 in 2012. How did that compare to rival Texas A&M? It was a Longhorn romp. Texas's 26 top 20 prospects over those three-years far out-paced Texas A&M's seven. And the SEC grabbed just two top-20 prospects over that three-year period, with Alabama landing DeAndrew White and Tennessee bringing in LaDarrell McNeil. Neither player had a Texas offer.
In 2010, Texas caught the top four players in the state. In both 2011 and 2012, the Longhorns made out with three of the state's top six prospects.
But in 2013, Texas A&M's first recruiting class after playing a year in the SEC, something changed. The Longhorns landed two of the top 13 prospects, and further, totally whiffed on a stacked defensive tackle class, missing out on Isaiah Golden and Justin Manning (Texas A&M), A'Shawn Robinson (Alabama) and Andrew Billings (Baylor).
The Robinson miss hurt more than the others. Not only was Robinson a rare talent who went on to lead the Crimson Tide in sacks as a true freshman, but he committed to Texas early on in the process and was a player the Longhorns desperately fought to keep from a Fort Worth area. The tide (pun intended) was changing.
Texas entered the 2014 class with a desperate need for impact players in the secondary, only to see the SEC take the top four defensive backs in Tony Brown (Alabama), Jamal Adams and Edward Paris (LSU) and Nick Harvey (Texas A&M). And Nos. 5 and 6 also left the state, albeit to head west, with Dylan Sumner-Gardner (Boise State) and Arrion Springs (Oregon) also eschewing Texas offers. This time, Texas landed just two of the top 15 prospects.
And though there are a number of uncommitted prospects in 2015, it's worth noting that both LSU (Maea Teuhema, No. 5) and Alabama (Deionte Thompson, No. 8) have commitments from higher-rated prospects than the top in-stater to pledge to the Longhorns (Toby Weathersby, No. 16).
"I go back to what Charlie Strong said a recruit told him when he first hit the recruiting trail inside the state," Jeff Howe, Texas Insider for Horns247, said. "A recruit told him that they wouldn't consider Texas because guys who go to Texas don't get better. Right or wrong, that's the perception prospects in this state have of the Longhorn right now.
"Texas A&M not only has a lot of momentum, but Baylor is also a much bigger deal now than the Bears were five or so years ago," Howe said. "Texas's slide along with the rise of others has made it harder for Strong and his staff to recruit the elite prospects in this state than some perceive."


Texas A&M Stands Up
Of course, the biggest reason for Texas's increasing struggles in-state have come from its primary in-state competition. But the reason for Texas A&M's success is somewhat of a chicken-and-the-egg argument. Was it the Aggies' placement in the SEC? A&M's hiring of Kevin Sumlin as head coach? Or could most be attributed to Johnny Manziel making A&M the hip in-state school to play for?
According to Cedar Hill (Texas) coach Joey McGuire, the answer is "all of the above."
"I think it's a little bit of all of it," McGuire said. "Coach Sumlin is the cool guy too. I think what Coach Brown had, where he just had that mojo, I think Sumlin is very similar in terms of how kids see him. And then, when you add that in with the SEC being the power conference that it is, and what Johnny Football has done for them, it's a perfect mix."
GigEm247's Taylor Hamm believes that the addition of Sumlin and the jump to the SEC was the perfect marriage of an outstanding recruiting coach with an excellent recruiting pitch.
"I think Texas A&M would have been successful with or without Johnny Manziel," Hamm said. "I think when you look at Kevin Sumlin and his staff's mentality in recruiting, and the effort that they put forth in recruiting, it's something that they lacked with Mike Sherman. Even though Sherman's evaluations obviously turned out to be pretty good with Johnny, Mike Evans, Luke Joeckel, Jake Matthews, Cedric Ogbuehi and guys like Deshazor Everett and Ben Malena, they weren't bringing in the headliners. Just getting a five star to return a phone call wasn't something that regularly happened."
That became a more common occurrence not just under Sumlin, but with special recruiters like David Beaty in the Dallas area and Clarence McKinney in Houston, Hamm said. And when they connect on the phone, the Texas A&M staff hasn't been shy about selling its spot in the SEC as a major advantage.
