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Offensive Center from North Mesquite is 6-3, 260 lbs., 5.23 forty, Bench lifts 315 lbs., two time all-district, and has a 3.88 GPA. From the major conferences, Iowa State, Wisconsin, Oklahoma State, Purdue, Mississippi State, and Vanderbilt have all offered. Add to that Tulane, Tulsa, Colorado State and SMU from the non-BCS ranks.

In addition to the schools that have offered, Garner said he's been getting interest from Texas A&M and North Carolina and he likes both of those schools as well. He has taken unofficial visits to Oklahoma State, Mississippi State and SMU and spent one day at an Oklahoma State camp. He is planning to camp with Texas A&M later this summer as well.

Distance is not a problem, but he admit that playing closer to home would have its plusses.

"If I end up playing a long way from home, that's fine with me," Garner explained. "I don't mind that idea at all. But if a good school is close to home, it would be hard to not go with that. You want family and friends to see you play."

Sounds like we might have a chance since he could be close to home and has a great GPA.

Ponymon wrote: .... Distance is not a problem, but he admit that playing closer to home would have its plusses.

"If I end up playing a long way from home, that's fine with me," Garner explained. "I don't mind that idea at all. But if a good school is close to home, it would be hard to not go with that. You want family and friends to see you play."

Let's pencil him in next to LeRibeus on the commit list of linemen!

Ponymon wrote:"If I end up playing a long way from home, that's fine with me," Garner explained. "I don't mind that idea at all. But if a good school is close to home, it would be hard to not go with that. You want family and friends to see you play."

The problem I see with this statement is the definition of a "good school". If he is talking about academics and local contacts, then SMU has the upper hand. If he is talking about BCS or big school football, well then, we lose.

Ahh another Stallion, my old high school...

New Rivals article lists Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Wisconsin, and probably Tulsa as his top schools, but he is still open.

As to what factors will play a role in his decision, Garner listed a few details that he will pay attention to when comparing the different schools.

"I'd say probably the stability of the head coach, the conference, and just a winning tradition and a chance to win," he said.

Another big ugly. The more the merrier.

Per Rivals, committed to Iowa State. I guess he likes snow and with this heat who could blame him!

SMU down to 7 players rated 5.4 or better by Rivals(basically a Texas Top 160 type) 2 of which are from Oklahoma. I'd be shocked if we signed any of them except perhaps Josh MCkinley of Leander and even he is looking hard at other options/offers. Time to start turning over rocks in 2A 3A and the private schools.

Stallion wrote:SMU down to 7 players rated 5.4 or better by Rivals(basically a Texas Top 160 type) 2 of which are from Oklahoma. I'd be shocked if we signed any of them except perhaps Josh MCkinley of Leander and even he is looking hard at other options/offers. Time to start turning over rocks in 2A 3A and the private schools.

How do you manage to stay so negative all the time? It's very impressive. TCU built its program on guys that were not 4-star players...far from it, in fact. I really like Coach Bennett (he was one of the coaches while I was at TCU) and sincerely hope he is about to turn the corner.

TCU has outrecruited SMU by all recruiting experts in 15 out of 17 years since the DP and by some perhaps a majority of recruiting experts in 17 out of 17 years. The two close years were basically toss-ups. Recruiting is relative to your competition. TCU recruits in the Top 50-65 range which is good enough to go to bowls every year because they are at the top of the non-BCS schools year after year after year. Tell me does the huge relative recruiting disparity between the two schools and their respective performance show that I'm negative or does it acurately gauge the most important reasons for the dispaity between the success of the two programs.

Both -- sort of. Recruiting isn't always relative to your opponents. To wit: if you recruit the studliest option QB in the country, you might get points in the recruiting rankings. But if your team runs a run-and-shoot-style offense, then he's worthless, and your team doesn't improve. So really, recruiting is relative to your own needs, either finding players who fill gaping holes in your roster, or recruiting players who are better than players already entrenched in your lineup.

Having said that, we'll agree that better players make coaches better. Send the last couple of UT recruiting classes to Rice, and Ken Hatfield doesn't retire. He'd learn quickly to coach a system that fits those monster players, and he's suddenly joining Bowden and Paterno as old coaches who "still have it."

Stallion wrote:TCU has outrecruited SMU by all recruiting experts in 15 out of 17 years since the DP and by some perhaps a majority of recruiting experts in 17 out of 17 years. The two close years were basically toss-ups. Recruiting is relative to your competition. TCU recruits in the Top 50-65 range which is good enough to go to bowls every year because they are at the top of the non-BCS schools year after year after year. Tell me does the huge relative recruiting disparity between the two schools and their respective performance show that I'm negative or does it acurately gauge the most important reasons for the dispaity between the success of the two programs.

I don't disagree that recruiting makes a difference, but SMU simply doesn't have the pick of the litter at this point. All I'm saying is that you have to start somewhere...and that somewhere is recruiting players who perhaps aren't as highly sought after and molding them into better players. I think every fan knows that SMU's recruiting isn't where it needs to be in order to compete long-term. However, how much better were TCU's classes in '96, '97 & '98??? We were recruting 1 and 2 star players but we had a coaching staff who could identify talent. We were lucky enough to build on that foundation and our recruting is much better now. I guess you have to have faith that either Bennett can do the same thing or he can't. That;s why I believe this will be a telling season for SMU and Bennett.