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👍🏻2022 Texas A&M Aggies Thread👍🏻


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13 hours ago, WETSU said:

Yea people think  Evan Stewart got paid just to come to A&M. They don’t factor in that his twitter following his enormous. He’s truly a marketing asset not just pay for play type player. It’s just sour grapes. There’s not a high school kid alive that passes up millions of a nfl contract for a few hundred thousand. It not be developed. People have a hard time accepting that A&M as a program is just as capable as “the big boys” of college football. They truly think A&M only bought this class. Let them think that. 

Oh don't you worry. A&M may have caught the Big Boys flat footed this year, the Big Boys will round up the big $ donors going forward. Got to give A&M plenty of credit for beating everyone to the punch. About to get real crazy....

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2 hours ago, eagle34 said:

Oh don't you worry. A&M may have caught the Big Boys flat footed this year, the Big Boys will round up the big $ donors going forward. Got to give A&M plenty of credit for beating everyone to the punch. About to get real crazy....

In terms of money, A&M is a big boy lol. They are in the top 3 in revenue and donations yearly and have been for a few years now. 
 

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25 minutes ago, Nick2011 said:

Pressure is now on Jimbo and staff. They got the dogs they wanted, now it’s time for results. Amazing class. 

I’ve seen most polls have them preseason top 5. Bama is the heavy favorite this year with Young and Anderson returning, but when they both leave next year and A&M gets them at home with a second year QB at the helm I believe that’s the year. Jimbo is on the clock for sure though. 2 more years max without making the playoffs would be a failure. 

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47 minutes ago, Nick2011 said:

Pressure is now on Jimbo and staff. They got the dogs they wanted, now it’s time for results. Amazing class. 

 

20 minutes ago, WETSU said:

I’ve seen most polls have them preseason top 5. Bama is the heavy favorite this year with Young and Anderson returning, but when they both leave next year and A&M gets them at home with a second year QB at the helm I believe that’s the year. Jimbo is on the clock for sure though. 2 more years max without making the playoffs would be a failure. 

This a clock starter class. 3 years. If this isn’t a CFP team within those 3 years it’s time to really look hard at why not. There’s still some questions we asked last year that we’ll have answer again this year.

What do have at QB in King and Johnson?

What’s the o-line look like without Kenyon Green?

What will Durkin’s defense look like especially with the young talent? 

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32 minutes ago, WETSU said:

What makes you think it’s getting regulated. Or that his reclassification is money driven? 

1) I think that what the Texas schools are doing is not the intention of the rule, so I hope for the sport it is fixed. 
 

2) Everything is about money.

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28 minutes ago, WETSU said:

What makes you think it’s getting regulated.  

Who would regulate it? And how? 

Just for fun...  let's say the NCAA accuses A&M of just outright pay for play (whatever that means these days), and they want to issue a post-season ban or other symbolic gesture. How do they enforce it? They can't. There would be a cascade of lawsuits and state legislation. 

NCAA is a paper tiger. The power has shifted. If they want to stick around, they'll do whatever they can to keep the big moneymakers happy. 

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2 minutes ago, Valhalla said:

1) I think that what the Texas schools are doing is not the intention of the rule, so I hope for the sport it is fixed. 

The sport you hope for, exists only in your dreams. Players have free agency and singing bonuses. 

It's minor league professional football now. 

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There was a point near the end of the season that people thought Alabama was the heavy favorite for North Shore five-star cornerback Denver Harris. However, I had actually heard from somebody I trust that it was down to A&M and LSU at that point. I shared that on the board and then I went to North Shore’s playoff game against Atascocita that Friday night.

I was interviewing Harris after the game and his answers were all very generic, on purpose. Everybody is even out of the four schools and things like that. He was going out of his way to not give anything away at all.

So, I turn off the recorder after about a 50-second interview that was pretty much not usable and, I’ve gotten to know Harris well throughout the process, so I just said to him, “I know it’s down to A&M and LSU.” And he told me I was definitely correct. And he said to put it out there. But then he rethought things and said, “Just say it was from someone anonymous.” He didn’t want to hear a bunch from Alabama and Texas for saying it but wanted people to know what was going on. So I posted on a thread after the game that I had confirmed it was A&M and LSU. I couldn’t say who I confirmed it with, though.

As an aside, Harris never liked doing formal interviews and, if you look back, there was close to a 12-month period that he didn’t do any. But, he was always great to just chat with and would tell me things casually. We also had a deal that I wouldn’t bug him for updates if he just kept me in the loop regarding any visits. So, most things I ever posted about Harris came from Denver himself.