"That's probably their No. 1 pitch," Hamm said. "You listen to guys they're recruiting through the state, and they'll all mention it. I always refer to Daylon Mack, who's a five-star recruit. He grew up a Longhorn fan, and his dad's a big Longhorn fan. But he said he was sold with the coaching staff as well as the proximity to home and being able to stay in-state and play in what everybody's calling the best league in college football. That's a big pitch."
In 2013, Texas A&M tied Texas with five of the top 20 in-state prospects. And in 2014, A&M led that battle five to four, though A&M actually had a sixth player committed in Hoza Scott before Scott failed to qualify. This year, A&M's off to an even better start. Twelve of the top 20 are committed so far, and A&M has five of those players, and could lead for several others.
That's as many as the entire Big 12. As a league, the Big 12 has five of those 12 committed, with Weathersby headed to Texas, Oklahoma landing both Rodney Anderson (himself once an A&M commitment) and P.J. Mbanasor, Jarrett Stidham going to Texas Tech and Ronald Jones II committed to Oklahoma State.
The top two Texas prospects committed (Mack, No. 3; Kyler Murray, No. 4) have committed to play their college ball in College Station, and the top four commits and four of the top five commitments are committed to play for SEC schools.
"I really think it's mostly the culture change that Kevin Sumlin has been able to accomplish," Hamm said. "He's surrounded himself with a great staff. Not only have they been able to sell, but they've had things to sell. And the SEC had a ton to do with that."
The Aggies are also already making waves in 2016 with pledges from two of the top six Lone Star players in the 247 Sports Composite rankings, including the nation's No. 1 overall prospect in Allen offensive tackle Greg Little, who committed this past week.
A&M Helps Others
But how has the rest of the SEC been able to get in on the action? Alabama has landed the consensus top defensive back in the state two of the last three years in Maurice Smith (2013) and Tony Brown (2014). Alabama's 2015 commitment Deionte Thompson? Just the state's second-best defensive back.
Then there's LSU, which not only brought in two of the state's top three defensive backs in 2014s Adams and Paris, but also flipped Texas commitments Sione Teuhema and Trey Lealaimatafao, caught highly regarded wideout Tony Upchurch and earned a switch from Sione's younger brother Maea, one of the top recruits in the 2015 in-state class.
Give some credit to familiarity. With Texas A&M joining the SEC, the league was no longer an outsider to the state's prospects. Alabama and LSU were playing A&M on a yearly basis. Missouri, also from the Big 12, lent another friendly face.
"I think with Texas A&M and Missouri, people can still relate to them because they were in the Big 12," McGuire said. "Then, when you add that Texas school, you can head to the SEC and your parents can still see you half the time. You can play games at A&M, or Arkansas, or Louisiana, and those aren't bad trips."
"I think that absolutely hits the nail on the head," Hamm said. "There are so many recruits interested in Texas A&M and what they're doing. And you see both ends of it. If you're watching Texas A&M, you see them playing LSU. You see Alabama and the Ole Misses. I think that really plays a big part as far as exposure
Howe called it a "perfect storm over the last few years."
"With Texas having struggled on the field and with Texas A&M moving to the SEC, it's opened up the state now more than it's been since the beginning of the Mack Brown Era to other schools," Howe said. "The SEC has always recruited Texas, but with the Aggies being a divisional opponent for Alabama, Auburn and LSU on an annual basis it's put more of an emphasis on getting inside the state."
McGuire has seen the uptick in SEC recruiting in the state firsthand. One of his recent wideouts, Quincy Adeboyejo, started two games for Ole Miss as a true freshman this past season, while another, Laquvionte Gonzalez, chose Texas A&M and caught 21 passes as a freshman.
Two of his 2015 prospects, receiver DaMarkus Lodge and linebacker Richard Moore, have committed to Texas A&M. Another, quarterback Justin McMillan, committed to LSU. And two more of his 2015s, running back Aca'Cedric Ware and cornerback Darrell Miller, each have SEC offers.
Lodge had an Alabama offer before committing to Texas A&M, and he's hardly alone — according to Bama Online, Alabama has extended 21 offers to state of Texas prospects in 2015. Another of those offers went to Ennis pass-rusher James Lockhart, who hasn't been shy about his love for SEC play. High on his list are schools like Texas A&M and Alabama.
