8/21/2018 football Edit

Texas Mid-Term Recruiting Report: Texas A&M

Texas A&M has two in-state five-star prospects committed in 2019 including OT Kenyon Green (Nick Lucero/Rivals.com)

Nick Krueger • Rivals.com

Recruiting Analyst

Nick Krueger joined Rivals.com as a multimedia producer in 2011 and has covered recruiting in the state of Texas since 2016. He also co-hosts and produces Rivals' weekly podcast, Commitment Issues.

Football prospects looking to make their college football commitments before the start of their senior season is nothing new in Texas. However, in the first full cycle of changes made to the NCAA football recruiting calendar, many players took advantage of the opportunity to knock out many - if not all - of their official visits from the end of spring through early summer. Many top programs in-state, as well as those out-of-state teams that frequently recruit Texas, have seen their classes fill at an advanced pace with a higher likelihood that products from the Lone Star State will remain committed with an eye on signing their letters of intent in December.

In 2016, 258 players from Texas ranked as 5.4 two-stars or higher signed with Power Five or Group of Five programs. In 2017, that number grew to 297 and again in 2018 to 334. Currently, 216 players in that demographic are committed to Power Five or Group of Five programs in the 2019 class. While the number of signees at the very top of the rankings has remained relatively consistent since 2016, the growth in total players signed during that time is an indicator that the overall quality of talent in the state has grown as well.

With that in mind, and the start of football season just around the corner, now is as good of a time as any to take stock of which teams have recruited Texas most successfully this year. Here is a look at the job Texas A&M has done with the fall approaching.

PERFORMANCE TO-DATE

Jimbo Fisher and company did a great job pulling the Aggies’ 2018 recruiting class back together by last February and wasted no opportunity to dominate the in-state recruiting race this summer. In fact, A&M is off to a pretty sound start to 2020 with a quartet of offensive linemen already committed as well, but of the state’s four committed five-star prospects, two of them have sided with the Aggies in offensive lineman Kenyon Green and defensive back Erick Young.

Young didn’t move very much in terms of his overall ranking nationally, but his move to become a five-star is new to the most recent release. Tight end Baylor Cupp made his debut in the Rivals250 and new wide receiver commit Dylan Wright made a massive jump in the most recent update. Wright's commitment is also a bit of a surprise, but a welcome addition as publicly, things still seemed to be a bit of a coin-flip that he could have just as easily been leaning Texas prior to his announcement.

This fall, all eyes are on defensive lineman DeMarvin Leal and cornerback Jeffery Carter to make their next moves in the rankings. All of the mentioned players were pretty well-known commodities prior to their commitments to A&M, but high three-star Blake Trainor is an interesting name to keep an eye on as a player that wasn’t heavily recruited elsewhere but could make a positive move with his ranking this season. Layden Robinson has been a ferocious competitor on the camp circuit this offseason and looks to have the arrow pointed pretty squarely upwards as well. Robert Orebo is the only two-star prospect committed to the Aggies to this point, but he’ll receive plenty more attention now that he’s been committed for some time and will have ample opportunity to show he’s under-ranked.

The Aggies are in the conversation for top recruiting class in the country, and have an exciting group of in-state talent headlining the group with 18 of its 25 commits staying home to play their college football. They might not be done grabbing another few surprise names, but the biggest and most likely in-state target remaining appears to be Rivals100 defensive end Marcus Stripling, who is expected to make his decision sometime in the fall.

MID-TERM GRADE: A+

A top-three recruiting class overall is huge, but to do so on the strength of so many in-state commitments is all the more satisfying. A&M has eight of the top 25 players in the state committed to this point and seem to still be in play for another Rivals100 prospect in current Illinois commit Marquez Beason - who is also a former teammate to Aggies commit Brian Williams - in addition to Stripling. Fisher and his staff have done well to put together such a balanced class in 2019 and if National Signing Day was tomorrow, coaches and fans alike would have every reason to be very happy.