Fast forward a few weeks and I was at the Touchdown Club banquet when news had just come out that day that defensive backs coach Corey Raymond was leaving LSU. I talked to someone there that knew him well and they simply said, “Yeah, it’s definitely A&M now.” So that is when I put in the Crystal Ball prediction, from there.

Texas actually did a good job getting back in it late, but he had pretty much been committed to A&M for a while in his mind already, so the Aggies had an advantage. He announced after the state title game, which was on a Saturday, but the Early Signing Period only went from Wednesday to Friday. Harris obviously signed early but he did not wait until Friday to do so. He sent his in pretty early on Wednesday, so he had been locked in the whole time from then until his announcement.

As for what changed his mind from having A&M in a distant fourth over the summer, I honestly don’t know. I know he likes both TJ Rushing and Jimbo Fisher a lot and A&M just never gave up on him.

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Even when Bryce Anderson committed to LSU early as a sophomore, he was adamant that he still planned to take a bunch of visits. And he still went to a bunch of places, including A&M, while still committed to the Tigers.

When Anderson decommitted in late January 2021, A&M and other schools actually expected him to almost immediately flip to the Aggies. But, he decided to hold off a bit and that’s when Texas worked its way into being his leader.

But, when Anderson made his way to Aggieland twice in the same week during the summer camps, first with his official visit and then an unofficial two days later, that was pretty much when the tide changed. He still had officials to Alabama and Texas after that, but both of those schools were now fighting an uphill battle.

Anderson was supposed to announce in early July and it was going to be A&M. But, he still had just a few things he went to talk to Fisher about with the scheme, the plan for him, etc. And Fisher was out of the country for a bit.

Then, the back-to-back pool parties at the end of July absolutely sealed it for A&M. He went to Texas on Friday and then to A&M the next day. Things were just completely different at the A&M one. It was more relaxed and the vibe with the coaches was one he loved.

Tommie Robinson was huge in the recruitment. He was the one that got Anderson to commit early to LSU so, when he came over to A&M, that was a big deal to Anderson.

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Speaking of Anderson, though Bobby Taylorgets a lot of credit for recruiting – and for good reason – Anderson had a big hand in helping the class come together as well.

He is actually the reason that Jacoby Mathews took an official visit to A&M in the first place. Mathews was still committed to in-state LSU over the summer but Anderson, who was uncommitted at the time, told Mathews that he would really like A&M a lot if he went on an official to College Station. The two of them had played 7-on-7 together with the Louisiana Bootleggers and had also been longtime LSU commits together.

Mathews went on a different weekend than Anderson but it turns out that Anderson was right. He loved it. So much so that, despite LSU also having an event at the end of July, he skipped out on that and went back to A&M for the pool party. He ended up decommitting from LSU on the way there.

Mathews was expected by everybody to commit to A&M at the end of November. You saw a bunch of cryptic tweets from the Aggie commits and they were talking about him. But then, he just decided not to. He never really gave anybody a reason. Just all of a sudden said he wanted to wait until February to announce.

A&M continued to recruit him but Mathews does things to the beat of his own drum. He did not seem all that interested after that, for whatever reason, but it very well may have been that he just was not focused on recruiting at all. But, him spending time with all the A&M commits at the Under Armour game was huge.

After his official to Florida, the Gators thought he would end up there. Then after his visit to LSU this past weekend, the Tigers thought they had him in the fold. But the other recruits, as well as obviously the coaches, kept working on him and Mathews decided Tuesday night that it was going to be A&M.

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In addition to Mathews, Anderson had a big hand in the recruitment of Georgia four-star cornerback commit Marquis Groves-Killebrew. In fact, it was Anderson that got him on the A&M radar over the summer. The two families know each other well and Groves-Killebrew was beginning to rethink his UGA pledge.

Anderson made sure A&M was aware of that and, not a week later, Groves-Killebrew was in College Station. At that point, the numbers were still a bit hazy when it came to defensive backs, so A&M was not 100-percent sure what was going to happen there.

Groves-Killebrew kept in touch with the Aggies, and vice versa, and told A&M a few days before the Early Signing Period that he wanted to flip. A&M knew there was room in the class at that point and they really like him as a player. So Anderson recruited Groves-Killebrew, who then in torn sort of turned things around from the usual and recruited A&M to take him.

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Think back to A&M’s first official visit weekend in June. It was absolutely loaded with 11 players in town on officials and two Georgia commits on unofficials. Of the 13, 11 basically ‘committed’ to A&M while in town. And this is also why I don’t but into silent commitments all the time.

