Rivals250 DE Bobby Brown knew Aggies were the right fit all along

ARLINGTON, Tex. -- Rivals250 defensive end Bobby Brown had a feeling since the summer that he was bound for Texas A&M, but that didn’t mean that his commitment to the Aggies on Friday morning didn’t come without at least a little bit of drama.

On Thursday, he was decked out in clothing branded with the colors and logos of all three schools he ultimately ended up choosing between; Alabama, Oklahoma and of course, A&M. After initially planning on announcing his decision on November 2, he cited ‘personal reasons’ as cause to push his decision forward.

But sometimes when you know, you just know.

“My thing was, I posted my top-eight, but I really had a top-three,” he said. “Those were the clothes I was wearing yesterday. I was kind of feeling OU, I liked the environment of it, but … I just couldn’t see myself there if the coaches weren’t there, even though I felt like I knew they would be.

“The thing about Alabama, and it was mostly a tie (with A&M), but the thing that broke that tie was that A&M is closer to home and honestly I had a little better relationship with the coaches than I did with the staff at Alabama.”

Listening to Brown sort through his thoughts differentiating what it was that gave A&M the edge in his recruitment illustrates just how close his decision really was down the stretch. Brown took an official visit to Alabama last weekend and will be in College Station on Saturday morning.

Earlier this month he took an official to Florida State after taking his first official visit to Oklahoma at the end of September.

“I liked Florida State and had a really great time there. OU, I had a blast - like I had fun,” he said. “With Alabama, it was more of like a fun, family-oriented chill atmosphere - like if A&M didn’t exist, I would be at Alabama.”

For as well as all his officials went, A&M always had some more things working in its favor that he felt his other finalists couldn’t provide at the same level.

“First thing, when I went to the campus, it was just beautiful,” he said. “All schools offer you an education, football, they got everything. I just wanted to see something different that they could offer me. That thing was that it’s close to my mom, somewhere I could be successful in and out of sports, and somewhere that has a big alumni base so that if sports didn’t work out, I would have connections there.”

Sound reasoning for sure, but it’s apparent that at least some degree of his decision was based on his intuition that he just found the right fit. Plenty of recruits talk about feeling at home or a program’s family atmosphere, but Brown emotes that sentiment when he talks about Texas A&M.

When Brown first thought he knew the Aggies were his pick, he told defensive ends coach Terry Price. His now future coach earned his trust throughout the process by keeping his decision under wraps.

“I really just let Coach Price know, he was really the only one,” he said. “I had been planning on going to A&M and I told him: ‘I’m planning on coming to A&M, but I wanted to take my officials and see how everything’s looking,’ and he respected my decision. He kept it on the low - he didn’t even tell Coach (Kevin) Sumlin.

“It was just the personal factor with me and him. When I told him [about his commitment], it was just news, it wasn’t nothing major.”

Now that Brown’s decision is public knowledge, he would like to get back to focusing on the rest of his senior season. He’s missed some time over the past few weeks with a knee injury, but gets back on the field tonight. His Arlington-Lamar side essentially needs to win out to have a chance to continue on into the state playoffs.

He expressed appreciation for the teams that recruited him, but for all the praise he gave them, he’s not looking to create any more undue suspense following his commitment.

“My thing is that I’m really looking to close my process down,” he said. “I’m a man of my word. If I say I am going to do something, I’m going to put my best foot forward and do it. I said I’m committed to this school, so that’s where I’m going. I would love for these coaches to hear the nice things that I’m saying so they know it was nothing wrong with them or what they did during this process, it was just my decision.”