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Texas A&M Recruiting 2025: The Land of Melk & No Money


texifornia

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14 hours ago, texifornia said:

There might not be a less "fun pool party" color than maroon

Way back during my first stint at Texas, I went to College Station to pick up a friend and proceed to Houston. I was immediately depressed by the buidings of the school and the not-much around it. What really got me was the pervasiveness of dark maroon. Even the street signs back then were dark maroom.

I literally felt sorry for my friends who were enrolled there. I wasn't a big partier or barfly even thought the drinking age was 18 back then. It was just the difference in atmosphere between UT and A&M and their surroundings. 

The color on their wildly creative pool party flyer looks like a mistake.

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I went to CS many times while my daughter was going there a decade ago. It really did always feel like you drove 30-45 minutes through the countryside to drive right into a boring suburb of Houston with some of the saddest architecture and landscaping around. A true nothing of a place. 

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3 hours ago, RomaVicta said:

Way back during my first stint at Texas, I went to College Station to pick up a friend and proceed to Houston. I was immediately depressed by the buidings of the school and the not-much around it. What really got me was the pervasiveness of dark maroon. Even the street signs back then were dark maroom.

I literally felt sorry for my friends who were enrolled there. I wasn't a big partier or barfly even thought the drinking age was 18 back then. It was just the difference in atmosphere between UT and A&M and their surroundings. 

The color on their wildly creative pool party flyer looks like a mistake.

I dated a girl who was a student there years ago. It is a shithole now and was a shithole then. Just a bland place. I actually like Waco more, and that’s sad. 

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6 minutes ago, Tex Pete said:

I dated a girl who was a student there years ago. It is a shithole now and was a shithole then. Just a bland place. I actually like Waco more, and that’s sad. 

Waco is a shit hole of epic proportions.  It at one point led Texas in Meth related deaths per capita.  I too would spend a weekend there before I'd go to College Station.  

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1 hour ago, TheAuditor said:

Waco is a shit hole of epic proportions.  It at one point led Texas in Meth related deaths per capita.  I too would spend a weekend there before I'd go to College Station.  

I would call College Station "Beaumont on the Brazos," but Beaumont actually has more character than CS.

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10 hours ago, closetojumping said:

I went to CS many times while my daughter was going there a decade ago. It really did always feel like you drove 30-45 minutes through the countryside to drive right into a boring suburb of Houston with some of the saddest architecture and landscaping around. A true nothing of a place. 

I had a multi-day swim meet there. Similar experience. Went to Dixie Chicken one of the days and couldn't believe it when I was told that dusty little Northgate strip was the fun part of town.

It's just weird, everything's out of scale to each other - gigantic roads and fields, small low town buildings, bulky ugly university buildings. None of it hangs together in a way that feels good.

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Yeah. Always felt like around campus there were huge empty spaces on the edges and then areas cluttered as shit. Not in a “this is the city” sense, like our campus, but in a “whoever laid this out was using meth and sucking dick in MSC gloryholes” sense. And lots of medium-toned cement. 

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I once had myself a night I can’t remember on northgate. Went to stay with my brother while he was in the corps at aggy and I was a freshman at UT. Luckily my brother spent enough time at the bars that he knew several of the managers and we drank for free most of the night. When we were stumbling back to his dorm from north gate we got pulled over and I don’t remember how we didn’t get arrested for at least a PI, but it was shocking that CSPD had little else to do than fuck with a couple kids literally walking across the street back to campus. 

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Summary:

- Pool is always great and Pool will be awesome this year.  If you don't believe the hype of Pool, you're a 2%er.

- This class is awesome.  We beat out sip, west coast sip, and secsecsec for a bunch of these guys.  If you don't love this class, you're a 2%er.

- My brisket was better than Lincoln Riley's.  If you think I burnt the brisket, you're a 2%er.

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I'd been to BCS a few times while at UT for football and baseball games, late 70s early80s. I passed through CS about 3 years ago and immediately realized it's still the same nothing burg it was from 45 years ago, just a little bit more of it. 

Here is how I would describe the architectural scheme of the campus...Imagine driving through the country and passing through an area that has been cut up to 5 acre plot with oil covered dirt roads straddled by drainage ditches. Seeing on the plots what started as a single wide trailer, having small one room additions added on from whatever left over building materials the owner had from small contract jobs. These little 300 sqft. scabbed on additions occur 2-3 years apart. Eventually that 14'x52' single wide is now 2500 sqft. of mismatched shit stacked right up next to each other. Similar to Kyle field in appearance, afterthought after afterthought.

