Recruiting Country: The latest recruiting news surrounding the Maroon & White

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

Key notes from Recruiting Country

• We've got a couple of offensive line decisions going down today. Avery Morcho‍ and Aaron Thomas‍ make their decisions. The buzz this morning was A&M standing with Zaden Krempin‍ out of Prosper. All three are high-priority targets for Adam Cushing. A lot of them are probably happening throughout the country now and late July, with that extended dead period since official visits are over now. As busy as June has been, I believe July could be just as busy.
   
• When you look at the impending decisions, then there’s DaQuives Beck‍, Tamarion Watkins‍ and Tank King‍. We’ll talk about linebackers in a little.
   
• I think they need another safety to pair with Chance Collins‍. They are full, but they are still after some top guys in Boobie Feaster‍ and Tristen Keys‍.
   
• For me personally, I like keeping a couple high school spots going into the season. You have these fast-rising seniors that have some non-Power Four or lower Power Four, kind of like a Nelson McGuire‍. I like that A&M will do that because it means they will still scour the state of Texas for seniors. We don’t want to stretch on someone in the summer when we can watch a kid in September and watch a couple of weeks of tape. When there are a few spots left over, you can get a much better evaluation.
   
• In terms of traffic, this is when there’s the most traffic. I don’t think they will be doing a pool party this summer, which was always one of the bigger dates. The recruiting calendar has been switched to where you won't get that anymore. It’ll be interesting to monitor these next months to see if, what and when we will do another recruiting event. Looking at Mike Elko, most of his classes are committed before the football season starts.
   
• They felt like they hit on talent and human beings in last year's class. The negative recruiting pitches, if we don’t win enough games, are going to get real loud after this season. All it takes is for the door to crack open, and the competitors can create doubt. If they don’t win games this fall, yeah, that door opens even wider. It’s not news to anyone sitting across the street. This recruiting team is very self-aware. They don’t bury their head in the sand with the problems they are facing on the recruiting front or on the playing field.
   
• Morcho makes his decision at 1:00 p.m. today. I've felt good about him since A&M offered. It feels like Missouri City has been one of the most fruitful recruiting grounds for the past decade for Texas A&M. I'm sure there’s been some in the Dallas area, but so many have come from Fort Bend ISD. I think A&M has a great reputation in that part of the state. As Morcho became a clear target for Cushing, I think the A&M sentiment only furthered because of that.
   
• Thomas had a lot of momentum, and I thought he was going to shut it down. That didn’t happen, but I still felt good on Monday for where we were. This morning a lot of the momentum has been with Ohio State. He was open to going anywhere nationally. I would lean toward Ryan Day getting this one tonight. I'm about 55 to 60 percent there, but something could happen.
   
• When you look at Morcho, you go, “Dang, what does that look like in 18 months from now?” He is high-waisted with long arms. Same with Thomas. Krempin is the best technician, the furthest along in the technique out of the three and to me, he looks like an offensive lineman with that mullet. He looks like a nasty SEC offensive lineman.
   
• Could A&M end up with four traditional linebackers? I think yes. You look at Storm Miller‍ committed. I don’t think A&M is going anywhere on Beck and King. Tamarion Watkins‍ is a spin-down linebacker, and he is also being recruited at safety. He’s gotten so much bigger and longer that people are trying to put him closer to the ball. He’s like a nickel linebacker. Someone who can cover the athletic tight ends and cover space. He’s like a Scooby Williams profile. He’s a big, long kid. Beck and King are more traditional.
   
• You have to start looking at the roster, but if you are Derek Miller, you have to look beyond what happens in the fall with making decisions. We are about to have a mass exodus up front, where we have guys move on from linebacker. If Taurean York has a good year, he could be three and gone as well as Williams. What do you have behind that? If we can ensure that with young guys, we should do that. If you’re in those roles of managing the roster, you have to be looking ahead to 2026 and 2027.
   
• With everything, there's no one-size-fits-all. People go, “We need to get the best player,” but according to who? There are many misses by us and the national media that cover recruiting, plenty of them. There's something I’ve always struggled with in my brain. People are singing numbers to something that's not quantitative. That's the age of analytics, and when you're building recruiting algorithms, you're spitting out a number that is not quantitative, and it’s not just recruiting departments. This kid can be 93 overall, but based on what? There are blind spots to this, but I think the best players evaluated by the recruiting staff need to trust what they see and how players perform, the projectability from high school to college to the NFL. There are measurable things. Most cornerbacks who go to the NFL run a sub-4.6 40.
   
• What's more important? Being the best in recruiting the best player or the best fit? You want to send players to the NFL, and A&M’s got to get more players invited. The comparison to A&M peers like Auburn has more invites to the NFL Combine, and A&M’s number has to go up. Their job, though, is to win games, and is there a difference? I would say there's not much on most guys that will get invited to NFL-type things and winning college football games. We look at Georgia, Texas and Alabama, which will tell you raw talent is the end-all, be-all. How do we factor in fit, especially nowadays? There’s more motivation other than wearing your school on your chest and playing on Saturdays.
   
• Where is the difference between a coach finding fit and being a good evaluator? To me, the difference is found in players No. 4 through No. 14 in class. The top three or four players in each SEC class will be really good. Where you make your hay is where your talent and fit are, typically in the bottom 75 percent of your class. What's the difference between class No. 3 and No. 4? It’s probably you hitting on the bottom tier guys. I don’t lose much sleep over that. If you get the No. 1 class and top players from each state and want huge recruiting battles, then yes, that is a game changer for Saturdays. You get game-winning talent, and that means you get players to win outside of traditional football. You have to have that to win a playoff game. In terms of building the overall roster, I don’t lose sleep if A&M is a No. 7 or No. 8 class, or even No. 11 or 12. You draw the line somewhere. The age-old saying is recruiting class is judged on the backend, not the frontend.
   
• You see, the guys develop at different rates and on different timelines. To me, I look at the current A&M class and it's perceived at the bottom. Kaeden Johnson‍ will not surprise me if he's a huge factor at the next level, even in the York case. These guys can be really different playmakers. There are a couple at each class that can be real difference makers in not just NFL profile, but more importantly, in winning football games.