Injury update
The last couple of weeks haven’t been overly generous to A&M, as several key players have gotten banged up. Jeremy Tabuyo is out for the next several weeks after having surgery Tuesday, and Speedy Noil and Otaro Alaka are iffy propositions for tomorrow. James White, however, could break the trend and return. That, in and of itself, would be a big deal. With Tabuyo out and Noil hobbled, look for Edward Pope to see the field more this weekend. This is also a team in Mississippi State that could be a good matchup to use Claude George. Even though he took a beating last week, Shaan Washington is expected to play Saturday.
Two visitors at a need position Saturday
Even though the most impressive visitor list of the year (and maybe any year) will be in two weeks for Alabama, the Aggies do have at least two big names coming in this weekend, and both are potential corners: California 4-star ATH Jack Jones and Waco CB Eric Cuffee.
Since he’s a west coast kid, Jones has largely been under the radar – but we knew he had interest in A&M from this summer when he brought them up at the Rivals 5-Star Challenge. We saw him in person and he’s really impressive, with great top end speed and an aggressive demeanor when he plays defense. He has the Aggies in his final three, along with UCLA and Michigan. Florida and USC are trying to get back into the mix, but it appears to be a fight between the hometown Bruins and the Aggies more than anything. Jones wants to play wideout and the Aggies may accommodate him, or at least offer him the chance to play on both sides of the ball. Brandon Williams’ situation could be used as evidence that the staff will do as they say.
Cuffee has been a more visible target in this neck of the woods, and has already made a visit up to South Bend to see the Fighting Irish whip Texas. He intends to check out games in Austin and at Auburn, at least, before making a decision.
Putting a Bow On The TD Moton Story (Rob)
I'd like to take a trip back down memory lane to a time a little over a year ago when a young, well thought of JUCO safety prospect named Justin Evans was committed to the Texas A&M Aggies and about to enter his second and final season of football at Gulf Coast C.C.
Evans was a full qualifier out of high school but was on a baseball path before finally deciding to play college football. As a full qualifier Justin could have joined the Aggies last season. Once news of his immediate availability hit the internet, many other schools stepped up their recruitment of him, including SEC foes the Aggies face every year. In the end, despite the unneeded added pressure, Evans decided to remain firm in the commitment he made to the Aggies and the rest is history.
Fast forward to yesterday when 2016 standout recruit T.D. Moton learned that he had raised his test scores enough to get into college. There is no denying that he had been in contact with the staff when he tweeted out that he was enrolling at A&M this spring. In an effort to clarify how close most of the media and blogs that cover the Aggies were, everyone should understand that we all tend to agree that the A&M staff was/is recruiting Moton if he is in fact now eligible. He would be a great addition. No one has denied the contact.
Shortly after his tweet, which turned A&M recruiting coverage on its ear momentarily, Moton took the tweet down and sources both from inside the program and outside confirmed to me that the tweet was not accurate. Having been in the business for quite some time now, I never thought for a moment that he was not being talked to or looked at, simply that the tweet was not accurate. We passed that along to you guys and for it were accused of lying for the program, an accusation that has been levied at us and other credentialed media before.
Having also been on this beat for a while now as well, I know when to expect this type of behavior (it seems to happen often with some, usually when their overaggressiveness proves to make them look silly, which is like I said, often). If everyone would have taken a deep breath (a tactic that seems to work with my 4 year old daughter) they would have realized that all entities involved yesterday admit there is conversation between the two sides. We'll just have to see if the added attention for other SEC schools who would love to add Moton works out the same way as it did for the Aggies and Evans.
The Moton story is not dead because of the tweet, and subsequent debunking yesterday. The tweet was quickly removed and multiple media outlets reported it not to be accurate. We'll see how it plays out in the end and pass along updates as they come in, this one will be a wait and see.