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23 minutes ago, Victor R. Franko said:

I'd been to BCS a few times while at UT for football and baseball games, late 70s early80s. I passed through CS about 3 years ago and immediately realized it's still the same nothing burg it was from 45 years ago, just a little bit more of it. 

Here is how I would describe the architectural scheme of the campus...Imagine driving through the country and passing through an area that has been cut up to 5 acre plot with oil covered dirt roads straddled by drainage ditches. Seeing on the plots what started as a single wide trailer, having small one room additions added on from whatever left over building materials the owner had from small contract jobs. These little 300 sqft. scabbed on additions occur 2-3 years apart. Eventually that 14'x52' single wide is now 2500 sqft. of mismatched shit stacked right up next to each other. Similar to Kyle field in appearance, afterthought after afterthought.

A&M is an architectural eyesore bordered by a Anywhere, USA Boulevard. Feels sort of like an outlet mall.

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Fat Hamm with word salad

TexAgs' recruiting analyst Ryan Brauninger joined TexAgs Radio on Wednesday morning for another edition of Recruiting Country, highlighting the latest news and notes from the recruiting trail surrounding Texas A&M.

 

 

Key notes from Recruiting Country

Everything that Mike Elko has done has been almost 180 degrees different than the way things were happening a year ago. When the pool party looks different than it has in the past, everybody in the fanbase, up to this point, has been on board with these changes.

 

What Mike Elko said yesterday about nobody having missed a workout last summer when last year we had guys missing multiple workouts a week. All of that has changed. When they have a different feel for the way they want to run these recruiting events, shouldn’t this guy get the benefit of the doubt? Everything he does has been done with a purpose.

 

To me, I’m confident that whatever Mike Elko does. There is a real thought process, strategy and reasoning for it. In a month, you are going to host a massive home game in front of the national audience, and that is going to portray what Texas A&M is better than a late-July pool party with nobody on campus.

 

It would be great if they went out and got Trey McNutt III‍, Jonah Williams‍ and Kaliq Lockett‍, but if they don’t, just stick with Mike Elko. There is a method to what he is doing. He has a lot of his class done, and a lot of the work is already done. I think this party was more of a jump start for the class of 2026 rather than creating more momentum for the class of 2025.

 

Noah Mikhail‍ and a bunch of the California guys were able to come. I believe there were only two from in-state that didn’t make it. Deondrae Riden‍ had a test to graduate early, and Tyler Thomas‍ at Dickinson had it hard due to all the rain.

 

This was the first time that this mass group of commitments was all together in one place. It was about making a bond. The group chat got so much better, I bet. Getting them together was the important thing here. To learn to be tight-knit and loyal to each other so in a month, you have those guys coming in with that bond formed already.

 

Texas A&M’s best selling point in the fall is what Saturdays look like in Kyle Field. To open this season with a marquee matchup, they’re going to take every advantage. From what we are hearing right now, that guest list is going to be star-studded. There are going to be some elite players from the class of 2025 and 2026 on campus.

 

Trey McNutt is the big one. He came in the day before the pool party and went to Oregon for an unofficial visit. A&M did a fantastic job. They had a very personable and personalized visit. There were a lot of one-on-one talks about how Texas A&M would serve Trey McNutt and vice versa.

 

The Aggies did a really good job heading into that Oregon visit. It was massively important that he moved his commitment date back. I truly believe that it is a coin flip.

 

This is a kid that, if A&M lands him, will be Mike Elko’s best recruiting job. When a kid gets set in his mind that he is favoring one place, it is hard enough to break into that line of thinking, much less to surpass it. It is hard enough to find a crack in the door to get in. 

 

If A&M wins out, not only have they come from behind, but they have completely changed this kid’s mind on what his future is going to look like. From what I’ve heard, I think his family is very comfortable with him playing football in the state of Texas. Trey McNutt has been in Houston a lot this summer training. That could play a factor in this thing. I’m not sitting here saying who is going to win, I am just giving you the reasons why it could be Texas A&M. 

 

Jonah Williams’ decision is going to be 99.99 percent a football decision because of what has happened to the baseball rosters. You only get 34 players. Jonah is a legitimate dual-sport athlete. I think he is a professional baseball prospect, but he is also an NFL player. He is a rare breed of athlete.

 

For Texas A&M, they have always been in it. They have been kind of under the radar. It goes to what Mike Elko was talking about at SEC Media Days. All the work is being done behind the scenes. I feel the same way about Michael Fasusi‍. I have a feeling that Texas A&M is closer to those guys than people are saying.

