Paris Melvin Jr

As he does every Friday morning, TexAgs' senior recruiting analyst Jason Howell offered up another round of his weekly recruiting thoughts. In this edition of his Three Things, Howell offered some of his old predictions and what is next for Texas A&M.

Been on the phone a good bit today and was able to run down a few more pieces of intel I thought were interesting. I'll see if I can be succinct here without skimping on important details.- I keep hearing murmurs of Ohio State making a move for LB commit Storm Miller. That has yet to take place, but the Buckeyes are definitely active in that edge rusher market - a position Miller has played primarily in high school. A source in the Midwest had a lot of confidence that the Aggies could withstand any sort of offer and push from Ohio State. There's not a huge draw for the family in Columbus, especially with his older brother already at Clemson. It's clear that they're fine leaving home to play at the next level.- Similarly, I think we could see a few power programs in the region make offers to Kaeden Johnson later this summer and into the early parts of the football season. If that happens, it should be a feather in the hats of the A&M scouting department as they were the first on the scene. Regardless of who makes an attempt to enter the discussion, I think the Aggies would remain in a great spot there. - As Jason and I have reported, Texas A&M is fully out of the race for Duncanville DE KJ Ford. The Aggies pulled back on their pursuit a couple of weeks ago. For most of the last month, a lot of momentum here was with Florida as Billy Napier and the Gators put a high priority tag on Ford. After hearing that, I figured he was Gainesville bound until Alabama entered the mix in a major way this week. It now appears Ford has turned toward Tuscaloosa.- Why does that matter to Texas A&M? Well, it may not, but a longtime source in southern Alabama said today that the Crimson Tide have maneuvered for Ford in part because they felt the rope slipping a bit with in-state standout Tank Jones. This same source was adamant that the buzz in the Mobile area was much more about A&M's chances for the elite edge rusher than anyone else. He told me the Aggies had just done such a great job of building the relationships and being consistent in their messaging that he believed they'd separated themselves. That's pretty impressive considering I've heard from more than one place that Bama fired the Saban bullet on this one. Now, could all that be turned on its head when decision time comes (whenever that may be)? You bet it can. We just saw a very similar scenario play out with Lamar Brown. It's just part of the business when you're fighting battles for the best players in that part of the country.Florida and Oregon are doing their best to hang around here, as well, though I believe each has a lot of work to do to catch the Aggies or, to a lesser extent, the Tide. - Got passed a note this evening that A&M has quietly made a strong move for WR Jase Mathews. The standout star at Greene County HS in Leakesville, Mississippi recently put the Aggies in his final group of 4 alongside Ole Miss, LSU, and Auburn. Word I got was the in-state Rebels had ground to make up on the others with Holmon Wiggins looking poised to capitalize. I'm not ready to even pencil this one the way of the Maroon and White yet, but the level of confidence expressed to me by a source last night did make me think landing Mathews was more of a possibility than I had previously imagined.- How about Baylor landing Jamarion Carlton from Temple earlier today? I think his decision on the heels of Felix Ojo choosing Texas Tech is a good early glimpse of what life is like now that revenue sharing is here. The short explanation is that everyone has money so if the Bears, Red Raiders, Cougars, Horned Frogs, etc., decide they want to blow the budget on 5-7 players per class each cycle, they're going to win some high profile battles. I heard today that Baylor was trending favorably with Davian Groce, and we also saw Paris Melvin Jr commit to Houston this afternoon. Wild times we're in. Recruiting has never been for the feint of heart, and it's only gotten more Tums-worthy.

The camp circuit is kicking into full gear as summer recruiting takes off, and prospects are taking unofficial and official visits to campuses. It is time to take a look at the latest happenings on the Lone Star State recruiting front as the offseason rolls on.