But, every player on the trip except for Jamarion Miller and Bryce Anderson said they were in. The ones that were not already committed to A&M at that time that said it were Deyon Bouie, Chris Marshall, Anthony Lucas, Harold Perkins and Bear Alexander. All but Alexander ended up committing to A&M eventually. Alexander was a guy that A&M thought it had wrapped up for a while. Other schools thought the same thing. But, a trip to Georgia in October completely changed things. A&M really wanted him but, with Walter Nolen a heavy lean to the Aggies at that point, they didn’t try to flip him after that.

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Harold Perkins, I know people want salacious details, but there really aren’t a ton. He played things very close to the vest.

I do those early freshman and sophomore lists every year for a few reasons. One is to keep you guys in the loop about the names that are likely to pop up. The other is that players always remember who wrote about them first. Then, when things get crazy late in the process, they will usually respond despite being bombarded by coaches and media.

Perkins always got back to me. And immediately. That doesn’t happen with anybody. Sometimes you have to check back a few days later or something, but not with Perkins.

Over the summer, when he said he was committing, his phone absolutely blew up. Every school was caught off-guard, so they all thought he was going somewhere else. I have heard from multiple schools about the panic going on at the time and Perkins also called and told me he needed it to stop. That’s when he said that didn’t lie but that his ‘commitment’ the next day was to the Polynesian Bowl, not to a school. He wanted it out there so that things would calm down. He said something to the effect of, “This is a huge decision. I’m not just going to decide to announce it all of a sudden like that.”

However, unlike with a lot of other recruits, he didn’t give much away off the record. So, despite always getting answers from him on stuff like trips and the like, I had to work a bunch of sources with his recruitment.

A&M knew he was committing to them at Under Armour, as did the other schools in it. But, after that, everyone was sort of guessing. I don’t know exactly why he decommitted and I don’t know what ultimately made him choose LSU, but I think the deadline he had given himself to commit at UA made him make an announcement without having gotten to know the new LSU staff. But, it still didn’t explain the decommitment timing as he had not gone to LSU just yet at that point.

Either way, Perkins may act a bit goofy at times, but he’s a mature kid and always has a reason for doing things, though sometimes it was to get a rise, like the Poly Bowl commitment. He was definitely figuring out potential NIL possibilities and things like that. So he likely felt it was a better opportunity, for whatever reason, in Baton Rouge. He also obviously loves the state of Louisiana as well but I know that NIL is something that was in his mind a lot. Even with schools not allowed to line things up or give overt pitches, he was well-aware of the potential at places.

 

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Kam Dewberry was a funny player to cover. He never lied or truly misled or anything like that, but he admittedly wanted to always keep people guessing. I put in a Crystal Ball for him right after he was offered as a sophomore because of the Kenyon Green connection, but it was crazy early and we were more liberal with predictions back then.

Dewberry knew mine was on there, and he knew why I did it since it came so early in his recruitment, but never wanted anybody else to have a good enough read on him to be able to put one in. He wanted his commitment to be a surprise.

When he went to Ohio State, everyone thought the Buckeyes were the leaders. However, they were a bit aggressive in pushing for a commitment then and there, and it was not something he was ready to do.

Over the summer, I was told Oklahoma was the likely landing spot. And when I heard it from a second person I also trusted, I figured it was the case. So, at the Preseason Houston Touchdown Club banquet, Dewberry was doing an interview with a few of us at the same time. He kept bringing up Ohio State unsolicited. Knowing his personality, I figured there was a reason for it – he knew people assumed the Buckeyes were the favorites, so he was going to allow that narrative to remain. I then specifically asked about Oklahoma and he gave a one-sentence answer and then brought up Ohio State again. That made it obvious to me that the Sooners were major players.

Dewberry starting liking A&M more during the season but would still have been considered an OU lean. But, after Lincoln Riley left, it was game over for the Sooners. It was then down to A&M and Texas and A&M had been gaining momentum prior to that. It all played into the Aggies’ hands perfectly.

 

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After he made his commitment to Oregon in July, I shared that Kelvin Banks had been my source on Banks. He was always very honest with me the whole time. So I knew when he told me leading up to the announcement that it was A&M or Oregon that he was not trying to mess with me.

I put those two schools out there and it made the rounds on different team sites and different networks and I was called a bit crazy for suggesting Oregon. Then, the night before, Banks told me it was going to be Oregon. I told him I would not change my prediction off of A&M, since he had trusted me and given me a prewrite but, if you were on the site at the time, you were not surprised to see him announce for the Ducks.