Big visitor planned for Alabama game? (Fletch)
One player who is currently deciding if he wants to visit or now is Viera (Fla.) 2016 WR Tre Nixon. The six foot, one inch, 169-pound receiver has A&M in his top six along with Auburn, Georgia, Ole Miss, Penn State, and Tennessee. Now why is he a big visitor you ask? Nixon wants to commit to a school in October and could be one of those recruits who commits if A&M wins against Alabama in a few weeks. If he does not visit A&M for the Alabama game, it is safe to say he will not commit to A&M. Is he worth it? His team lost 56-20 to Allen. They would have lost 56-0 if he was not playing. Out of all the kids I have seen this year, Nixon still might be the most impressive one I have seen. He has some Christian Kirk in him and I think he would be rated higher if he had a solid quarterback.
A&M overtook Texas to land Madubuike (Courtney)
Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin and defensive line coach Terry Price attended the McKinney North game on Thursday night to see commit Justin Madubuike.
Madubuike put on a show for his future head coach with at least four tackles for loss, a sack and a quarterback hurry. Madubuike was described as a violent force on the field by those in attendance. McKinney North defeated Prosper 46-18.
Madubuike said he knows he made the right decision in choosing Texas A&M.
"I talked with my parents, I visited all the schools in Texas, so really we were just waiting on time," said Madubuike. "We thought why wait on time when I could just go ahead and commit now? I knew I was going to go to school in Texas, and honestly I thought I was going to go to UT. Texas A&M though was the right fit for me athletically and academically.
"I called Coach Sumlin and he was going crazy. He brought out all the other coaches and they were going crazy...It feels good and it makes you feel like they really do believe that I can do well academically and on the football field, so I think I made the right decision."
Madubuike said now he just needs to go get his official visit done. The question is will he take officials elsewhere?
"Probably not. I don't plan on it," said Madubuike.
Throughout the Aggies first few games this season Madubuike has been studying the A&M defense.
"The A&M defense is looking really good under Coach (John) Chavis," said Madubuike. "They are beating people and doing things right. It's a defense that I can fit well in and advance in quickly...I'm going to go to the Alabama and see it in person. It should be exciting."
(More in the next post)
The last couple of weeks haven’t been overly generous to A&M, as several key players have gotten banged up. Jeremy Tabuyo is out for the next several weeks after having surgery Tuesday, and Speedy Noil and Otaro Alaka are iffy propositions for tomorrow. James White, however, could break the trend and return. That, in and of itself, would be a big deal. With Tabuyo out and Noil hobbled, look for Edward Pope to see the field more this weekend. This is also a team in Mississippi State that could be a good matchup to use Claude George. Even though he took a beating last week, Shaan Washington is expected to play Saturday.
Two visitors at a need position Saturday
Even though the most impressive visitor list of the year (and maybe any year) will be in two weeks for Alabama, the Aggies do have at least two big names coming in this weekend, and both are potential corners: California 4-star ATH Jack Jones and Waco CB Eric Cuffee.
Since he’s a west coast kid, Jones has largely been under the radar – but we knew he had interest in A&M from this summer when he brought them up at the Rivals 5-Star Challenge. We saw him in person and he’s really impressive, with great top end speed and an aggressive demeanor when he plays defense. He has the Aggies in his final three, along with UCLA and Michigan. Florida and USC are trying to get back into the mix, but it appears to be a fight between the hometown Bruins and the Aggies more than anything. Jones wants to play wideout and the Aggies may accommodate him, or at least offer him the chance to play on both sides of the ball. Brandon Williams’ situation could be used as evidence that the staff will do as they say.
Cuffee has been a more visible target in this neck of the woods, and has already made a visit up to South Bend to see the Fighting Irish whip Texas. He intends to check out games in Austin and at Auburn, at least, before making a decision.
Putting a Bow On The TD Moton Story (Rob)
I'd like to take a trip back down memory lane to a time a little over a year ago when a young, well thought of JUCO safety prospect named Justin Evans was committed to the Texas A&M Aggies and about to enter his second and final season of football at Gulf Coast C.C.
