John Garcia Jr. applauds Texas A&M for its far reach in recruiting, along with sharing his thoughts on the current team rankings and how Twitter's new competitor might make a splash in the recruiting world.
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1. Take a bow, Texas A&M
Look, the Aggies under Jimbo Fisher have become bulletin board material for opponents and offseason darlings for the media more than they have contended for a crown, but recruiting appears to be back on track in College Station. That historic 2022 class was not followed up with the new standard Fisher and Co. doubled-down on while being called out by the rest of the sport, so many eyes have been on an up-and-down run early in the 2024 run.
Then the end of June came and the Aggies have many thinking the 2022 cycle was no fluke in that they can contend for top recruits anywhere. It's not just that the Aggies have added nine commitments since the last 10 days of June began, it's the quality of some of the pledges and where they went to get them such as Alabama native Cameron Coleman, California native Jordan Lockhart and New Jersey native Jaylan Hornsby amid the run.
A&M has made up ground and made the most of key official visit windows in June to shoot up to the top 10 of the Rivals team recruiting rankings, with no slow-down in sight. Prospects from nine different states already make up this national group, with of course plenty of traditional targets in Texas and that footprint still in play.
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2. Enjoy the summer surge while you can
Hundreds of verbal commitments have come in between the spring and the holiday weekend, shaking up some of the numbers in the team rankings. For every power program like Texas A&M surging into the top 10 with chances to stay put, though, there are a handful of programs making pushes from a volume standpoint that likely will be passed up into the season and closer to the Early Signing Period.
North Carolina (No. 12), Nebraska (16), Georgia Tech (19), Minnesota (22), Duke (24) and Rutgers (25) are all in the current Top 25 of the rankings. Each sits at 20 verbal commitments or beyond, with summer official visit windows leading to verbal commitments.
But several traditional recruiting powers without the volume will soon come up to unseat those programs, barring some sudden change in the landscape. Miami, Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma and Auburn each have solid foundations to their class, but not as much volume with 15 or fewer verbal commitments to date, so each sit beyond the national top 25 on Rivals.
It's something we know will soon change, perhaps very soon in some cases, so fan bases of the former programs discussed need to get those screenshots in right now to mark just how high their classes once appeared against some of the nation's best. Even Deion Sanders and Colorado sit with just nine pledges to date, ahead of what is almost certainly going to be a strong run of commitments before all is said and done.
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3. Threads!
We've seen the marriage between sports and Twitter, of all social media platforms, blossom the most alongside college football recruiting over the last decade-plus. How many of us are asked how a prospect can burst onto the scene? How many of us quickly detail a Twitter approach with a clear bio, video links and more? This has become almost a stock answer, especially with nearly every college coach occupying an account on the platform.
Instagram and Youtube have put a small dent into the recruiting presentation facets of Twitter, mainly with more detailed announcements or videos, but the day-to-day recruiting game, from identification to communication, still very much lives there. While many supposed rivals to the platform have come and gone, it seems like the newest competitor has a built-in advantage.
Threads marry one's Instagram audience, which is usually quite larger than that of Twitter for prominent prospects anyway, with a Twitter-like simple feed to absorb texts, photos and naturally, threads. That factor could make for an interesting pivot from Twitter, should it develop and match the former's speed and classic, chronological news feed.
With seemingly unlimited resources behind both Twitter and now Threads, the back-and-forth could prove telling within our own industry and how everyone's target demographic operates.The pressure, however, remains on Twitter and Elon Musk, who seems to lose popularity with every change made since he took over.