Going into the second recruitment of his, though, I never really got a reason for anything with him but was told Texas was very likely. So, I don’t have any salacious details on that one either as to why he chose Texas. A&M wanted him and was really hoping he would wait to sign, so much so that Fisher saved his in-home visit. But Texas was able to get him to commit and sign early.

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Five-star wide receiver Evan Stewartdefinitely did a 180 on his recruitment.

He was somewhat interested in the Aggies for a bit but, after going to the spring game, he was not a fan of College Station. Like, at all. Sometimes kids don’t like schools or towns for whatever reason. It happens.

Stewart also was not all that high on the offense. In fact, he and another highly-ranked wide receiver were pretty open about their feelings with anyone who asked.

But, A&M continued to work that. With the offense, Fisher worked really hard to convince him of what it could look like with Stewart – and others guys like Chris Marshall– in it. That had a big effect. Then, the Aggies got him to take that official visit during the season. It was not something he was planning, but the Aggies basically got a courtesy trip. Well, even before he left, he made plans to return two weeks later for an unofficial and hang out with everybody again. Getting him in town and having him experience the city with the current players and the other recruits was big. He also got along really well with the commits and knew everyone would be back in town for that Auburn weekend on unofficials. After that weekend, it was pretty much done with him.

As for why he didn’t sign on that first day of the Early Signing Period, it was a bit confusing. I know that A&M was not worried, though, and they also know he doesn’t like being pushed into things against his will. So A&M did not bother him about getting the LOI in or anything. And Stewart seemed to appreciate that, sending it in early the next morning.

 

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-A&M was going to get a late official visit from national top-100 cornerback and then-Ohio State commit Terrance Brooks. Though he never seemed to be all that interested in his dad’s alma mater, the Aggies had convinced him to use a late visit and thought there was a chance they could flip him.

It was set to happen but that was the week that Mike Elko got the Duke job. Brooks liked Elko and, as soon as the then-DC left, Brooks canceled the visit and that was that. He eventually switched to Texas and enrolled this semester

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Isaiah Sategna was there on that big first official visit weekend in June and was an Aggie commit at the time. It was his first real opportunity to spend a lot of time in College Station.

But, with 11 official visitors and then the five-star Georgia commit duo in town as unofficial visitors, the coaches had to split their time between a bunch of players. And the focus was on the uncommitted guys such as Marshall, Lucas, Anderson, Alexander, Perkins and the others. Sategna felt a bit taken for granted, which is understandable.

He also was never seemingly truly 100-percent in, so he decommitted not long after. His reasoning was that he didn’t feel as heavily recruited as some of the other guys that weekend. That was probably the case as, again, there were a bunch of five-stars in town, but it all worked out in the end with the receivers A&M ended up signing.

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It is going to be interesting to watch the career of Julian Humphrey. The national top-100 cornerback from Clear Lake was high on the Aggies the whole time but A&M had to pump the brakes several times.

When he committed to Florida, it would have been to A&M instead if there was a spot. Then, after he camped in Aggieland over the summer, it would have been A&M again. But there was still not a spot, so he committed to Georgia.

He is a somewhat similar player to Bobby Taylor in that he might be a corner or might be a safety, and A&M obviously already had Taylor committed. So, that was one of the holdups. The Aggies wanted to make sure they had some pure corners. Had Harris not chosen A&M, though, Humphrey might have gotten a late chance to be in the class.

Also, four-star cornerback Jaylon Guilbeau was really hoping to be part of the class over the summer before he ended up committing to TCU. A&M likes him but, with the numbers crunch at DB that has already been talked about, though, there was not a spot.

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1 hour ago, Valhalla said:

1) I think that what the Texas schools are doing is not the intention of the rule, so I hope for the sport it is fixed. 
 

2) Everything is about money.

If it was why didn’t A&M fill it’s biggest position of needs? You’re dead wrong. Sour grapes bud. The reason A&M signed this class is because they bet the farm on beating Bama with all of these recruits present. I was there. Top 5 atmosphere in college football history. It was electric. Those kids were sold after that. The other reason is something we’ve already talked about. Perfect storm of LSU, Texas and OU all being down or new coaches. 
 

You guys really are believing that A&M needed to pay all these DL guys yet missed other positions? If you’re gonna money whip the best class of all time like you claim, you don’t lose Banks, Perkins or anyone else you want. 
 

What you and the rest of college football needs to understand is that not every kid cares about money. This is not a “I’ll go to the highest bidder” situation for everyone. Yes a handful of kids are thinking that, but it matters very little to most recruits. I have spoken to a 5 star about this personally. 

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