Southwest Recruiting Notebook
James Hanna
James Hanna
Scout.com
Posted Apr 11, 2007


In this week's Southwest recruiting notebook, Scout.com takes a look at some of the top recruiting targets that have emerged after the initial opening wave of early commitments. Will these players be the hottest names down the stretch towards National Letter of Intent Day 2008?

James Hanna, a 6-foot-5, 215-pound receiver from Flower Mound High in Lewisville, Texas was excited when he received the news that the Oklahoma State Cowboys were offering him an official scholarship.

“It just felt great,” Hanna explained of his emotions after receiving the news that the offer was in the mail. “It was probably one of the biggest things that ever happened to me.”

“They did not actually specify a position. They had me talk to the wide receiver coach and the tight end coach, so I am not exactly sure.”

In addition to Oklahoma State he is interested in programs like Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Texas and SMU.

Notre Dame and Michigan were two new schools that have started to recruit Hanna with more fervor, and Hanna has some connections in the Midwest due to the fact that he was born in Oxford, Ohio.

“Those are two big ones for me,” Hanna informed. “They have been talking to my coaches and communicating with me whenever they can. Coach DeBord from Michigan told me that he was going to be coming down and watching some spring ball.”

Hanna was one of the top performers at the Scout.com Combine that was held in Dallas on March 25 earning All-Combine honors after he ran a 4.53 forty-yard dash and a 4.17 pro-shuttle.

“I was pretty happy how I performed in most of the drills,” Hanna said. “I think that it really helped because all of that stuff is free on the internet where all of the coaches can see it and read about it.”

As a junior, Hanna reports he racked up around 20 catches for 350 yards and two touchdowns to earn second team All-District honors.



HawgsIllustrated.com


Tyler Barnes
Tyler Barnes is a solid offensive lineman from Bentonville that will be generating an abundance of recruiting interest throughout the process. He now has numerous visits set up over the coming weeks.

Barnes, a 6-foot-5, 290-pound offensive lineman from Bentonville High in Arkansas, is hearing from a number of programs, but has yet to reel in his first official scholarship offer.

Barnes will look to raise his recruiting stock by competing in the Scout.com all-American Combine in Kansas City on May 14th.

“Recruiting is going pretty good,” Barnes said. “I have been meeting lots of contacts and making lost of contacts lately.”

“I am looking forward to the Scout Combine. I have been training very hard for it. I have been working hard in the weight room and I have been working with a trainer for all of the drills.”

“Truthfully though I am mainly going for the competition,” Barnes continued. “I want to go up against some of the other top athletes and see what I can do against that level of competition.”

Barnes is hearing from a wide variety of programs.

“Arkansas is of course my number one choice right now, but I am open to everybody,” Barnes explained. “I am receiving letters from Kansas, Georgia Tech, Arizona and Tulsa.”



InsideTexas.com


Garland, Texas defensive end Chancey Aghayere got plenty of early attention from Big 12 programs, but over the last month he has hearing from schools all over the map. In fact, he has added three more offers over the past two weeks. Nobody has taken the lead at this point in time, but five schools have started to separate themselves from the rest of pack.

“The schools that I am most interested in are Texas, Oklahoma, the University of Florida, Notre Dame and LSU,” Chancey Aghayere said.

Every school in his top five has already offered and Aghayere attended junior days at both Texas and Oklahoma. He liked the down to earth atmosphere in Austin and the campus in Norman. From academics to location, Aghayere likes something different about each of the schools that he has yet to visit.

“At Notre Dame when you graduate, it is looked at like a degree from Harvard, Princeton or Yale. Those are some of the best schools that you can go to,” Aghayere said.

“With Florida, I really like the weather. I don’t like the cold and I don’t like to play in the cold. It is always warm in Florida.”

“I like LSU because it’s close to Texas. I have been to New Orleans before,” Aghayere added. Aghayere’s offer total has climbed to 12 over the past couple of weeks. The latest schools to offer are USC, LSU and Oklahoma State. He also has offers from Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Baylor, Purdue, Notre Dame, Florida and Vanderbilt.

Aghayere is planning on attending summer camps at several of the schools in or around the Lone Star State.

“Only the ones that are close to home,” Aghayere said when asked about summer camps. “I will probably go to Texas, OU, LSU and OSU.



Related Stories
Aghayere has Tigers in top 5
 -by TigerSportsDigest.com  Apr 11, 2007
Barnes is All Booked Up
 -by HawgsIllustrated.com  Apr 9, 2007
Chancey Aghayere: Shake Up In His Top 5
 -by TexasScout.com  Apr 9, 2007

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DE Chancey Aghayere (profile)
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