Rivals Reaction: Jeffery Carter commits to Texas A&M

Jeffery Carter was supposed to hit Texas A&M and Oklahoma on unofficial visits for recruiting events this weekend but early in the afternoon, the 4-Star cornerback tweeted that the wouldn’t make it to Norman, Oklahoma, due to a 'flat tire.' He followed that up with a retweet from 2018 signee Jordan Moore suggesting that #GigEmGang19 was gearing up to add another name to its ranks. After that, the writing seemed to be on the wall, and Carter later announced his commitment to the Aggies.

After laying off cornerbacks in the 2018 class, the Aggies have come away with three of the state’s best in 2019 – including the top player at the position Erick Young. Carter is a press corner that likes to mix it up in man-to-man coverage and does a good job using his physicality to set the tone at the line of scrimmage against wide receivers. Nobody wins every rep, and sometimes a receiver can give Carter trouble downfield if he manages to escape that press, but when he's not jamming, he shows great patience in not getting hung out to dry by overcommitting to guessing routes too early. He is an athletic prospect that is comfortable going up to catch passes on his own and takes as much pleasure from shutting down a route as he does picking off a pass and Carter is another defensive back that brings size and toughness to what’s become one of the most impressive secondary hauls in the country in 2019 for A&M.

Oklahoma, obviously, is the presumed runner-up here and even though the Sooners have two strong corner commits of their own in Woodi Washington and Jaden Davis, adding Carter to the mix would have put them in a very comfortable situation as well. Carter was once committed to Oklahoma and after including the Sooners in his Top 4 with Alabama and Texas, it seemed as though some momentum had been swinging back OU’s way, especially heading into this weekend. The team that had its emotions played with most in all of this is Texas Tech, who likely would have given Carter the opportunity to play offense as he had been alluding to on social media, but that seemed to be little more than a move to stir the pot a little bit with those keeping an eye on his recruitment.

Spots are becoming fewer and fewer in A&M’s class at this point and it’s going to be interesting who will end up taking them. The obvious targets are defensive end Marcus Stripling and wide receiver Dylan Wright, but truthfully, 2019 has yielded a very complete class on both sides of the ball for the Aggies. The biggest remaining question is could they be the team that ends up taking the title of top recruiting class in the nation, which would be a fantastic feather in new head coach Jimbo Fisher’s hat before he’s even coached a single game at Kyle Field.