"When I was a freshman and sophomore, I didn't really see this coming, so I didn't really think about it. I thought I might get a scholarship offer here or there," Lockhart said. "But as I matured, it was easy to say 'hey, the SEC is the best of the best, especially for a defensive player. That's somewhere I might need to play.'
"As a competitor, even if you aren't a football player, but an athlete in any sport, why wouldn't you want to compete against the best?" Lockhart said. "The SEC players are bigger and stronger and faster. And if you're trying to make it to the NFL, the SEC is the closest thing to Sunday nights, or Monday Night Football."
McGuire said the league's success has been another reason for its recruiting success in the Lone Star State.
"A big part of that is the number of championships they're playing for," McGuire said. "That has a lot to do with it. They were getting a lot of the top kids (in the country) before A&M. Now, it's a little bit easier to get those kids (in Texas). I think, without a doubt, they've been able to get a lot of those kids just because they're so good."


So, What Now?
Newton's Third Law of Motion states that for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. And while the subject here is recruiting — and therefore not calculating forces in physics — the law still holds true. As Texas has seen more and more of the top prospects gobbled up by the SEC, the Longhorns too have found themselves leaving familiar territory, with Texas spanning both east and west in its search for prospects.
"They have (left the state more), but I think they'll really focus on a few areas going forward," Howe said. "I'd expect California and Arizona to be much bigger areas of focus than they have been, especially with Tommie Robinson being familiar with the area. The Longhorns will also look to see what they can find in Florida, but I wouldn't expect either area to be a priority over the state of Texas and serve more as a supplement to in-state recruiting. The same can be said for Louisiana where Joe Wickline and Chris Vaughn have already made their presence felt in working the state."
That's a major difference between Mack Brown and Charlie Strong — Brown's bread was always buttered in Texas, and it wasn't unusual for him to land entire 25-man classes without a single out-of-stater. Strong's ties are more to the southeast, thanks to his time spent at South Carolina, Florida and Louisville, and some of his staff — notably Vaughn, the defensive backs coach — have excelled at recruiting those areas in the past.
"This probably isn't the most popular thing to say around Texas high school coaches, but Texas should go wherever their top targets are," McGuire said. "If Texas wants to compete with Alabama, Florida or whoever, whoever their No. 1 guys are, that's what I'm trying to get.
"If Coach Strong does what some people think he's going to do, he could have a reverse effect on some of those other guys," McGuire said. "Whereas before, they haven't had to, now they might have to compete against Texas on Florida kids, Alabama kids and Georgia kids."
While it's unclear what impact Strong will have in recruiting the southeast, another question remains: can the SEC keep winning major battles on Texas's home turf? Hamm thinks so, and he attributes the upcoming SEC Network as a potential game-changer in providing even more exposure to the masses. Lockhart doesn't see Texas A&M ceding control anytime soon, either.
"Even without Johnny, I think their offense is going to be pretty good," Lockhart said. "They landed the No. 1 quarterback last year (Kyle Allen) and the No. 1 quarterback this year (Murray). The only thing that's keeping them from the national championship is their defense. And I think they're going to get better there. They landed Myles Garrett last year. And they have some top players this year, too."
But the Aggies can't get comfortable, because McGuire noted that the battle for the state's top recruits could shift at any time.

"You'd better be winning," McGuire said. "Right now, A&M's winning. The SEC is winning. They've got to keep winning too, or it's going to come back."
http://247sports.com/Article/Southeastern-Conference-programs-recruiting-Texas-with-vigor-29281453
That quote shows that Texas needs to show on the football field before recruiting will really take off.
SEC invades the Lone Star State
In Bruce Feldman's recruiting opus "Meat Market," then-Ole Miss assistant Art Kehoe flew to Pittsburgh to try and land a tight end recruit.
When it didn't work out, Feldman quoted head coach Ed Orgeron growling "Planes don't fly north," at the beleaguered assistant.
The point? Don't leave the country's most fertile ground for talent — the southeast — if you can help it. But in recent years, planes have flown west in increasing numbers as SEC schools have begun pounding the pavement (and pounding down the barbecue) in the Lone Star State, expanding their search for the next big thing.
And in an area once locked down by the Longhorns, Texas A&M and SEC schools are finding as much success as they've ever had.
Once Texas's State To Lose

When Mack Brown took over the Texas job, he often alluded to putting all the BBs back in the box, a Darrell Royal-ism that certainly included winning back over the state's high school coaches who felt alienated at times under previous 'Horns boss John Mackovic. Not only did Brown find quick success, but he worked throughout his Texas career to make it lasting.
Take a look at years 2010-2012, which weren't exactly Brown's best seasons at Texas. Yet, over that time period, Brown landed 10 of the top 20 prospects according to the 247 Sports Composite in the 2010 class, eight of 20 in 2011 and another eight of 20 in 2012. How did that compare to rival Texas A&M? It was a Longhorn romp. Texas's 26 top 20 prospects over those three-years far out-paced Texas A&M's seven. And the SEC grabbed just two top-20 prospects over that three-year period, with Alabama landing DeAndrew White and Tennessee bringing in LaDarrell McNeil. Neither player had a Texas offer.
In 2010, Texas caught the top four players in the state. In both 2011 and 2012, the Longhorns made out with three of the state's top six prospects.
But in 2013, Texas A&M's first recruiting class after playing a year in the SEC, something changed. The Longhorns landed two of the top 13 prospects, and further, totally whiffed on a stacked defensive tackle class, missing out on Isaiah Golden and Justin Manning (Texas A&M), A'Shawn Robinson (Alabama) and Andrew Billings (Baylor).
The Robinson miss hurt more than the others. Not only was Robinson a rare talent who went on to lead the Crimson Tide in sacks as a true freshman, but he committed to Texas early on in the process and was a player the Longhorns desperately fought to keep from a Fort Worth area. The tide (pun intended) was changing.
Texas entered the 2014 class with a desperate need for impact players in the secondary, only to see the SEC take the top four defensive backs in Tony Brown (Alabama), Jamal Adams and Edward Paris (LSU) and Nick Harvey (Texas A&M). And Nos. 5 and 6 also left the state, albeit to head west, with Dylan Sumner-Gardner (Boise State) and Arrion Springs (Oregon) also eschewing Texas offers. This time, Texas landed just two of the top 15 prospects.
And though there are a number of uncommitted prospects in 2015, it's worth noting that both LSU (Maea Teuhema, No. 5) and Alabama (Deionte Thompson, No. 8) have commitments from higher-rated prospects than the top in-stater to pledge to the Longhorns (Toby Weathersby, No. 16).
"I go back to what Charlie Strong said a recruit told him when he first hit the recruiting trail inside the state," Jeff Howe, Texas Insider for Horns247, said. "A recruit told him that they wouldn't consider Texas because guys who go to Texas don't get better. Right or wrong, that's the perception prospects in this state have of the Longhorn right now.
"Texas A&M not only has a lot of momentum, but Baylor is also a much bigger deal now than the Bears were five or so years ago," Howe said. "Texas's slide along with the rise of others has made it harder for Strong and his staff to recruit the elite prospects in this state than some perceive."


Texas A&M Stands Up
Of course, the biggest reason for Texas's increasing struggles in-state have come from its primary in-state competition. But the reason for Texas A&M's success is somewhat of a chicken-and-the-egg argument. Was it the Aggies' placement in the SEC? A&M's hiring of Kevin Sumlin as head coach? Or could most be attributed to Johnny Manziel making A&M the hip in-state school to play for?
According to Cedar Hill (Texas) coach Joey McGuire, the answer is "all of the above."
"I think it's a little bit of all of it," McGuire said. "Coach Sumlin is the cool guy too. I think what Coach Brown had, where he just had that mojo, I think Sumlin is very similar in terms of how kids see him. And then, when you add that in with the SEC being the power conference that it is, and what Johnny Football has done for them, it's a perfect mix."
GigEm247's Taylor Hamm believes that the addition of Sumlin and the jump to the SEC was the perfect marriage of an outstanding recruiting coach with an excellent recruiting pitch.