 

Do not throw your toys out of the bin if Texas A&M doesn’t land any of those guys. There is so much time now. Talent acquisition and roster management is almost a year-round thing. The Aggies could start a linebacker that didn’t even play spring ball in Solomon DeShields. 

 

A&M will be able, under this coaching staff, to put a plan in place if you don’t land your big high school guy. Obviously, that is the priority, but if we don’t, there is a plan to mitigate that.

 

People freaked out about some Snapchat Kiotti Armstrong‍ posted from his Texas visit. He was wearing A&M stuff the same day. Kiotti is fine with Texas A&M. I have heard nothing else

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Ladies and gentlemen, this man, this brawny man, gets paid to write.

 

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Other college coaches operate on the Random Theory where they make dislocated decisions and hope for the best. Jimbo was one of these. He would sometimes order his staff to go turn on the fog lights in their cars. He also considered adding a ton of sugar to the pool party pool. Another time, he pinned his future on Haynes King.

 

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Don't let lack of results fool you! Stick with Elk! He's got a method! And electrolytes!

 

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Poor Brauny, no invitation to the party. This whole thing about having players meet to form a bond is revolutionary. Elko knows methods.

 

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Wasn't it you and your pals at William's Office and Fight Club that said even when a recruit commits it's not over? A&M is still right there in the fight and to stay tuned?

 

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I guess Brawny was too lazy to check out the baseball thing, but he does reveal Elko's unique plan to recruit NFL players. If he pulls that off, I think A&M could actually be good enough to lose an SEC Championship Game!

 

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Yes, the plan is to pursue your second or third choice. It's genius, I tell you, genius!

 

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You seem to be fretting, you brawny man you. You have no worries. Elko has mitigation plans in place as part of his method!

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The Aggies are believing a much improved defense will boost them in competition. I'm unclear on a few things after the fog of the off-season.

Wasn't the A&M defense good last year? How much better could it get to make any kind of material difference?

I've read here that their first string talent is good to excellent on defense. Now I'm recalling what a star Edgerrin Cooper was last year. He's arguably the best linebacker I noticed playing for anybody all season.

What do they have or whom have they recruited to fill that gap? I recall their linebacker depth chart was pitiful when the season ended. I just checked 247 and see they has two LB (one seemingly very good) committed and on campus. Three LBs transferred in. One from Pitt, a possibly toxic guy from Florida, and a smiling fellow from Youngstown state.

I didn't intend to write this long when I started, but at least I've done some leg work. I'm thinking their linebacker corps drops in quality with so many new guys and questions. I don't see their defense improving.

Is this correct?

If so, everything is reliant on their OL to improve, correct? I think all of their QBs looked good last year, but they won't be enough.

How far off am I?

 

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18 hours ago, Scholz said:

What a bunch of gibberish. We took your baseball coach, bitch. That’s what Texas did.

Information from office aggy: 

1) Earley is the greatest players’ coach of all time.

2) Schloss intentionally lost the CWS because he loves sip so much.

3) Brandon Montgomery’s Mother is the aggy minister of cult-ure.

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1 hour ago, RomaVicta said:

The Aggies are believing a much improved defense will boost them in competition. I'm unclear on a few things after the fog of the off-season.

Wasn't the A&M defense good last year? How much better could it get to make any kind of material difference?

I've read here that their first string talent is good to excellent on defense. Now I'm recalling what a star Edgerrin Cooper was last year. He's arguably the best linebacker I noticed playing for anybody all season.

What do they have or whom have they recruited to fill that gap? I recall their linebacker depth chart was pitiful when the season ended. I just checked 247 and see they has two LB (one seemingly very good) committed and on campus. Three LBs transferred in. One from Pitt, a possibly toxic guy from Florida, and a smiling fellow from Youngstown state.

I didn't intend to write this long when I started, but at least I've done some leg work. I'm thinking their linebacker corps drops in quality with so many new guys and questions. I don't see their defense improving.

Is this correct?

If so, everything is reliant on their OL to improve, correct? I think all of their QBs looked good last year, but they won't be enough.

How far off am I?

 

The strength of their team, on paper, is their front on defense. They have talent at DT and talent and depth at DE. I wouldn’t expect that group to get pushed around a ton. Oddly, they weren’t great against the run last year, but they have another year of maturation and some of the bitchy play from Nolan won’t be missed. 

