SMU commit James Proche excited for future at SMU with Chad Morris and Claude Mathis

On his first day on the job, new SMU coach Chad Morris first stop on the recruiting trail in Dallas was to DeSoto High School to visit 2015 commit and Rivals three-star James Proche.

Right off the bat, Proche was very excited about how the events of the day unfolded.

"I've had a busy, successful, and amazing day so far. I didn't know Morris was coming today and I wasn't at school so coach called me up and I went to school, coach (Claude) Mathis was with me to talk to them," Proche told the HillTopics. "At school it was just introductions. Obviously neither of us knew each other yet but he knew about me and I knew about him and it was an immediate connection. I'd done my research, he'd done his research, and it was just something special."

Proche described his first impressions of both Morris and new offensive coordinator Joe Craddock from their short meeting at DeSoto.

"Morris is a god-fearing man. That's what I look for in a coach and the whole staff seems really religious and I feel very strongly about my faith and it seems like they do too," Proche said. "Coach Craddock is amazing. He's a down to earth, cool guy. I've known him not even 24 hours and that's something I know already."

Four new coaches went to visit Proche at home Tuesday night, joining Morris and Craddock were new wide receivers coach Justin Stepp and offensive line coach Dustin Fry.

"Coach Morris and my mom talked about my education while me and the other coaches talked about the other recruits, my personal life, we Facetimed my girlfriend and they met her. It was just a lot of fun."

In the past few days Morris has brought on several new members to his coaching squad including Proche's new position coach.

"Me and coach Stepp talked and I can tell that he is going to be the type of coach that loves his players and his job and he's not the type that's just trying to move up. I can tell he wants to be here and he wants to do his job."

Proche said he could quickly get a feel for what the coaches have in mind for the coming season and what they want to accomplish moving forward.

"They're about business. Most coaches come in and they're like 'Oh it'll take a few years to turn things around', no these coaches, right off the bat, these coaches are like, we're going to reach a bowl game. And it's not even cockiness, it's about having a plan and they have a plan on how to get us where we need to be," Proche said. "I could tell, well most coaches are scripted and they say the same things to everyone, but these guys were genuine. These guys aren't trying to take what the previous coaches have and fix it. They are completely wiping the slate and starting from scratch."

Among topics discussed in the home visit, Proche and the coaches talked about his potential future teammates.

"As far as people that are already committed, I don't know where they stand but they are heavily after Chason Virgil, they're really hot on him. He has the relationship with Morris because they recruited him for Clemson. He's a dual-threat quarterback and he's really good at moving the ball," Proche said. " I'm working on bringing in several others."

Proche knows that senior DeSoto wideout Kevin Thomas (who committed to Kansas when Charlie Weis was still coach) is an SMU target and he's even taking recruiting into his own hands attempting to sway an Arkansas commit to come to SMU.

While Proche discussed his life with the assistant coaches, coach Morris had a private conversation with his mother about his future.

"My mom was already sold on SMU for the education and now that we have the opportunity to change the whole program, she's happy about that and she knows I love football."

Not only was coach Morris at DeSoto to talk to Proche, he was also on the hunt for a running backs coach which, according to Proche, will be his current head coach, Claude Mathis.

"It's great, not many people have their high school coach coming in to be their college coach for another four years and he's excited to be on the pony express just like me and it's a blessing," Proche said. "As my coach in high school, he just has a real passion for the game and he works hard in every practice and he just preaches that you can't take days off, that'll make him successful in the college coach position I think."​