Don’t expect any Heisman hype for Achane

COLLEGE STATION — Ten years ago this spring at Texas A&M, an unheralded quarterback was best known for competing with Jameill Showers for the starting gig in 2012.

“When Johnny Manziel won the Heisman Trophy, there wasn’t any (prior) hype because no one knew him,” A&M coach Jimbo Fisher said.

Manziel electrified the nation that fall and won A&M its second Heisman Trophy despite zero media interviews from September through late November as per then-coach Kevin Sumlin’s policy with freshmen. Social media, still relatively new at the time, was an overall positive for A&M and Manziel in his record-setting, Heisman-winning season.

Fisher, for the most part, loathes social media and considers it one of the primary menaces of modern society. But there is one way it’s tolerable in his playbook – there’s no chance a superstar will get lost in the shuffle in late fall anymore.

That’s why A&M has no need to launch a hype campaign, Fisher said, when a dynamic player like running back Devon Achane excels in a program with national title aspirations.

“Those days, to me, are over,” Fisher said. “You used to have to hype guys before the season, now all you have to do is watch. Back then you had to present a guy, because guys in other parts of the country never saw him play. Now, everybody knows everybody, and what Achane needs to do is just go play well.

“You go play well, and you get hyped from the get-go.”

Some longtime A&M fans have compared the agile

Achane to running back/return whiz Leeland McElroy, who starred for the Aggies in the mid-1990s when the Internet was still an infant.

Then-A&M coach R.C. Slocum, enthralled by McElroy’s game-changing attributes, uncharacteristically launched a preseason Heisman campaign.

“Entering 1995, Leeland had not even started at running back at A&M, but his numbers in the weight room were unbelievable,” recalled Alan Cannon, A&M’s veteran sports information director. “Coach Slocum is a lot like coach Fisher — you earn the awards by your play on the field. But coach Slocum also understood we were at a disadvantage since we were not on television in 1994.”

The Aggies had won three consecutive Southwest Conference titles from 1991 to 1993 but were not televised in 1994 because of NCAA probation. McElroy returned three kickoffs for touchdowns in 1993, and by his junior year of 1995 was primed to become a superstar.

So Cannon and his staff, through iconic Texas Football publisher Dave Campbell, the longtime Heisman regional chairman, acquired a list of Heisman voters.

“With the help of (longtime 12th Man Productions boss) Andy Richardson and our video folks, we felt like a video and information (campaign) would be helpful to send to national media to help promote and

remind media about Leeland and the Aggies,” Cannon said. “And as a team, we were ranked in the preseason top-10 polls.”

Brad Marquardt, A&M’s longtime assistant athletic director in communications, still has a videotape box and video from the summer of 1995 touting “Lectric Leeland,” and a splendid quote on the box from Austin American-Statesman sportswriter Rick Cantu that stands the test of time.

“Leeland McElroy,” opined Cantu, “is the fastest college player since Forrest Gump.”

The movie “Forrest Gump” with Tom Hanks as an Alabama speedster who just kept running, had come out the year before. Meantime, A&M’s sports information office mailed out

postcards and even cranked up a rudimentary website with McElroy’s updated stats.

Lectric Leeland opened the 1995 season with 229 rushing yards and 359 all-purpose yards against LSU, shattering the old SWC record in the latter category, and he sprang to the front of the early Heisman race. Alas, McElroy sprained his ankle a couple of games later, and the Aggies lost consecutive contests to Colorado and Texas Tech.

“The Heisman campaign took an exit off the information superhighway,” Cannon said.

The Aggies in 2012 lost their first game as Southeastern Conference members to Florida, but it was apparent they had a special quarterback in Manziel.

This time around, Twitter and

Facebook were prominent players in the Manziel hype machine through the fall of 2012, and the World Wide Web offered replays with the pecks of a few fingers on smart phones and tablets. A&M built a website dedicated to publicizing Manziel for the Heisman, like it had McElroy.

Now Achane, who also excels as a sprinter on the A&M track team, offers the Aggies perhaps their next best shot at an individual award.

“If you play well, people are going to see it immediately,” Fisher said with two snaps of his fingers. “There’s nothing to hide. Everybody knows everything right (away). Whatever you do, good or bad.”

Achane was all good during the Aggies’ 8-4 season in 2021, making a national name for himself with a 96-yard kick return for a touchdown in

A&M’s 41-38 toppling of thenNo. 1 Alabama in October at Kyle Field. Overall in 2021 he averaged 7.0 yards per carry and nearly 11.0 yards on 24 catches.

“We have video, photo and social media folks who can document and push out information to the world instantaneously, and we’ll keep an eye on notes of interest and records,” Cannon said of the plan moving forward for any candidates for individual awards.

But should Heisman voters expect “Dynamo Devon” domino sets or videotapes via snail mail this summer? Fisher has a better chance of coaching

A&M’s renowned equestrian team.

“The hype and all that stuff? I don’t think that’s needed,” Fisher said with a grin.

Brad Marquardt / Texas A&M Athletics Heisman hype campaigns, such as this one for Leeland McElroy in 1995, are mostly relics these days thanks to social media.