Martin?

[Johnny Rock]

Does anyone have any recent information on this guy? Since OU and Colo. are not pursuing him, it appears that we could get left behind. At one time, I believe he had indicated that he wanted to play for a school where he could play early. He could certainly play much earlier at SMU than if he attended OU or Colo. Norman, Oklahoma also is the pits. I know because I grew up near there. There is nothing in Norman that would make me want to spend four years of my life there. Colo. also will always play for second place, at best, in the Big 12 with OU, TX, and A&M in the conference. At least we are in contention with a player other name schools want. Go Mustangs and thanks for any info. on this.

[DallasDiehard]

You really rank A&M behind Colorado? Hmmm...

Anyway, I've read that Coach Bennett and the new o-line coach are supposed to be visiting Kharylake in his house today, and that Central Florida is coming in tomorrow. Hopefully our guys can dazzle him enough to make tomorrow's UCF visit a moot point.

[MUSTANGFOREVER69]

Our coaches weren't in tonite. Hmmmm? I wonder where they might be.

No offense to Mickey below in the post under "k martin", but I'm not ready to concede Khary Martin to CU and Gary Barnett.

This whole scene started when Gary Barnett lost two of his best coaching staff members to UCLA (Eric Bieniemy and Jon Embree). As I posted earlier in response to a worried post on our board about the loss of Coach Stanley, it occurred as damage control at K State when two of their top assistants were hired away. So, Coach Barnett had to replace two of his best assistants and recruiters at the same time that Coach Bennett had to replace two of our good assistants and recruiters. What does that say about our program? When was the last time that we were stuck with the problem of replacing assistant coaches during the middle of recruiting season in the same manner as K State, CU, UCLA, Alabama, WSU, and other majors? The class which our short-handed coaches have put together is sound and will be the basis for the beginning of our much-desired rebuilding.

As far as Khary Martin's being swayed by CU's and OU's sudden interest, I'm not ready to throw in the towel. Look at what happened. With the assistant coach losses at Colorado, their commitments and hoped-for commitments became vulnerable. On the Offensive Line, they first lost Corey Clark from Smithson Valley (here in Houston) to A&M and new Coach Fran on 1/21. Then, on Sunday night, Coach Barnett learned that their number one OL target, Joe Thomas from Brookfield, Mass., had eliminated CU from his list of schools for consideration (he committed to Wisconsin today). And, lo and behold, out of the blue, Gary Barnett himself shows up in Dayton, Texas to pay a visit to Khary Martin on Monday and offer him a scholarship to CU and put on the sell job about playing in the Big 12. And, the next day, Ryan Schuler, from Sioux Falls, S.D., decommits from OU and commits to Nebraska, and - wo! - the OU coaches call Khary to offer him a scholarship to OU. And, to add to the intrigue, CU had been courting Ryan Schuler in hopes of stealing him from OU (he visited Boulder and was offered on 1/28).

Now, granted Khary Martin is a young man - probably about 18 or so - but from his comments to the recruiting interviewers, it's pretty clear that he has a good head on his shoulders. He has already said that he feels that it's too late to consider OU since he told Coach Barnett that he would visit Boulder this weekend. Given that kind of thinking and commitment on his part, give our coaches the chance to explain what's happening to Khary and to convince him that his leanings towards SMU at the beginning of this week were in his best interest and that he should reconsider going to Boulder and commit to SMU.

Think back on what's happened so far during this recruiting season. Remember how we were all concerned about losing a certain RB to Texas when he talked about visiting UT. Remember a few weeks ago when a certain LB recruit announced that he was going to take an official visit to TCU after their coaches had raised "questions" in his mind and convinced him to visit TCU - and we were all worried about losing him. What happened? After Coach Bennett and some of our assistants met with both of these two young men, they became firmly committed to SMU.

If Coach Bennett and our assistants are meeting face to face with Khary Martin tonite, give it a chance. He seems to be a sharp young man. And, if he listens to what Coach Bennett says, I think he'll be a Mustang on 2/5 with the rest of the class we already have.

[Pony Fan]

Latest story I heard is that we may have talked him out of taking another visit to OU or CU. Stay tuned.

[MustangFan]

I heard last night he will in fact visit Colorado this weekend.

Jon Embree is coaching at UCLA? Is that the same guy who's been written about in the Daily Campus years ago for showing up at our teams' games with a basketball or a soccer ball cut open over his head with the eyes punched out? I didn't know he was a coach.

And why would Eric Bienemy leave Colorado for UCLA? Maybe he got a big raise and/or a promotion. He's a very good coach, and he made his name as a player with the Buffs. I find it surprising that he would leave Boulder.

[PK]

That's a different Jon Embree...our Jon is still here, although the basketball head seems to have been lost.

[PX]

The other Jon Embree and I have met only once, and as far as we can tell we're not closely related. We're from different ethnic backgrounds, and dont look much alike at all.
We are, however, about the same age, similar size, and for awhile I played the same position (tight end) as he did in College. It made for some very amusing confusion on NFL draft day, when he was taken by the Rams in the 4th round.

[whatasteve]

Didn't know you were drafted, PX - congratulations!

[FloridaMustang]

From Rivals sometimes in the last few days...somehow I missed this:

Martin did get an in-home visit from SMU’s new offensive line coach and he was leaning toward the Ponies over UCF before Colorado and Oklahoma moved into the picture.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do now,” Martin said. “I have a lot of stuff to think about now.”

[Bergermeister]

It's exciting just to be in the mix... because of Coach Bennett, I think we could win-out on this one.

[ClassOf81]

At what point do we cut bait with this guy? He sounds like a headache for the coaches. I know he's big, (and extremely slow, I might add), but come on - if you're down to SMU and Central Florida, there's no choice to be made. And if you really were going to play at Oklahoma or Colorado, they would have recruited you before they were just trying to put a pretty bow on their recruiting class. I wonder if this guy is worth the hassle. Wouldn't we be better off holding his scholarship for next year's class?

[Vitale]

I agree. We already have a lot of linemen coming in. Let's save this scholarship for next year when we'll really need it.

[StangEsq]

We have a lot of linemen coming in, but this would be the best one...

[Lotus]

ClassOf81 and Vitale: are you guys nuts? You want to give up on a 350-pound lineman? It's not like this is a fat guy. He's huge and carries his weight pretty well, from what I've read about him. Imagine when Chuck Faucette gets ahold of him. Put this guy in short-yardage situations and it's almost a gimme. And like StangEsq said, this would be the highest-rated OL in a class that already has some big hosses coming in. He could make an already-very good class of linemen even better. Don't give up on the big fella - we can use him.

[Mickey]

He will announce by High Noon today!