Texas and Texas A&M are both going to win their fair share of recruiting battles against one another. A battle that the Longhorns should feel good about is for the signature of ESPN Junior 300 athlete J.W. Ketchum (Fort Bend, Texas/Marshall).
Ketchum, who looked bigger than ever in his 6-foot-1, 201-pound frame, had a fantastic time at the Texas Stampede on Saturday, which he attended with three members of his family.
“Today was great,” he said. “We went through the same process [as sophomore day]. We went bowling. We ate. They spoke to us about NCAA rules. All in all it was a great day. We got a lot of 1-on-1s with our position coaches. We just had a lot of fun today.”
He entered the day with the Longhorns as his No. 1 school, with Texas A&M No. 2 and Baylor No. 3. It remained that way when he headed home.
“You could say that,” said Ketchum, when asked if Texas was ahead of the Aggies right now. “Because it seems like every time I come here they are topping them on something different. Most likely it will be better for Texas.”
Ketchum said the Texas coaches made it clear to him that it is recruiting him as a quarterback. In fact, he all but said he’d give the peace sign to those trying to recruit him as anything else.
“As for as position? Quarterback all the way,” he said. “As for as my future here, I’m going to determine the hype for that. They said to just keep doing what I’m doing and all of the work will pay off.”
The Longhorns really gained strides by paying attention to details with the No. 149 player in the country for 2015.
Because he was the only one of Texas’ five offered quarterbacks in attendance, he was able to enjoy a one-on-one meeting with Major Applewhite. They spoke about several football-related issues, including the similarities between the offense he runs at Marshall and what Applewhite is employing in Austin.
“I just like how they treat you,” Ketchum said. “They treat you like family. They make you feel like you are at home.
“The fan support and the atmosphere. You see how good it looks out here? It’s gorgeous. It’s a great school. They have a lot of fan support for every sport. So why not [Texas]?”
Ketchum said that Texas sees him as the spark they need.
“The same spark they seen in Vince [Young],” he said.
It will be a while before the Longhorns find out if they’ll actually get that spark. Ketchum said he is going to slow things down for now and doesn’t plan on committing until an All-American game his senior season.