The end of football season has descended upon us, and until late August, most fans will have to sit idly by and debate with others about who will win the Alabama game next year. However, for those that want a sneak peek at the next season, one needs to look no further than the recruits Coach Kevin Sumlin has brought in this year. Sports writers love to analyze the recruits, grade each school's recruiting class, and even break down how many recruits were "5-stars", "4-stars", and "3-stars". However, as expected, writers hold different opinions, and these opinions are sometimes not immediately evident. By examining the way the author constructs his argument for how well Texas A&M recruited this year, we will be able to tell what kinds of attitudes they are trying to bring out of the reader.
Wescott Eberts of SBNation (link) makes a claim about the class right off the bat, using the title "...Smiles all around", words of pathos, to evoke an emotional response from the reader. He has not yet quoted any facts, but has already started manipulating the reader's emotions. Facts do not come until later in the article, when the author calls the receivers that were recruited "talented", and goes on to give the grade an A-. Later in the article, the author evokes some sentimental feelings for fans of Texas A&M football, by discussing the "rise of Texas A&M" and how this really hurt LSU's recruiting class this season. All around, this author is showing nothing but praise for the Aggies.
On the other hand, while not explicitly negative, Kate Hairopoulos of SportsDayDFW (link) is a bit more cautious when discussing the recruits. She is careful when describing the class as ranked #8 by ESPN to also point out that the class is still ranked #5 in the SEC. Her headlines in the article are "maybe later", "still searching", and "notable", respectively. The careful use of words that are not too sensationalistic seems to provide the idea that, while the recruits are good, they were not something that has not been seen before in the history of college sports.
Overall, the tone in Hairopoulos's article seems to reflect the attitude that most fans perhaps even have: caution. After such a great season, some peopl, such as Eberts of SBNation, prefer to play up the momentum that Texas A&M developed and carry it on into the offseason, but others prefer to stick to reason and hope for the best but stay grounded in the reality that this season was something special, not something to be taken for granted.
Our season this past year was exceptionally special for all Aggies. I believe that we showed the entire nation how strong Texas A&M truly is when it comes to our teams and our student body as a whole. The season started off great this past year with winning the College Game Day Commercial and having them show up to our debut game of the season. I know I made several memories that I will always be able to talk about. As far as these two articles go, great job on finding two quite contradictory opinions. I know I looked through articles regarding the national signing day and it was hard to find an article that had anything negative to say about A&M's recruiting class. I am curious if there was anything you found besides the diction and tone of the DFW reporter's article that led you to believe it was not in support of the Aggie recruiting class. Did the reporter use facts(logos)? I doubt she did!
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