Mason Gentry Talks About Commitment!
On Monday night the SMU coaching staff got a call from Plano West 2013 defensive end Mason Gentry.
"I called coach Mason and told him that I wanted to commit," said Gentry. "He was really excited and said he was glad to have me."
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The commitment came just a day after the local prospect made an official visit to the Hilltop.
"When I was on my visit I really enjoyed it. The way the football team is run is phenomenal. Along with that I felt like there wasn't a better school out there that would give me a better opportunity, especially in the city of Dallas."
Gentry, who received interest from Louisiana Tech and TCU along with his offer from the Mustangs, talked extensively with defensive coordinator Tom Mason while on campus and likes the plan they have for him moving forward.
"They said that they see me as a defensive end and red shirting my freshman year so that I can get in the weight room and learn the position more. Even before they said that, I thought it would be a good idea to red shirt since I haven't played long."
The 6-foot-7, 250-pound defensive end is in his first year of playing football as he grew up playing baseball and he admits it's been a busy year for him.
"It has been a pretty wild year because my first game I was awful. I didn't know what was going on or what to do. But I kept getting better every game and then after 3-4 district games I was starting to get some looks from colleges."
While Gentry has a good build for the game there was a specific reason why his parents hadn't wanted him to play football before this season.
"My dad never wanted me to play since I was growing so fast. I was growing about a foot a year there for a while it felt like so he thought I would get hurt since I was still getting used to being as tall as I am."
Another thing that made Gentry like the Mustangs so much is the fact that they have experience in teaching tall defensive ends who are new to the game.
"I got to talk to Margus Hunt a little while on campus and the coaching staff told me his story. It made me like them a lot more since they have recently had a guy who was new to the game on their team."
Before pulling the trigger and giving his pledge to the SMU coaching staff, the big defensive end talked to a few important people in his life.
"I talked about it with my coaches and my parents. Both of them liked it and thought I was making a good decision to go to a very good school. My parents are happy that it's close to home too, it's only about 15 minutes from my house."
Now that he has committed Gentry says that he is done with the recruiting process and will not be looking around anymore.