Cypress Springs’ Leon O’Neal enjoys recruiting attention on social media.
Top safety prospect from Cy Springs makes a virtual game of recruiting
COLLEGE STATION — Leon O’Neal let the cyber nation know Thursday he was “About To Shake The World Up.”
O’Neal, a highly recruited safety from Cypress Springs, has been shaking things up for a couple of months now — at least the slice of the world coveting his skills — and he’s savvy enough to know this kind of attention is fleeting.
Seven months from now, he’ll probably be at a university toiling in early-morning workouts and working his way up a depth chart. For now, he has some college football fans hanging on every peck of his fingertips. O’Neal was more than a decade from being born when Derric Evans of Dallas Carter signed his national letter of intent with Tennessee in a hot tub in 1989, but O’Neal is playing the same flamboyant game.
Only his hot tub is of the virtual variety, and one capable of creating waves for hordes of middleaged men who follow this kind of stuff, especially this time of year. Most recruiting analysts expect the four-star defender to pick Texas A&M over Clemson, Alabama and Georgia, with national signing day approaching Wednesday, but O’Neal is making the process as mysterious as possible.
O’Neal already had pledged to play for the Aggies once, prior to then-coach Kevin Sumlin’s firing in late November. O’Neal backed off the non-binding commitment and has had fun with his courtship since.
Manziel chimes in
If he had used the new early signing period in December or stuck with his A&M pledge through Sumlin’s firing and Jimbo Fisher’s hiring, would he have received a for-allthe-world-to-see personal message from A&M’s only living Heisman Trophy winner? Doubtful.
“Yo @WakeEmUp9 we could use some of that top flight security in that secondary in College Station,” former A&M and NFL quarterback Johnny Manziel aimed at O’Neal’s handle via Twitter. “Come see what Aggieland is all about #GigEm.”
Aggies from all over are showering O’Neal with attention, because they know of what Manziel speaks is the truth: A&M really could use some help in the secondary with the exit of senior Armani Watts to the NFL, and on a lagging defense that long ago relinquished its “Wrecking Crew” moniker.
“Come build your own legacy, in the best stadium in the world,” current linebacker Tyrel Dodson urged O’Neal via Twitter on Thursday. “With the best support system you’ll ever come by.”
Manziel responded to Dodson’s appeal with, “Facts.”
O’Neal collected 164 tackles over the past two years at Cy Springs, and he is No. 7 on the Chronicle’s list of top 100 players in the region.
“He’s a physical player who has some pop when he makes a hit, and he looks like he enjoys delivering those blows,” wrote 247Sports national recruiting analyst Greg Powers.
Something else O’Neal enjoys: attention. Which perhaps is a requisite of a freewheeling, playmaking safety. That attention has ramped up a bit in the past few days with the revelation from recruiting services that O’Neal is taking a surprise trip to national champion Alabama this weekend.
So A&M, an hour from his Northwest Houston home, and the three programs in the last three seasons to win or play for the national title in Alabama, Clemson and Georgia all are in the mix for O’Neal’s future tackles.
As for the Aggies’ class with less than a week to signing day, Fisher is angling to add at least a few players to the class of 14, one ranked 35th nationally by 247Sports. Only five of the 14 are defenders, so that’s an area new defensive coordinator Mike Elko is trying to shore up in the short time he has been on campus (and out recruiting), with O’Neal one of those top targets.
Loving the process
Fisher already is making a dent in 2019 recruiting, and given time he has shown he can recruit with the best in the nation. In fact, his last four full recruiting class rankings at Florida State, from 2014-17, don’t even add up to half of 35 at 16 (four, three, three and six in that span).
Meanwhile, O’Neal mulls his options, plum choices any high school football player would welcome.
“I’m so in love with the process,” O’Neal wrote via Twitter on Tuesday.
He should be. These kinds of opportunities only come around for a select few players, and O’Neal has made the most of the process — and had fun with it along the way.