Kyle Rittenhouse to Texas A&M ruse is a sad sign for an opportunity wasted
Not only did Jimbo Fisher land the nation’s top recruiting class, he’s such a hit in College Station that famous teens are announcing their intentions to attend Texas A&M when they are not really going there.
Kyle Rittenhouse recently appeared on The Charlie Kirk show, during which he proudly put on a Texas A&M hat.
“Wow,” Kirk said. “He’s an Aggie.”
“I’m going to be going there and it’s going to be awesome,” said Rittenhouse, who claimed self-defense when he fatally shot two people during protests in 2019. “Beautiful campus. Amazing people. Amazing food. We went to Dixie’s Chicken there. Best burgers.”
It’s the Dixie Chicken. You know your academic institution has made it when aspiring students want to go there for the burgers.
“Are you going to join the Corps Cadets?” Kirk asked Rittenhouse.
“I haven’t decided yet,” Rittenhouse said. “I may.”
He’s not. It’s all a lie.
Shortly after Rittenhouse’s “pledge” went viral, A&M said he is not admitted for the summer or fall semesters.
It’s the similar statement Arizona State made when Rittenhouse said in December he was going there. According to the Arizona Republic, Rittenhouse had enrolled as a non-degree-seeking online student, and never applied to the school itself.
It sounds like Rittenhouse didn’t finish the first semester.
After all of this came out, he took to Twitter on Monday to say that he intends to attend Blinn College, which is located in Brenham, about 45 minutes from College Station. Blinn-to-A&M is a common path for students who don’t qualify just yet.
And, Blinn ain’t A&M.
“Unfortunately, the end of my high school career was robbed from me,” Rittenhouse on Twitter. “I didn’t have the time other students get to properly prepare for the future. I look forward to attending Blinn College District this year, a feeder school for Texas A&M. I’m excited to join Texas A&M in 2023!”
One of the real downsides to killing a couple of people in “self defense” is that it can ruin your senior year of high school.
Rittenhouse’s commitment to A&M speaks to the influence of the SEC on Texas A&M, and college sports on teens everywhere.
If he’s not careful, and nothing suggests he is, Rittenhouse is on a slow ride to sad.
The young man is going to blow his chance at a better life. The people inviting him to swank parties and to appear on their big media platforms will soon move on.
He doesn’t know they are using him for content between commercial breaks. He doesn’t know that behind his back, now more than ever, they’re laughing at him.
If he was smart, and nothing suggests he is, Rittenhouse would be using these potentially lucrative connections for a path to the rest of his life.
Instead, his faux commitment to Texas A&M may be the final seconds of his 15 minutes.
Rittenhouse, 19, was acquitted last year of charges relating to his fatal shooting of two men in the summer of 2020 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during protests against racism and police brutality.
Rittenhouse was 17 when he left his home in Antioch, Illinois, and drove 20 miles to Kenosha with a semiautomatic rifle.
He’s lucky he’s alive.
He’s lucky he’s not Black. If Rittenhouse was a Black teen, he would not be on TV shows telling the world where he’s going to college to eat burgers. He would be in prison doing hard time.
Instead, Rittenhouse continues to make the rounds as a gun-rights activist when he knows little about the laws and the protections he abused to the disappointment of law-abiding gun owners everywhere.
He’s just a dumb 19-year-old who wants to go to a fun college without having to work.
In this case, he wants to go to Texas A&M. Because Texas A&M is in the SEC, and nothing in America’s higher education model screams “fun” like “S-E-C! S-E-C!”
Rittenhouse wants to be the high school senior who sits behind a table of five hats and announces he’s signed with Texas A&M to play football. Or Kansas to play basketball.
Or Alaska-Fairbanks to join its men’s rifle team.
Watching Rittenhouse go through this hat charade is reminiscent of Kevin Hart (not the comedian).
In 2008, Hart was a high school football offensive lineman in Fernley, Nevada. He dreamed of his national signing day moment, of sitting in a crowded gym and putting on a hat of one of the many Pac-10 schools that wanted him.
He made that dream happen, complete with a press conference during which he announced he would attend and play for California.
Hart made it all up. Those big, power teams didn’t want him, and there was no scholarship offer.
Because of injuries and academics, he spent the next four years at Feather River Community College in Quincy, California. He worked through it all and became a first-team all-region selection.
After that, he had his signing day moment in 2012 when he signed with Division II Missouri Western State. He redshirted his first season, and left after that year to be closer to his family.
After that, the Kevin Hart trail goes cold, replaced by a Kevin Hart of global popularity.
A name like Kyle Rittenhouse will offer no such doppelgänger.
On Google, Kyle Rittenhouse will be Kyle Rittenhouse forever.
Kyle Rittenhouse was cleared by a jury of his peers and was granted a chance he’s lucky to have.
Rather than take full advantage of all of it, he’s creating fake signing day announcements when no offer has been made.
He’s not going to Arizona State.
He’s not going to Texas A&M.
It looks more like Kyle Rittenhouse is not going anywhere.
This story was originally published June 6, 2022 at 3:52 PM.
