12:50 PM CDT on Thursday, June 23, 2005

Todd Wills chatted about college recruiting on Thursday, June 23, 2005.

tutone: The kid that Deion is taking in won't see strong competition at Prosper or wherever he's gonna go to school. Will this affect has status as one of the nation's elite running backs? Will it affect where he can go to school? I think he's a junior.
Todd Wills: Good afternoon, everyone. Deion's new live-in is of course Noel Devine, an oustanding running back from North Fort Myers, Fla., where Sanders graduated from in 1985 (Deion, like myself, is staring his 20-year high school reunion straight in the face). As for will it affect his status, I wouldn't think so. Think of some of the great running backs that have come out of Texas that played 2A or 3A football or below -- Billy Sims, David Overstreet, Edwin Simmons, Rodney Thomas, we could go on and on. The competition that Devine will go up against at Prosper will be fine. Remember this is Texas high school football. His transfer will have zero affect on where he goes to school.

UPENN: You know anything about Derrick Williams? Why Penn State? They have struggled big-time in the last few years because everyone knows JoPa isn't long for coaching? What's up there?
Todd Wills: I only know that he was the best player in the country last year, and what I saw of him on video at Eleanor Roosevelt High in Greenbelt, Md. sure suggests he will be an excellent player at Penn St. Williams said he picked the Nittany Lions because of Joe Paterno. He wanted to play for a man of character, he said, and that's why he picked JoPa. It's easy to gang up on Paterno and Penn St. the way things have gone the last few years. But with players like Williams coming to Happy Valley, I'd say JoPa has one more run in him.

bugwb: Have you found that success in other sports can help recruiting in football? As a Baylor alum, that's what I'm hoping for.
Todd Wills: We had this question in our last chat. It's a good one. Will it lead to more wins on the football field? Who knows. Does it draw the attention of recruits, seeing Baylor win a women's basketball championship and then almost making it to the College World Series finals? You can bet the Baylor coaches think so. They'll use it. Why not? There are a lot of positive things happening in Waco, and I'm sure Guy Morriss and his coaches will try and capitalize...

Derrick, Dallas: Who are the top 5 players in D-FW this year? I like to get out on Fridays and check out the best during the season.
Todd Wills: If you want to go rivals.com state 100, the top five are: 1) Sergio Kindle, LB/RB Woodrow Wilson; 2) Matthew Stafford, QB, Highland Park; 3) Emmanuel Moody, RB, Coppell; 4) Michael Morgan, LB, Skyline; 5) J'Marcus Webb, OL, North Mesquite. Kindle, Moody and Webb have all orally committed to Texas. Stafford has orally committed to Georgia. Morgan is undecided. Personally, if it was me, I'd go watch Moody as much as possible. This kid is something else.

Malcolm, Dallas: What will it take for SMU to land some of the area's best players... You have to be able to recruit your own backyard.
Todd Wills: Malcolm -- We also talked about this last time on the chat. But it's another good question. If you're asking me to draw up a blueprint, here's what I'd tell Phil Bennett -- be exciting on offense. That's it. You want players to come play from you, top players from your own backyard, air it out. Become Louisville or Boise St. or Frenso St. Whatever. The D-FW area is overflowing with quality QBs this year -- Bowie' s Sherrod Harris, Carroll's Greg McElroy, Colleyville Heritage's Christian Ponder, Flower Mound's Nick Stephens, Marcus' Kevin White and of course Stafford. The list goes on and on. Throw the ball 30 to 40 times a game and see what happens.

Jesse McNeil III, Dallas: Has Franchione finally weeded (pun intended) out the riff-raff and gotten players that want to be apart of the team, follow the rules, stay in school and play football? Please tell us yes so we can stop waiting for the next potential starter to get kicked out of school.
Todd Wills: This is probably a better question for our A&M beat writer, Rachel Cohen. She's in College Station. I'm here. I don't really know the answers to these questions. I'm not around the program. I'll only say this -- trends are scary and it's easy to see why you would ask, "When it's going to stop?" The best sign would be not reading about this stuff for a few years. And the best way to take care of this is recruiting high school kids with a lot of character. You have to wonder with the pressure of catching OU and Texas if the Aggies aren't prone to take some chances.

Marshall Jeffus, Wichita Falls: What's the situation with Mitch Mustain. Any idea who his real "top three" are and when he'll commit.
Todd Wills: Arkansas and Texas have long been considered the favorites for Mustain's services. He went to camp at both schools this month. I'd have to say it's a toss-up (I'm actually hoping to talk to Mustain later today). It will be interesting to see if Sherrod Harris' commitment to Texas changes anything for Mustain. Will it make him lean toward his home state? Will he welcome the competition with Harris? Stay tuned...

Greg Kelminson: Is Sherrod Harris the answer at QB for UT? How good is Kevin Durant?
Todd Wills: Greg -- I can't predict the future on Sherrod Harris. If you go on what his high school coach Anthony Criss has to say about him, Harris should be a star at Texas. He's smart (1310 on his SAT, all A's except for a C in a AP course), he's a natural leader (he went to boys state earlier this month, a well respected summer camp at UT for politics and government) and he has excellent skills at quarterback. But don't expect the second coming of Vince Young. Harris will be different. He prefers passing the ball over running. He has a great arm. He has inexperienced players around him at Bowie, so it's easy to believe that there is a lot of upside with this player...

JMD, Texarkana: What are Texas’ chances of recruiting a top rated quarterback this year and avoiding another "Perrilloux" event? Wasn’t Mr. Davis in charge of the “perrilloux” event the whole time?
Todd Wills: Texas has recruiting a top-rated quarterback, Sherrod Harris. They have a great chance to get Mitch Mustain. If they don't Mustain, maybe that will lead the way to Carroll's Greg McElroy, who is a state 100 player and hasn't even started a varsity game. Every coach I've talked to loves McElroy. So we'll see. It's way past time to get over the Perrilloux deal. It happens. It happened to Texas way back when with Marcus Dupree ditched them for OU. Last time we heard from Dupree, UT defensive back Richard Peavy sent him back to Philadelphia, Miss. with one major headache.

Erik Hughes, San Antonio: What will be David Thomas' impact at the tight end position? Could he lead all receivers in receptions/yards?
Todd Wills: I take it we're talking about David Thomas, the tight end at Texas??? Well, this gets a little bit away from "recruiting chat" but I'll say this: he's one of Vince Young's favorite receivers, no doubt about that. So it could happen.

poorun: Do you forsee Mack Brown losing any of his 21 commits? He has done well in the past in keeping kids committed that are from Texas.
Todd Wills: These are high school players. Anything can happen. Recruits have changed their minds. Even if they've orally committed, they are still getting calls from other college coaches. Saying that, Mack Brown has had good luck (except for Perrilloux) getting his oral commitments to hold up. I probably wouldn't lose a lot of sleep over it. Enjoyed this today - we'll do it again soon.