For most potential BCS scholarship hopefuls, the college recruitment process is the culmination of years of hard work and dedication to a sport they’ve been playing for their entire lives. Though Marquel Combs has certainly put in the work, football is relatively new to him—let alone the recruiting process.
In fact, Combs didn’t even start playing football until his senior season. Before that Combs say he was “just chillin”.
So it makes sense that Quel (as he prefers to be called) has taken a bit of a different approach than most top prospects in the country. For starters, Combs surprised nearly everyone in recruiting circles by turning down over 50 scholarship offers, most of which from BCS schools, and announced Tuesday night via his Twitter account @TheReal_92 (just before calling Kansas Coach Charlie Weis) that he would be attending the University of Kansas beginning the spring semester.
But Quel’s off the beaten path approach to determining his collegiate career doesn’t start or stop with his announcement. Combs has become an instrumental part of the recruiting process for not only himself but for the entire Kansas coaching staff.
Combs began a grass roots campaign to build a junior college dream team that consisted of the best of the best of the JUCO ranks with Combs being the centerpiece. Though neither Combs nor his band of brothers had any idea where they were heading, the pieces began falling into place late last week when JUCO players from all over the country (including Marcus Jenkins-Moore, Isaiah Johnson, and Cassius Sendish) began announcing their intention to sign with the Kansas Jayhawks.
When the announcements started coming, any savvy Twitter follower began seeing “#2013DreamTeam” pop up on various threads across the interwebs. This was the brain child of Combs who had envisioned building something special at a program not known for JUCO recruiting.
When TheShiver.com talked to Combs Wednesday night, he told us that he has received a ton of questions and second-guessing from confused fans from the SEC or even other Big 12 school. In fact, up until Tuesday, Combs had narrowed his decision down to two schools: Kansas and Big 12 Champions K-State Wildcats.
“I caught a lot of grief {announcement night} on Twitter”, says Combs. “There were a lot of K-State coaches calling me today giving me a whole lot of grief about Kansas. I’ve got a lot of grief but I’m not worried about that. I’m happy with my decision. My family is happy.”
Needless to say those visits to Manhattan likely won’t be with too much fanfare but Quel says that never played a factor in his decision.
“I’m always expecting anything that comes at me”, said Combs of the backlash. “I’m not worried about nothing. I’m ready to play and I’m ready to compete for a Big 12 Championship. I don’t worry about anyone else”
If you think Combs is crazy to have this much faith in a 1-11 football team, you may be right. But Quel has done his homework and believes, like many of us that watched the 2012 team to the end, that Kansas is much better than their record indicates.
“I know we can get it done”, says Combs. “On paper it looked like {Kansas} got beat a lot {last year} but if they make a few plays on offense and a few plays on the defensive side its different. They’re red-zone defense was number one, they’re 3rd down situation was top 5/top 3 in the Big 12. They just had trouble doing some things on 1st and 2nd down so bringing in {DreamTeam2013} will help a lot.”
Much like Quel’s new defensive coordinator Dave Campo has said on many occasions, playing/coaching defense in the Big 12 is a mighty task but one Quel is anxious to undertake.
“It’s basically a lot of quick passes and they spread you out a lot so I’m expecting that. There are a few teams that run a power set so I’m expecting that because we run that a lot {at Pierce C.C.} too. I’m prepared for all of it. I’m just ready to go down there, compete, and win.”
For a defense that was ranked dead last in the FBS in 2011, it’s a long shot to believe this Kansas defense could become one of the best in the Big 12 but Combs makes a pretty good case for his new D.
“From what I’ve heard, Ty {McKinney} is a very good player. This defense is going to be pretty special. You have straight up dogs up front. I can’t release the big name D-end we are working on but you have me, McKinney, Andrew Bolden from Mississippi Junior College, then you have Marcus {Jenkins-Moore}, Samson Faifili, then you have Cassius {Sendish}. Hopefully you have the kid from Butler, then Isaiah Johnson and hopefully Kevin Short”.
Though Combs is already displaying some strong leadership skills, he says #2013DreamTeam is less about being a leader and more about creating something special in Lawrence.
“I don’t know if I want to call myself a leader just yet. I live for my team. I will have my respect but I really just want everybody to feel like a family when they get that handwriting on the page. I want to get the fans involved. I want everyone involved so we can make football a big part of what’s known as a basketball school. Whatever we have to do, we gonna do it. As of right now we are working hard to sign the rest of our guys and keep them here. We’ve got a good group of guys coming in both on offense and defense. So I’m very happy with what we are doing right now”
Combs will make his commitment official on Dec. 19 and will be on campus during the spring for the annual Spring Game.
Can’t get enough Kansas Football talk?? Follow @JoshScotten on Twitter
Link to video for mobile devices
