It seemed to make sense to Jarrett Stidham at the time.

The quarterback was transferring from Baylor, and Texas A&M wasn’t too far away. It would also give Stidham the chance to stay close to family and friends.

Instead, Stidham made a different decision in late 2016 — he was going to Auburn. And part of the reason was that Kevin Sumlin, the coach at Texas A&M at the time, didn’t make much of a push to try to convince Stidham otherwise.

“Honestly, Coach Sumlin, he didn’t recruit me too hard. I probably tried to recruit myself to A&M a little bit harder,” Stidham said while meeting with reporters at SEC Media Days on Thursday. “Just because it was in-state, it was right down the road from where I was there in Waco. I had some family go to A&M before. Ideally, A&M was a close spot, I could see my family whenever I wanted and that kind of thing. But at the end of the day, I honestly kind of knew from the get-go that I was probably going to end up at Auburn. Regardless of going through the recruiting process again or not, I think I kind of knew that Auburn was the spot for me, and sure enough, it worked out.”

Stidham added that he hardly talked to Sumlin and was in contact more with Noel Mazzone, who was then the offensive coordinator at Texas A&M.

Last year, Stidham played at Kyle Field as a visitor, leading the Tigers to a 42-27 win over the Aggies on Nov. 4, a victory that the Auburn quarterback said was “very satisfying.”