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Baylor's Big Wednesday: 2017 QB Kellen Mond and WR Hezekiah Jones Commit

What seemed like a relatively normal Wednesday going in turned out to be everything but as two 4* in-state recruits gave their pledges to Art Briles' program.

By Mark C. Moore
Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

About this time yesterday evening, we got word that a star-studded group of talented recruits from the 2017 class would be visiting Baylor today, taking in the sights and talking to the coaches.  Never in our wildest dreams would we have guessed how things would turn out less than 24 hours later.

Starting at the beginning, Art Briles and his staff welcomed at least 4, probably more, outstanding 2017 recruits to campus today.  These are the ones we know for sure were there:

QB Kellen Mond | 4* | Reagan HS (San Antonio, TX)
WR Hezekiah Jones | 4* | Stafford HS (Stafford, TX)
WR Jhamon Ausbon | 4* | St. Thomas HS (Houston, TX)
DT Marvin Wilson | 5* | Episcopal HS (Bellaire, TX)
S Donovan Stiner | UR | Bellaire HS (Bellaire, TX)

Of those five, the first three were the most-known quantities, at least to me.  They're friends, they've talked about playing together at the next level, and all three visited Baylor's camps this summer at various times.  The fourth, Wilson, is a 5* DT that I somehow didn't know existed, and those are always fun to discover, especially when you do so in the context of them visiting your school.  The fifth, Stiner, earned a Baylor offer on June 8 after strong performances at our camps and looks primed to blow up in recruiting.

So, if nothing else happened, the fact that we had 4 very highly-regarded recruits on campus at the same time, with 2016 4* RB commit Kam Martin, would be worthy of note.  But around 3:30, a couple of somethings else happened...

Close connoisseurs of various area codes in the State of Texas, assuming such people exist, decoded Briles' standard commit tweet to mean that Baylor had just landed the first two commits of its 2017 class: one from San Antonio, and another from Houston.  Those commits turned out to be QB Kellen Mond and WR Hezekiah Jones.  But names aren't enough; we need to go deeper.

QB Kellen Mond

School: Reagan HS (San Antonio, TX)
Mascot: Rattlers
Height: 6-3
Weight: 194 lbs
Rankings: Composite: 89.43 (4*, #266 Nat'l, #7 DT/QB), 247: 90 (4*, #233 Nat'l, #7 DT/QB)
Profiles: 247Sports, Rivals, Scout, ESPN
Offers: Baylor, Auburn, Clemson, A&M, TCU
Video: HUDL

Mond is a tall, athletic QB from Central Texas with a strong arm and prodigious production considering he's only played his sophomore year in high school thus far.  In 2014, he led his team to the 6A Division 1 Quarterfinals before losing to Converse Judson, throwing for 1700 yards and 20 TDs against just 4 INTs and running for another 1100 and 14 TDs.  Oh, and he's #11.

WR Hezekiah Jones

School: Stafford HS (Stafford, TX)
Mascot: Spartans
Height: 6-0
Weight: 185 lbs
Rankings: Composite: 96.43 (4*, #90 Nat'l, #13 WR), 247: 93 (4*, #90 Nat'l, #13 WR)
Profiles: 247Sports, Rivals, Scout, ESPN
Offers: Baylor, Texas, Oklahoma, A&M, Michigan, TCU, UCLA, others
Video: HUDL

Remember Robbie Rhodes? Meet this year's version. According to Wescott Eberts over at BON, as a freshman, Hezekiah posted the fastest 200m time in the entire country (for a freshman) at the state track meet, finishing third behind two seniors.  This year, he won the dang thing at the 4A level with a 21.35.  That's scorching.  He's an elite talent at the WR position with an offer list that is already incredible, but will only get better.

Also, he threw out this little teaser to really get the blood going...

You might want to get used to that hashtag; Mond used it, too.

It'll be interesting to see what else, if anything, happens over the coming days.  There are rumors going around that Baylor may get another commit or two for the 2017 class from the group that visited today, but those are only rumors.  Until they happen, I'll be happy enough starting out our 2017 class with a huge bang.

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