Two football players sign with UTRGV filled with ties to San Marcos

Two San Marcos Rattler football players will continue both their college education and athletic careers following National Signing Day.

Offensive lineman Brenden Jones and wide receiver Tony Diaz signed the dotted line in front of their friends and family to celebrate the occasion.

“Anytime we have athletes that are motivated to continue their education at the next level and it involves sports, it makes the hard work that the staff and players do from the 7th grade up worth it,” Athletic Director and Head Football Coach John Walsh said.”

Both Jones and Diaz will begin their college career at the same place as the duo both signed to play football for the UT-Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros who will start football in 2025 and will be part of the first ever football signing class at UTRGV.

“It feels good,” Jones said. “It’s been a long recruiting season for me, because my recruiting came in a little bit later. It’s been a long time coming to this.”

For Diaz, signing the to play football in college was a special moment.

“It feels good, and it lifts a lot off my shoulders,” Diaz said. “I’ve been working for this day. It’s a great day to celebrate.”

One of the reasons both Jones and Diaz opted to sign with UTRGV is the ties many of the coaches have to the San Marcos area.

Head Coach Travis Bush was a football coaching assistant at San Marcos High School, after graduating from Southwest Texas State, in 2000, where the Rattlers won their first district championship since 1966.

Bush later returned to Texas State as a wide receivers coach before becoming the offensive coordinator in 2007 through 2010.

Bush’s father, Bruce Bush, is also on the staff at UTRGV as the director of high school relations.

The elder Bush was the Head Football Coach of the San Marcos Rattlers from 1997 through 2004 and led the program to two district championships, seven playoff appearances and failed to have a losing season in his eight seasons “From the time I got here, the Bush family has had nothing but positive words said about them,” Walsh said. “It’s good to know that there are two coaches who believe San Marcos means something to them.”

Another name familiar with San Marcos is UTRGV defensive line coach Nate Longford.

Longford graduated from San Marcos High School in 2003 playing under Bruce Bush and Travis Bush before signing with Texas State where he was a part of the 2005 conference championship winning team.

Before joining UTRGV, Longford was previously the head football coach of Luling High School where he helped the Eagles snap a 31 game losing streak.

With the majority of the coaches having connections in the area, Jones felt UTRGV was the place to be.

“[There are] strong ties to San Marcos,” Jones said. “They are really nice people, a nice program and I have belief in the coaches. … Some of my coaches played under Coach Bush and his staff over there. That was one of the big pull factors for me playing at UTRGV.”

Diaz agreed with his teammate.

“The faculty there were great to me,” Diaz said. “I love all the coaches, the environment was nice, it felt like home. I felt this is where I wanted to be.”

As someone who knows about building a program from scratch at Denton Guyer, Walsh is appreciative of what Bush has done at UTRGV.

“Coach Bush has done a great job explaining what their program is going to be about,” Walsh said. “They have invested money into the facilities. Coming from a guy who started a high school program from the ground up, there are a lot of specialties that take being the first player. There will be some huge benchmarks over there.”

cmcwilliams @sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc