Jeremy Springer from Marshall Univeristy.

This is one I know so much about. Many know I have been coaching here in East Texas with my best friend Scott Ford. Ford was the HC at Los Fresnos HS which is in the deep Valley of Texas, 8 miles from Mexico . As many know I  left coaching coaching at my Alma mater Sam Houston St, North Texas and La Tech.  Was sick of moving around as I coached at all those places in 5 years after my playing days at Sam.  Got a job working for Wilson sports selling Golf equipment and split to Panama City, Fl that would serve as my home base for roughly the next 20 years.  I had always told Ford that if he ever moved back to our home area, NE Texas I would move back and coach with him again. We grew up together and played in HS and college together and coached at Sam and UNT together ( the movie Necessary Roughness was filmed at UNT when I was there, my HS coach whom at that time was the HC at UNT was in the movie, if you remember the prison guard by the bus that shot the shotgun, big ole bald headed guy, that is Dennis Parker the HC at UNT at the time) ( ask me about the movie Friday Nite lights and how my HS team was in the movie, they incorrectly say we lost to Permian but we beat them with Parker as HC then, I have hated the movie since that snub, in the book it has it correctly that we won, Marshall High School).  I digress...  Ford took a job back here in east Texas just 11 miles from our hometown back in 2013, so I  sold my business that I had started after leaving Golf sales ( mobile home business) and moved back home. It has been great.

While at Los Fresnos I would go visit Ford 2-3 times a year, fly down and have a ball. Los Fresnos is actually 6 miles from Padre Island, so it wasnt like I was going into the middle of nowhere. Great golf courses and beaches and fishing, just like Panama City ( even though PC has the most beautiful sugar sand white beaches anywhere).

I got to know a ton of his players there and got to know Springer and his twin brother Justin. In that same class at Los Fresnos was OL Mario Benavides and OL Eloy Atkinson. I knew them from the 7th grade on up till today.
When they got to be varsity players, all were varsity players as sophs. They played in 5A football, at that time the largest classification in Texas. Their 3 years as starters on varsity they had a combined record of 32-4 and had won 20 straight district games.

Jeremy was a record setting QB, signed with UTEP. After playing sparingly his first 2 years the team needed help at LB, so without hesitation he agreed to move. Started 2 years at LB and made all conference his SR year.  6'2" 225 then.  After playing career was over, stayed on as a GA under then special teams coordinator Jeff Banks ( yes that Jeff Banks) and after a year banks took the ST Coordinator job at A&M so Jeremy followed there as a GA. When Sumlin was let go at A&M, Banks went to Alabama as STC and Sumlin got the AZ job and he hired Jeremy as his STC.  Jeremy left there after 3 years to take the STC job at Marshall U and now Kiffin just hired him.  Great young man and coach, great recruiter and worker. Home Run hire by OM   I have kept in contact over the years, have his cell number and got  a text last night that said, Hoddy Toddy, tix on me this fall, so looks like I will slide into Oxford one weekend this fall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7z2mQCTvQo


His brother Justin signed with Kansas and played LB there 6'4" 250 and started for 3 years including the Orange Bowl.  stayed on under Mangino as asst strength coach for several years, then went to Rutgers as asst strength coach for a few years, then joined his brother in U of Arizona for 2 years.  Then got a offer to move to LA and train pro athletes, so he is doing that now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztbDeR8b07o&t=11s


Eloy Atkinson went on to start at center for UTEP for 3 years, 6'4" 320 and then sign on to play for the Chiefs and Giants a couple of years.  Still one of the best HS OL I have watched and his HS highlight take is still top 5 of all time to me and it is just his JR year of HS highlights.  Watch when you get time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8cawHN7xrs&t=6s



Now we get to Mario Benavides.  Many OM fans remember the name from the 2008 class.  I , as many know have had a long relationship with Ed O. so i called him about both Eloy, Mario and the Springer boys. being from down in the Texas valley, not too many people other than that area knew about them. It wasnt/isnt a hot bead of top rated recruits. It's 98% Hispanic and Ford just found himself in a good situation when a few families from up north moved down south for jobs with the border patrol and a few young men had come back from the military years prior and were married to German/Italian/Finnish ladies and they had children that were entering middle school about the time Ford was hired.
I had Ford send Ed O the highlights of all 4 and Ed called me and told me "Rock, dont let anyone get too them" . I said Ed, I am in Fl, but coach Ford has them all waiting for you. Ed sends . He had Freeze, Keohe ( OL Coach) and Thompson the DC go visit them.   They offered Mario and he commits  very soon after the visit. They had interest in Atkison and Justin Springer. Jeremy wanted to play QB and they just didnt see him as a SEC Qb ( good eval)

I will say, the interest from Ed O and OM jump started all of their recruitment, once people knew Ed O was snooping around, then knew there were some players around. people forget, Ed O at the time was unmatched as a recruiter.

Back to Mario, he committed to OM sight unseen in April 2007.  He and his family drove the 15 hour trip to Oxford to visit for a few days at the end of July 2007.   After the OM offer and commit, the offers came out of the woodwork. =12pxBaylor, Rice, SMU, Texas Tech, North Texas, Notre Dame Houston. Ole Miss, Iowa State, Louisville, UTEP, New Mexico, ASU,and Navy to just name a few I remember ( Ford tells a great story of the Notre Dame coaches and their visit to Los Fresnos lol).    He and the family were thrilled after the visit, loved OM and Oxford. Get back to Los Fresnos and Mario is finishing his rehab from shoulder surgery getting ready for week 1 in Sept.
Unknow to Ford is the coaches at Louisville had started to contact Mario and his mother. Ford;s policy has always been, once you are committed, all other talk to other schools ends, you are committed or not.
This is HC Steve Kragthorpe and asst Tony Alford.  Both knew Mario's mother was German and was very sensitive about racial things including biracial things as his dad is Hispanic.  Kragthorpe and Alford both started with the questions like, did you see confederate flags around town, etc. Just beat the racial drums until his mother basically refused to let him go to OM. Scheduled a official to UL the next week, visited and he committed to Louisville shortly there after, I think the first of Oct.  He went on to have a great career at UL , 3 year starter, Rimington watch list, signed with Buffalo and eventually had to quit because of shoulder issues.  No idea how things would have ended up with Mario and OM since Ed O was fired that year after the Egg Bowl collapse.

I have always held it against Kragthorpe and Alford to use the lowest tactic in the book on a family. When they got fired at UL I laughed.


Still the best HS OL highlights I can remember seeing.  Just 10 minuted of beating people up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQnrDGSeM9E&t=212s






As you can tell, very excited about Jeremy at OM
 

Last edited by Rock1Aggie (2/13/2022 10:02 am)