At LB, they’re in the process of lionizing York as some sort of mythical creature. He played a lot as an undersized freshman and called the defense. He’s the best LB they have. The Scooby guy from Florida gets mentioned because SEC but UF packed his bags for him. He’s yet to live up to expectations. 

Outside of Anderson, their secondary projects to be dogshit. We’ll see, of course. 

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By Billy Liucci
August 5, 2024
 
 

TexAgs co-owner and executive editor Billy Liucci joined TexAgs Radio on Monday morning to discuss all things surrounding college football as Texas A&M's fall camp continues. Liucci discussed who around the country has the most to prove, A&M's position groups and more.



Segment 1 (00:00:00 - 20:35:21)

  • I think Ohio State would be making a mistake if Ryan Day went 11-1, lost to Michigan, and maybe lost one in the playoffs. I think Ryan Day and Lincoln Riley have the most to prove.
     
  • To me, Ryan Day has proven that he can have Ohio State as an elite program in college football year in and year out. He has beaten the big boys. He has a Michigan problem, and I think that is where the pressure comes from. There is no Nick Saban, and there is no Jim Harbaugh, so I do think the pressure on him is at a ridiculous level.
     
  • Lincoln Riley, to me, has the most to prove. Their competition level is about to go way up on a week-to-week basis. He inherited a roster with so much more talent than anybody in his league, and we don’t want to say this, but he has given a lot of Les Miles’ vibes right now. He inherited so much more from a legend like Bob Stoops, and I would have believed that Riley would have done that at Oklahoma. The reality is he hasn’t done a damn thing at USC. I think the perception of him is that he is overhyped.
     
  • If I’m doing a top five of who has something to prove, I would throw Steve Sarkisian in there too. I think he is equipped to do it, though. I am kind of torn on Quinn Ewers because I watch him, and it’s like when he puts it together, it is incredible. I saw Michael Penix and Dillon Gabriel outduel him. Sarkisian has had one really good year, and I brought out the stat, he is 2-7 against teams that Texas isn’t way more talented than.
     
  • I think Texas and Sarkisian's momentum as a coach might be a bit too much hype. I kind of get it. I can see Sarkisian living up to it, whereas I don’t see that with Lincoln Riley. If I had to pick a national champion today, I would go with Georgia and then Ohio State. I think Ryan Day and the talent he has, along with Sarkisian, are in better spots than Lincoln Riley.
     
  • Another interesting head coach and quarterback combination is Dabo Swinney and Cade Klubnik. I always say how Klubnick, Ewers and Conner Weigman came from the same position. Conner has that kind of potential, but because of his injury, people aren’t talking enough about him. I think if not for the injury, he would be in the All-SEC conversation. Dabo and Klubnik in the ACC can surprise some people. I do think that Dabo has kind of lost his grip on it. He can prove the doubters wrong, but I don’t know if he can get it back.
     
  • I got to know James Franklin, and I really enjoyed talking to him. He was very much in play for that Texas job. There is some pressure on Penn State to get into the playoffs. Michigan and Ohio State have done it, so when are they?
     
  • Mario Cristobal, to me, has accomplished nothing as a head coach at Oregon and Miami. The way they recruit and how boastful they are... The way Texas A&M got torn up for their 2022 class, with people saying that they were paying $30 million for their team when now the highest NIL in college football has yet to even hit $20 million. Do you think those guys would be gone if we were paying that? It made no sense, and it makes no sense now.
     
  • Miami has nothing to show for their recruits under Mario Cristobal. Look at what Dan Lanning is doing at Oregon that Mario Cristobal couldn’t. Miami should be pretty good this year. I like their quarterback and receiver, and they have been recruiting. The state of Florida, especially Miami, is some of the most fertile recruiting grounds in the country. I want Miami to be good again.
     
  • I like the dynamic of the rest of the SEC going, “These guys look like they’re good. We can’t let them come into the SEC and win,” because that is what makes college football fun.
     
  • I hate to say this, but I want to see Mack Brown and North Carolina get their asses kicked. They haven’t done much, but I would like to see them get pummeled. What are their expectations? I don’t think it is much. I would enjoy him getting kicked around in those Jordans.
     
  • I don’t think Billy Napier will get too much grace because of their schedule. It is not a fair expectation that he is supposed to get into the playoffs in year three. I think that Florida will fire him. If they go 6-6, I think they should fire him. They are getting good players through NIL, and he is just hanging on. I think it is going to be a tough game for Texas A&M. It’s going to be hot as hell, and it is going to be a war of attrition. 
     
