A&M replaces Longhorns in Keke’s heart
Former George Ranch standout develops into key defensive player in College Station
COLLEGE STATION — George Ranch High on the far southwest side of Houston is home of the Longhorns. The maroon-and-white Longhorns.
“Imagine the identity crisis,” English teacher Gene Eubanks said with a chuckle of the high school sporting the colors of Texas A&M while matching the mascot of rival Texas.
A few years ago, Eubanks noticed one of his star pupils, Kingsley Keke, having his own identity crisis involving UT and eventually settled by A&M. Keke, a standout football player, had grown up a huge fan of the Longhorns — the ones over in Austin — but also was mulling offers from TCU, Florida and Missouri.
So Eubanks, a native Louisianan and diehard LSU fan, painfully offered a Keke a suggestion. How about checking out A&M, which also had offered a scholarship?
“I was a big Texas fan. I planned to commit to Texas,” Keke recalled. “Mr. Eubanks kept telling me that A&M was an amazing place.”
Eubanks, whose wife, Claudia, is an Aggie, realized Keke was capable of making up his own mind but also knew Texas A&M and its smaller-town setting exactly 100 miles from George Ranch seemed a solid fit for the low-key, family-minded defensive lineman, especially without LSU’s recruiting Keke.
“I told him, ‘It’s close to your family, and the culture at A&M will be the greatest thing you’ll ever experience,’ ” Eubanks said. “I told him to at least check it out. It just seemed like a good place for him, especially with his family and friends close by.”
Mind you, this wasn’t easy advice for a man who grew up on the Cajun side of the Texas-Louisiana border in DeRidder, La., and spent a chunk of his youth at LSU games.
“If you grow up in Louisiana, you’re an LSU fan, no matter where you go to school,” said Eubanks, a University of Houston graduate.
Keke took Eubanks’ advice and visited A&M as a junior in high school in the fall of 2013, and the rest is Longhorns (the George Ranch variety) and Aggies history.
“I was ready to commit the first day I visited A&M,” Keke said.
Added Eubanks: “My wife and I took him on his first official visit to A&M, and he looked up at the upper deck of Kyle Field, and he was sold. I don’t think he ever looked back.”
Keke officially pledged to the Aggies prior to entering his senior year at George Ranch and played at A&M as a true freshman in 2015 under then-coach Kevin Sumlin. Keke, now a senior leader on the Aggies’ rapidly improving defense, has played in 46 consecutive games at A&M, starting the last 29.
The NFL prospect leads the Aggies in sacks with 4.5 and tackles for loss with seven. His sack total over the first seven games of his final season nearly matches his total (five) over his first three years.
“His ability to move around … helps a lot,” said A&M first-year coach Jimbo Fisher, who inherited Keke and plenty of other veterans from the fired Sumlin in the offseason.
Fisher and defensive coordinator Mike Elko immediately recognized Keke’s versatility on the line — although he’d played only on the defensive interior his first three seasons at A&M —and requested he drop weight and shift to the exterior when needed.
That became more imperative for the No. 16 Aggies, who play at Mississippi State on Saturday night, when projected starting defensive end Micheal Clemons was lost in fall camp for what might be the season with a foot injury.
“They put me everywhere, and I like it all,” said the 6-4 Keke, who’s down to 285 pounds from 305. “Since I lost weight, I’m in better shape, and I just feel a lot better.”
Fisher has time and again pointed to Keke’s intelligence and willingness in effectively playing multiple positions, a brightness and gregariousness Eubanks noticed when Keke first showed up in his high school freshman English class. Eubanks, who now instructs at a different school in the Lamar Consolidated district, wound up teaching Keke as a freshman, sophomore and junior.
“Kingsley has such a magnetic personality — everyone just flocks to him,” Eubanks said. “And it was no different when he was a ninthgrader. I thought, ‘Man, this kid is something special.’ He just never seemed to have a bad day; he was always positive and always upbeat.”
The student and teacher stayed close after graduation, and over the first couple of Keke’s college years the lifelong LSU fan wore maroon to A&M games — the maroon of George Ranch.
“Since it was a maroon shirt, I just figured nobody would notice,” Eubanks said with a laugh.
In the past couple of years, Eubanks has donned maroon emblazoned with “Texas A&M.”
“I know Mr. Eubanks has hated that,” Keke said with a smile. “But I appreciate that he’s supporting me.”