Evans was a full qualifier out of high school but was on a baseball path before finally deciding to play college football. As a full qualifier Justin could have joined the Aggies last season. Once news of his immediate availability hit the internet, many other schools stepped up their recruitment of him, including SEC foes the Aggies face every year. In the end, despite the unneeded added pressure, Evans decided to remain firm in the commitment he made to the Aggies and the rest is history.
Fast forward to yesterday when 2016 standout recruit T.D. Moton learned that he had raised his test scores enough to get into college. There is no denying that he had been in contact with the staff when he tweeted out that he was enrolling at A&M this spring. In an effort to clarify how close most of the media and blogs that cover the Aggies were, everyone should understand that we all tend to agree that the A&M staff was/is recruiting Moton if he is in fact now eligible. He would be a great addition. No one has denied the contact.
Shortly after his tweet, which turned A&M recruiting coverage on its ear momentarily, Moton took the tweet down and sources both from inside the program and outside confirmed to me that the tweet was not accurate. Having been in the business for quite some time now, I never thought for a moment that he was not being talked to or looked at, simply that the tweet was not accurate. We passed that along to you guys and for it were accused of lying for the program, an accusation that has been levied at us and other credentialed media before.
Having also been on this beat for a while now as well, I know when to expect this type of behavior (it seems to happen often with some, usually when their overaggressiveness proves to make them look silly, which is like I said, often). If everyone would have taken a deep breath (a tactic that seems to work with my 4 year old daughter) they would have realized that all entities involved yesterday admit there is conversation between the two sides. We'll just have to see if the added attention for other SEC schools who would love to add Moton works out the same way as it did for the Aggies and Evans.
The Moton story is not dead because of the tweet, and subsequent debunking yesterday. The tweet was quickly removed and multiple media outlets reported it not to be accurate. We'll see how it plays out in the end and pass along updates as they come in, this one will be a wait and see.
Big visitor planned for Alabama game? (Fletch)
One player who is currently deciding if he wants to visit or now is Viera (Fla.) 2016 WR Tre Nixon. The six foot, one inch, 169-pound receiver has A&M in his top six along with Auburn, Georgia, Ole Miss, Penn State, and Tennessee. Now why is he a big visitor you ask? Nixon wants to commit to a school in October and could be one of those recruits who commits if A&M wins against Alabama in a few weeks. If he does not visit A&M for the Alabama game, it is safe to say he will not commit to A&M. Is he worth it? His team lost 56-20 to Allen. They would have lost 56-0 if he was not playing. Out of all the kids I have seen this year, Nixon still might be the most impressive one I have seen. He has some Christian Kirk in him and I think he would be rated higher if he had a solid quarterback.
A&M overtook Texas to land Madubuike (Courtney)
Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin and defensive line coach Terry Price attended the McKinney North game on Thursday night to see commit Justin Madubuike.
Madubuike put on a show for his future head coach with at least four tackles for loss, a sack and a quarterback hurry. Madubuike was described as a violent force on the field by those in attendance. McKinney North defeated Prosper 46-18.
Madubuike said he knows he made the right decision in choosing Texas A&M.
"I talked with my parents, I visited all the schools in Texas, so really we were just waiting on time," said Madubuike. "We thought why wait on time when I could just go ahead and commit now? I knew I was going to go to school in Texas, and honestly I thought I was going to go to UT. Texas A&M though was the right fit for me athletically and academically.
"I called Coach Sumlin and he was going crazy. He brought out all the other coaches and they were going crazy...It feels good and it makes you feel like they really do believe that I can do well academically and on the football field, so I think I made the right decision."
Madubuike said now he just needs to go get his official visit done. The question is will he take officials elsewhere?
"Probably not. I don't plan on it," said Madubuike.
Throughout the Aggies first few games this season Madubuike has been studying the A&M defense.
"The A&M defense is looking really good under Coach (John) Chavis," said Madubuike. "They are beating people and doing things right. It's a defense that I can fit well in and advance in quickly...I'm going to go to the Alabama and see it in person. It should be exciting."
(More in the next post)
