Kevin Sumlin: Death threats tweeted to recruits

Kevin Sumlin is a fan of social media and uses it as a recruiting tool. (Scott Halleran/Getty Images)

Texas A&M football coach Kevin Sumlin told The Jim Rome Show on Wednesday he's worried about how social media is being used in dangerous ways to threaten recruits and players.

Sumlin is a fan of social media and often uses Twitter as a recruiting tool, but its use by disgruntled opposing fanbases to threaten and intimidate potential Aggies signees prior to last week's National Signing Day got scary. Sumlin said it brought guys to tears and scared their families.

“There’s so much going on right now with early commitments and everything around signing day,” Sumlin said. “You have one fanbase that’s incredibly happy and being extremely positive with these guys and then you have another fanbase, or a couple fanbases, that are issuing death threats and posting pictures of shotguns and things like that. It may not seem that serious to the people that are doing it but I’ve seen these guys in tears. I’ve had parents that are concerned. It’s a serious situation.”

Sumlin continues to embrace social media and its ability to promote and grow college football, he just wishes fans would direct their passion for their team in more positive ways, especially when contacting teenaged recruits.

“We’re in a really, really interesting time,” said Sumlin. “The NCAA just came out with figures, the highest attending year in college football history, and it surpassed last year. So there’s a lot of exposure, there’s a lot of positive things that are going, particularly with college athletics and college football. But you have to take the good with the bad, and that same passion that a lot of fans have that is extremely positive, unfortunately there are a few people out there who take that passion the other way, at the expense of younger adults.”

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