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
- With Evan Jacobson, Mike Elko, Collin Klein and Christian Ellsworth put in their share of time and effort into the recruitment. When you look at athletic profiles at the tight end position, he checks all the elite boxes. He's such a quality basketball player. He's spending so much time between two sports, and two sports that cross over a lot. He's 6-foot-7, but he's light because of the basketball stuff. If this kid were 6-foot-7, 245 pounds and all football, I think his rating goes even higher.
- It's no different than Marco Jones with baseball. I have no clue if he will play in the spring, but we’ll have a much better idea of whether he can handle it after this year.
- Kaeden Johnson is truly an athlete. I think Caleb Tafua is a little different type of player. It's where he goes, and Jacobson is a long, fluid athlete. Tafua is more sturdy. It's less about athleticism and more about physicality right now. You have to feel really good right now. We know that Klein wants to incorporate that position in a lot of different ways. In order for him to fully utilize the arsenal he's got at that position, he needs these different skillsets to do it. I think, ideally, he's collecting these types of bodies that he can do different things with.
- When you're going and recruiting these high-caliber players like Tank Jones from states that have superpowers in them, Alabama is a little different than LSU because LSU only has one. Every kid who grows up there wants to go to LSU. Alabama has Auburn, which is a legit threat in that state as well. With Jones, what we’re being told is that there is a big Alabama contingent making moves behind the scenes. For Kalen DeBoer, you're looking at that like, “Man, if we let that go, that's a big gut punch on a national scale.” There's been a lot of talk about Oregon. I just don't think Oregon is a legitimate player just due to their location.
- Jones has a younger brother who's active in sports, and I bet his parents would want to be around during the week for his younger brother, then see him play on Saturdays. If he's at Texas A&M or in Mobile, you hop in a car, and you're in Texas in four or five hours... I just think A&M and Alabama are the two main players. A&M has been really consistent here.
- Like Lamar Brown, it was always in the back of your mind that this kid was really going to pick A&M over LSU. Some of the sources I've heard is that Jones has never been dead set on playing college football in Alabama. Alabama fired the Saban bullet at this deal. If A&M maintained a good grasp on the recruitment even through all that, it becomes more legit. Getting his verbal pledge is different from getting him on campus. Texas A&M had to fight similar battles with Noah Mikhail, Jones, Jamar Beal-Goines and Adonyss Currie. They are going to have to fight these battles in season. It's a lot easier to get a fish in the boat when you've got it on the line rather than never hooking it.
- In a class that's predominantly Texas, you're going to have to do this and set strongholds across your footprint. With the whole state of Georgia, if they go out and sign a bunch of kids from Georgia, it’s a big feather in the hat for Elko & Co. If you hold on to the California kids, you've got one in New Jersey and one in Iowa. You're in big for one in Mississippi and Florida. At the end of this year, if we have a map with pins in it covering coast to coast, that will be extremely impressive for Elko in Year 2.
- When you look at in-state targets, they will take in the first few weeks of tape for rising seniors. Nelson McGuire is a prime example of that. Jason Howell posted in his weekly article about Tobi Haastrup, out of Katy Mayde Creek. He didn't have an offer, and then A&M offered, but he signed with Oregon. There are some kids we haven't talked about at all because everyone's timelines are different.
- Outside of that, I'm pretty sure the guys you're watching are committed already. At receiver Boobie Feaster and Jayden Warren. Feaster has that big connection to Peyton Houston in the 2027 class. They've wanted to play together for a while. Warren is a kid I'm really high on. He’s committed to the University of Houston, led by Keisean Henderson, a five-star quarterback.
- Jaimeon Winfield is another one A&M will keep kicking the tires on and see what type of dent they can make. He's committed to USC right now as well.
- I made a mistake and said Houston was committed to USC. He's not, but it is trending in that direction. For A&M, it's good because you have 27 kids committed in the 2026 class, and the page is now flipping to 2027. George Lamons Jr decommitted a couple of weeks ago. It was an odd one, and it was out of the blue. It was an in-the-moment decision. If you ask Elko, it surprised them when it happened. It was one that was as wavering as it could be. It's best for the kid to open up and start his process again. It felt rushed.
- Jayce Johnson is a quarterback out of Valdosta, GA, who is set to make a decision on August 3. A&M is putting eggs in that basket with Klein and Josh Bufford, the quarterback assistant coach. A&M is in a good spot for him.
- I don't like speculating which recruits are hardest to hold on to. When examining the A&M class and the nature of its geographic locations, there are battles to fight. If I were to sit here and insinuate one will be harder than the other, then I would be speculating... If I say, “Storm Miller will be hard to hold onto.” Miller might see that and say, “No, I'm all in on A&M, but is there something going on?” It's not how we operate.
- In terms of flip targets, I mentioned three in-state guys A&M will remain after. If you look at the A&M commit list, Samuel Roseborough was down to the wire and a head-to-head win with Texas. They won't go anywhere with that. Even Feaster with USC, A&M won't go anywhere. The good news is you continue to have kids who are committed from across the country, who not only affirm but shut down the recruitment. Victor Singleton, a cornerback from Ohio, did that. Jonathan Hatton Jr and KJ Edwards did that. I don't want to speculate on stuff like that. You can just bet that's part of the risk, when you go coast to coast the way A&M did, there are battles to fight. They know that.