"I think Texas A&M would have been successful with or without Johnny Manziel," Hamm said. "I think when you look at Kevin Sumlin and his staff's mentality in recruiting, and the effort that they put forth in recruiting, it's something that they lacked with Mike Sherman. Even though Sherman's evaluations obviously turned out to be pretty good with Johnny, Mike Evans, Luke Joeckel, Jake Matthews, Cedric Ogbuehi and guys like Deshazor Everett and Ben Malena, they weren't bringing in the headliners. Just getting a five star to return a phone call wasn't something that regularly happened."
That became a more common occurrence not just under Sumlin, but with special recruiters like David Beaty in the Dallas area and Clarence McKinney in Houston, Hamm said. And when they connect on the phone, the Texas A&M staff hasn't been shy about selling its spot in the SEC as a major advantage.
"That's probably their No. 1 pitch," Hamm said. "You listen to guys they're recruiting through the state, and they'll all mention it. I always refer to Daylon Mack, who's a five-star recruit. He grew up a Longhorn fan, and his dad's a big Longhorn fan. But he said he was sold with the coaching staff as well as the proximity to home and being able to stay in-state and play in what everybody's calling the best league in college football. That's a big pitch."
In 2013, Texas A&M tied Texas with five of the top 20 in-state prospects. And in 2014, A&M led that battle five to four, though A&M actually had a sixth player committed in Hoza Scott before Scott failed to qualify. This year, A&M's off to an even better start. Twelve of the top 20 are committed so far, and A&M has five of those players, and could lead for several others.
That's as many as the entire Big 12. As a league, the Big 12 has five of those 12 committed, with Weathersby headed to Texas, Oklahoma landing both Rodney Anderson (himself once an A&M commitment) and P.J. Mbanasor, Jarrett Stidham going to Texas Tech and Ronald Jones II committed to Oklahoma State.
The top two Texas prospects committed (Mack, No. 3; Kyler Murray, No. 4) have committed to play their college ball in College Station, and the top four commits and four of the top five commitments are committed to play for SEC schools.
"I really think it's mostly the culture change that Kevin Sumlin has been able to accomplish," Hamm said. "He's surrounded himself with a great staff. Not only have they been able to sell, but they've had things to sell. And the SEC had a ton to do with that."
The Aggies are also already making waves in 2016 with pledges from two of the top six Lone Star players in the 247 Sports Composite rankings, including the nation's No. 1 overall prospect in Allen offensive tackle Greg Little, who committed this past week.
A&M Helps Others
But how has the rest of the SEC been able to get in on the action? Alabama has landed the consensus top defensive back in the state two of the last three years in Maurice Smith (2013) and Tony Brown (2014). Alabama's 2015 commitment Deionte Thompson? Just the state's second-best defensive back.
Then there's LSU, which not only brought in two of the state's top three defensive backs in 2014s Adams and Paris, but also flipped Texas commitments Sione Teuhema and Trey Lealaimatafao, caught highly regarded wideout Tony Upchurch and earned a switch from Sione's younger brother Maea, one of the top recruits in the 2015 in-state class.
Give some credit to familiarity. With Texas A&M joining the SEC, the league was no longer an outsider to the state's prospects. Alabama and LSU were playing A&M on a yearly basis. Missouri, also from the Big 12, lent another friendly face.
"I think with Texas A&M and Missouri, people can still relate to them because they were in the Big 12," McGuire said. "Then, when you add that Texas school, you can head to the SEC and your parents can still see you half the time. You can play games at A&M, or Arkansas, or Louisiana, and those aren't bad trips."
"I think that absolutely hits the nail on the head," Hamm said. "There are so many recruits interested in Texas A&M and what they're doing. And you see both ends of it. If you're watching Texas A&M, you see them playing LSU. You see Alabama and the Ole Misses. I think that really plays a big part as far as exposure
Howe called it a "perfect storm over the last few years."
"With Texas having struggled on the field and with Texas A&M moving to the SEC, it's opened up the state now more than it's been since the beginning of the Mack Brown Era to other schools," Howe said. "The SEC has always recruited Texas, but with the Aggies being a divisional opponent for Alabama, Auburn and LSU on an annual basis it's put more of an emphasis on getting inside the state."
McGuire has seen the uptick in SEC recruiting in the state firsthand. One of his recent wideouts, Quincy Adeboyejo, started two games for Ole Miss as a true freshman this past season, while another, Laquvionte Gonzalez, chose Texas A&M and caught 21 passes as a freshman.
