Page missing from most Power 5 playbooks
Coach calls record-breaking QB ‘the most under-recruited kid in Texas’
Tyler Page doesn’t look the part.
Judging by appearances — “measurables” in recruiting lingo — the thoughtful, clean-cut Friendswood quarterback is more likely to stroll out of a band hall than a locker room.
But underneath the fresh-faced façade is a gritty, record-smashing football player who accounted for nearly 4,000 yards of offense this season while leading his team to the regional semifinals.
“I still say he’s the most under-recruited kid in Texas,” Friendswood coach Robert Koopmann said.
“Going to SMUis a great opportunity for him, but with college coaches, if you don’t fit the puzzle exactly, they can’t think out of the box, and so, so many guys just didn’t know what to do with him.” ‘Chip on my shoulder’
The 6-1, 185-pound senior supplied 8,234 rushing/passing yards in threeplus seasons as a starting signal caller.
He surpassed 2,000 rushing and 1,000 passing yards the last two years. Page finished his high school career with 74 rushing touchdowns, 30 passing and three receiving.
But Virginia, the first to extend an offer last spring, and Kansas were the only Power 5 schools that saw him as a quarterback.
His other QB offers came from New Mexico, Tulane, Air Force and Army.
Page would have preferred more options, and another big-school QB offer or two might have altered his thinking.
Instead, he opted to pursue a great education and all-around opportunity in state.
“I do have a chip on my shoulder, for sure, because I think that I was a little bit under-recruited, but in the end I’m going where I’m supposed to be,” Page said. “I’m not straying from SMU.
“I’m definitely 100-percent committed to SMU, and they’re a 100-percent committed to me.” Measuring sticks
Why didn’t more people see Page as a college quarterback?
Maybe it’s because they are enamored by height, like the 6-7 Brock Osweiler, who was benched by the Texans last week. It’s easier to measure height and weight than intangibles.
“It’s a problem with recruiting nowadays,” Page said. “You find somebody who’s 6-5 and you automatically think they can play football, and really that has nothing to do with it. It’s all the immeasurables— heart and the love of the game. That’s something recruiters have gotten away from.”
The level-headed teen sees other, more mundane explanations, too.
“There are so many kids to evaluate that all the recruiters find the biggest guys, the fastest guys, and then they pick and choose from those,” Page said. “They don’t have the time to look at every single player and what they’re capable of, so a lot of people go under-recruited and unnoticed.” The ‘it’ factor
Johnny Manziel didn’t go unnoticed.
The former Texas A&M quarterback torched defenses en route to the Heisman Trophy as a freshman and, as Koopmann points out, Page is an inch taller. But even in a post-Manziel world, athletes who don’t look down on offensive linemen have a hard time convincing college coaches they’re QBs.
“I still think he’s a quarterback,” Koopmann said. “Him touching the ball 80 times is better than him touching it eight times.
“There are so few plays that stay on schedule in college, or in high school, so you have 100 snaps in a college game … and maybe 10 are actually passing plays where the quarterback hits the third or fifth step and the ball’s out of his hands. Everything else is breakdowns and how they handle it.
“They recruit kids who are 6-4, 6-5 and look pretty in 7-on-7, but when they put pads on, it ain’t a 7-on7 game, and people like Johnny, people like Tyler, make a difference because they’ve got the ‘it’ factor.” Nursing an injury
Page possesses ‘it’ and more, including leadership, work ethic and desire.
All those factors will fuel him at SMU, where he will play slot receiver, kick returner and, yes, Wildcat quarterback.
“That’s where I really feel comfortable — taking the snap and going,” Page said.
First, he must recover from an injury that prematurely ended his high school career in the playoffs.
Page underwent surgery soon after the left ankle injury, which included torn ligaments and displaced tibia and fibula bones. He is in a cast right now but soon expects to transition into a walking boot.
The goal is to finish rehabbing this spring — then move on to the next phase of his career.
“I love to be on my feet doing stuff, so it’s really hard for me to be sitting on the couch, basically, when I wish I could be working out and getting better,” Page said. “I’m definitely going to have to work really hard whenever I get out of this boot to get back to full speed in time for the summer.”