  • If Florida goes 0-2 against Miami and Texas A&M, he is done. I heard you guys talk about how if we beat Notre Dame, it changes the outlook of the season. To me, that game is Florida. Notre Dame is a legit top-10 team, but Florida is going to be a desperate, hungry team. I think the Florida game on the road is equally as daunting of a task.

Segment 2 (20:35:22 - 30:15:22)

  • 24 Players in 24 Days: #15 Tyreek Chappell
     
  • I look at the defensive line, and if Shemar Stewart makes the jump... I think you can have three guys with top-two-round potential in Nic Scourton, Shemar Turner and Shemar Stewart. DJ Hicks has that potential, but he is young. He is explosive inside.
     
  • I think they have at least four linebackers that they feel really nice about. Daymion Sanford, Taurean York, Solomon DeShields and Scooby Williams are a nice core. How about Cashius Howell at edge with Malick Sylla and Solomon Williams. You start to look for the weaknesses, so you look at the secondary.
     
  • Tyreek Chappell and Bryce Anderson have a lot of experience, and they have to hold off guys like Dezz RicksTerry Bussey and Dalton Brooks. Those guys have a different level of range and athleticism. I think Bryce is like the quarterback of that secondary. He has that “It-Factor,” and then there are Jayvon Thomas and Bravion Rogers. Now, they are part of a deep unit that can elevate their play.
     
  • People forget that last year, Jimbo Fisher was saying that he hit home runs with those guys. He was talking about how we were lacking in the secondary. If those guys are playing, then you know they are good because they have to get past all of those guys to get on the field.

Segment 3 (30:15:23 - 35:04:00)

  • Jabre Barber has had this foot thing, and you never know how long those can go for. He was here last week and he was saying that he is a month and a half ahead of schedule. He was really fired up about it. That’s pretty exciting news for him, and for the team and that offense as a whole. I am still not sold at that position. I think there's a lot to prove at receiver and tackle.
     
  • I love Trey Zuhn III. Dametrious Crownover, Reuben Fatheree II and Aki Ogunbiyi get reps at the tackle position. That’s their depth. There is something to prove at the tight end position as well, but not to the same concern. As Donovan Green gets better and better, so does the position. He looks good.
     
  • How are things going to play out at receiver and tackle? Somebody is going to have to step up. Barber is an explosive weapon and is a playmaker. People know how good he is. He walked in here and put his tape onto practice on the field. I don’t think people really realize how big it will be if they can get him back in time for conference play. If he can be healthy for seven of your conference games, the offense will have game-changing potential. 

Segment 4 (35:04:01 - 36:29:09)

  • I haven’t been to the East Coast in about 10 years. Nantucket was a blast. The people were super fun, and the town was nice.

  • I don’t know how many of those little beach towns I have been to, so it reminded me of a little mountain town on the water. The Atlantic felt great. I didn’t see any whales or great white sharks, so I was disappointed, but we had a great time

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6 minutes ago, BornAndRaised said:

Counting on scooby Williams to give you meaningful reps when he got ran out of Florida is certainly a choice.

That whole LB is dogshit. The secondary is spared from that classification simply due to Anderson being damned good. 

Watching Liucci spin the OT position as anything but an oncoming and obvious disaster is the good stuff. Fatheree has lingering injury issues and has the feet of a dead tree. Crownover is a low-ranked coverted TE. Ogunbiyi is allegedly far more gifted at date raping than playing OL. Zuhn is fine. They are razor thin there and any injury will be a big fucking problem.

Barber may not play all year. They have a bunch of decent to shitty possession WRs and a TE recovering from major surgery. 

Weigman is made of glass, will be playing behind a terrible OL and the playcaller will be running into the teeth of the defense if he's at all allowed to lean into his personal preferences. Good shit.

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Everything seems to be going in A&M’s favor to get the rollercoaster started with a win over Notre Dame.  Early in the season so the team is healthy and Weigman is concussion-free.  Home game advantage.  Notre Dame overrated at 6th in the coaches poll, as is tradition at this point.

Curious what folks think about the matchup because it looks to me like advantage aggy.  I don’t have the same faith in A&M’s OL that the media does, but don’t think that ND has the front seven to take advantage, and the entire team will be healthy and bought in this early in the season.

Maybe it boils down to whether you believe Riley Leonard will be a first round pick, but Elko knows exactly how to attack him and A&M has the DL talent to make it happen.  

 

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