Texas A&M commit Derrick Tucker anticipating recruiting push from others

Four-star Houston-area safety Derrick Tucker has maintained his commitment to Texas A&M throughout the offseason, and says things haven’t changed much as his senior year has begun at Manvel.

He said after his Week 2 win against Galena Park-North Shore that he is still working on reaching the quality of play that he expects of himself, but his night was not absent some big hits and impact plays.

“I’m not at my ceiling right now this season - that’s real high,” he said. “I feel like I have a lot of stuff to work on and I can play way better than I’ve been playing.”

Maybe Tucker found some inspiration on Saturday, as he was in attendance for Texas A&M’s win against UCLA. Watching the Aggies win in dramatic fashion was great, but the game also gave him a chance to catch up with an old friend.

“I’m not sure how that’s going to go, I hope they do real good,” he said. “I got an ex-teammate, Will Lockett, playing for UCLA so I’m there to see what he’s going to do too.”

The Aggies have a far less daunting task this week at home against Prairie View A&M as they look to continue building momentum. So too are Tucker and his Maverick teammates against Pearland, whose quarterback, fellow Texas A&M commit Connor Blumrick is out for the season. Aggies DB commit Debione Renfro also plays for Pearland.

“I felt good about the game and I did what I was supposed to do,” he said to wrap-up Week 2. “That’s the best that we’ve played here to start the season.”

His evaluation of the 2017 recruiting class for Texas A&M

“We pretty much got all the major targets that I feel we needed,” he said. “We got (Hezekiah Jones) and he was the big name that I wanted to get, so I’m feeling pretty good about things.”

“We’re getting commits every day,” he said. “I’m still trying to figure out who we got, still learning new names and everything.”

On the strength of his commitment with Aggies

“I’m solid with A&M right now, ain’t nothing going to change - not that I know of,” he said. “Right now I’m still solid.”

Tucker has an easy sort of demeanor and doesn’t let on that he is thinking too hard about his commitment other than the fact that he’s made it. If National Signing Day was tomorrow, there wouldn’t be any surprises, but he does seem to have an agnostic-sort of attitude when it comes to other teams floating around his recruitment. The Aggies coaches need to be careful not to let things drift too far, because Tucker expects some other teams to make a late push with him this season.

“I feel like Texas is going to come back and TCU, maybe Oklahoma State too I’m not sure,” he said.

He was reluctant to say what it would take for one of those programs to entice him into flipping, but his arm could be twisted into suggesting at least one bargaining chip.

“If a team promises that they’d let me play corner, I’d give them a pretty good look.”