Two of his 2015 prospects, receiver DaMarkus Lodge and linebacker Richard Moore, have committed to Texas A&M. Another, quarterback Justin McMillan, committed to LSU. And two more of his 2015s, running back Aca'Cedric Ware and cornerback Darrell Miller, each have SEC offers.
Lodge had an Alabama offer before committing to Texas A&M, and he's hardly alone — according to Bama Online, Alabama has extended 21 offers to state of Texas prospects in 2015. Another of those offers went to Ennis pass-rusher James Lockhart, who hasn't been shy about his love for SEC play. High on his list are schools like Texas A&M and Alabama.
"When I was a freshman and sophomore, I didn't really see this coming, so I didn't really think about it. I thought I might get a scholarship offer here or there," Lockhart said. "But as I matured, it was easy to say 'hey, the SEC is the best of the best, especially for a defensive player. That's somewhere I might need to play.'
"As a competitor, even if you aren't a football player, but an athlete in any sport, why wouldn't you want to compete against the best?" Lockhart said. "The SEC players are bigger and stronger and faster. And if you're trying to make it to the NFL, the SEC is the closest thing to Sunday nights, or Monday Night Football."
McGuire said the league's success has been another reason for its recruiting success in the Lone Star State.
"A big part of that is the number of championships they're playing for," McGuire said. "That has a lot to do with it. They were getting a lot of the top kids (in the country) before A&M. Now, it's a little bit easier to get those kids (in Texas). I think, without a doubt, they've been able to get a lot of those kids just because they're so good."


So, What Now?
Newton's Third Law of Motion states that for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. And while the subject here is recruiting — and therefore not calculating forces in physics — the law still holds true. As Texas has seen more and more of the top prospects gobbled up by the SEC, the Longhorns too have found themselves leaving familiar territory, with Texas spanning both east and west in its search for prospects.
"They have (left the state more), but I think they'll really focus on a few areas going forward," Howe said. "I'd expect California and Arizona to be much bigger areas of focus than they have been, especially with Tommie Robinson being familiar with the area. The Longhorns will also look to see what they can find in Florida, but I wouldn't expect either area to be a priority over the state of Texas and serve more as a supplement to in-state recruiting. The same can be said for Louisiana where Joe Wickline and Chris Vaughn have already made their presence felt in working the state."
That's a major difference between Mack Brown and Charlie Strong — Brown's bread was always buttered in Texas, and it wasn't unusual for him to land entire 25-man classes without a single out-of-stater. Strong's ties are more to the southeast, thanks to his time spent at South Carolina, Florida and Louisville, and some of his staff — notably Vaughn, the defensive backs coach — have excelled at recruiting those areas in the past.
"This probably isn't the most popular thing to say around Texas high school coaches, but Texas should go wherever their top targets are," McGuire said. "If Texas wants to compete with Alabama, Florida or whoever, whoever their No. 1 guys are, that's what I'm trying to get.
"If Coach Strong does what some people think he's going to do, he could have a reverse effect on some of those other guys," McGuire said. "Whereas before, they haven't had to, now they might have to compete against Texas on Florida kids, Alabama kids and Georgia kids."
While it's unclear what impact Strong will have in recruiting the southeast, another question remains: can the SEC keep winning major battles on Texas's home turf? Hamm thinks so, and he attributes the upcoming SEC Network as a potential game-changer in providing even more exposure to the masses. Lockhart doesn't see Texas A&M ceding control anytime soon, either.
"Even without Johnny, I think their offense is going to be pretty good," Lockhart said. "They landed the No. 1 quarterback last year (Kyle Allen) and the No. 1 quarterback this year (Murray). The only thing that's keeping them from the national championship is their defense. And I think they're going to get better there. They landed Myles Garrett last year. And they have some top players this year, too."
But the Aggies can't get comfortable, because McGuire noted that the battle for the state's top recruits could shift at any time.

"You'd better be winning," McGuire said. "Right now, A&M's winning. The SEC is winning. They've got to keep winning too, or it's going to come back."
http://247sports.com/Article/Southeastern-Conference-programs-recruiting-Texas-with-vigor-29281453
