Another East Texas star emerges

About this time every year more and more players come out of nowhere in the Lone Star State and end up having multiple scholarship offers. Carthage, Texas, cornerback Jason Teague is one of those players.

A virtual unknown early in the recruiting process, the 6-foot-2, 190-pound cornerback has now worked his way up to seven scholarship offers, including recent offers from both Texas A&M and Oklahoma.

It's all deserving if you ask his coach, Mike Bickham.

"Jason is a tremendous athlete," Bickham said. 'he's got the size those colleges like. They always like the tall kids. He's right about 6-foot-2 and 185, 190 pounds. He's kind of slender, too. He's got a good frame and good muscle mass. He has great speed and has great hips and change of direction.

"He can stop and start. Without a doubt this kid has great hips that are good enough to be an impact college defensive back."

What he is in high school is a little bit of everything. He plays running back, receiver, safety and is a contributor on special teams. As a junior he earned all-district honors after rushing for 432 yards and six touchdowns, picking off three passes and had two fumble recoveries. This season, he's exploded with 15 touchdowns at running back and at receiver.

"I play everywhere they need me to," Teague said. "But I think I'm going to be an athlete or a cornerback in college. I think I'm a good all-around player that can help the team where ever they need me to. I'll do what ever the coaches want. I just want to see the field when I get to college."

Bickham said he's seen Teague grow quite a bit in the year that he's been there as the coach of the Bulldogs. He said he had heard that Teague didn't have a killer attitude when he was first hired, but since day one Teague has worked hard for his new coach and has done nothing to disappoint.

"He's a good kid," his coach said. "I was told that his work habits weren't that good when I got here, but he's always been working hard for us and doing all the little things right. I think he's realized that this is his senior season and he's not going to get another chance to do things the right way.

"He's now playing some safety for us, too, and he's become more physical than I've ever seen him before. He'll now come up and knock the snot out of you."

Teague said he has offers from Oklahoma, TCU, Houston, UTEP, Arkansas, Baylor and Texas A&M. His coach was sure about all of the offers, other than Arkansas. At this point the star defender isn't thinking too much about the recruiting process but does have a good vibe from two coaches he's talked to.

"The coach from Houston (Randy Clements) calls all the time, and we just sit down and talk about things," Teague said. "I really like coach Clements. He's a good guy to talk to about things other than football.

"I also talked to Oklahoma coach Darrell Wyatt for the first time last week. They came by the school and then he called an offered me. I was impressed with talking to him and with the offer. It's a good one."

But don't expect Teague to rush into a decision. With the state playoffs coming in two weeks and his part-time job at Dairy Queen, he's not had a lot of time to think about the recruiting process.

"Right now, I'm really focused on finishing things out here at the high school," he said. "I want to help the team go as deep as we can in the playoffs. That's my first goal. Once that is done, then I'll look a little more at the schools that have offered me."