We are 7th in average stars. We are very likely to hold a top 10 class unless things close very poorly.

I still say we should strive to be top 4-5 more often than not, but until we win on the field, we'll always be tough to match Georgia, Ohio state, Bama, etc. in year one of a full recruiting cycle, a 7th or 8th ranked class is a damn good start. We need a star wr and OT though. Those are the two biggest keys to the class, more so than exactly where we finish

DEI means all black athletes are 4 star are better.

randy828 said:

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Leonard H. Stringfield said:

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Aggie Class of 2026 said:

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Leonard H. Stringfield said:

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Not bad at all, huh?

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So you're saying the talent is gonna be there?

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Indeed, a plethora...

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Multiple plethoras of talent..

There's also 8 sec teams in the top 15… coaching is gonna be what matters the most

I hope we never have a #1 class again. We all know what that got us.

kcar1020 said:

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Well with the avg star rating and where we are right now, I will say this:

I am not missing JF at all.

I fully expect the new regime to be able to coach this top 5 class once it arrives on campus.

I feel pretty good about where we are right now.

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I miss Johnny Football.

BCEDAg said:

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I hope we never have a #1 class again. We all know what that got us.

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I think it had less to do with the players and more to do with us not having a 25 head coach. I would imagine most top 25 coaches would have had far better success with that class than Jimbo had.

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BigOil said:

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I'd rather be 5 than 55 in February

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What if we have the no.1 class of all time!!!

That would be great!! We'd be champs for sure!!

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to be fair that class didn't hear no bell yet

BCEDAg said:

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I hope we never have a #1 class again. We all know what that got us.

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That's just self-loathing. In most years more talent should correlate to better outcomes. The coaching seems to have missed the mark.

I do think you have to recruit for chemistry and to put together a "whole team". It isn't merely getting a top recruiting ranking that wins.

rgag12 said:

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I'll be more impressed if it's number 5 in February. Rankings mean nothing right now

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No, it does mean something. I'd rather be 5 in July than 50 or 500 in July. 5 means higher probability of 5 in Feb. If we are at 50 or 500, it means much lower probability.

Better recruits means better chances of winning. I said "better" and no guarantees. We still need good coaching which Jimbo and other other coaches failed at.

Muy said:

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kcar1020 said:

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Well with the avg star rating and where we are right now, I will say this:

I am not missing JF at all.

I fully expect the new regime to be able to coach this top 5 class once it arrives on campus.

I feel pretty good about where we are right now.

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I miss Johnny Football.

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Saw him on Facebook. He's gotten fat.

infinity ag said:

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BCEDAg said:

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I hope we never have a #1 class again. We all know what that got us.

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Dumb take. I hope we get all the top players AND Elko coaches them up and the players play up to their potential.

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I've followed Aggie football for over 60 years and we've had excellent recruiting years under Bellard, Sherrill, Slocum, Sumlin and Fisher. Still waiting to see something on the field that is a direct result of that excellent recruiting class.
I'm a huge fan of Elko and his coaching staff and truly believe he'll get us to the football promised land. Just hope I witness it before I leave this earth.

BCEDAg said:

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infinity ag said:

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BCEDAg said:

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I hope we never have a #1 class again. We all know what that got us.

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Dumb take. I hope we get all the top players AND Elko coaches them up and the players play up to their potential.

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I've followed Aggie football for over 60 years and we've had excellent recruiting years under Bellard, Sherrill, Slocum, Sumlin and Fisher. Still waiting to see something on the field that is a direct result of that excellent recruiting class.
I'm a huge fan of Elko and his coaching staff and truly believe he'll get us to the football promised land. Just hope I witness it before I leave this earth.

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BCEDAg, I apologize for my rude response. I said it in jest, but it was not proper. I'm sorry!

To respond to your post, we may have had great recruiting in the past, but I think we still failed to coach them up. We have had pathetic coaches to okay to decent coaches, but none who have been Top 5 in game coaching. If we had anyone like this, we probably didn't have good recruiting happening at the same time.

We may have struck gold with Elko. Not sure yet, he is recruiting well, and has coached well in the past but if we can do it in the SEC is to be seen. We will know by end of next year. This year may be for rebuilding. Either way, I will always be a fan of Aggie football, win or lose. I just hope our boys win the ultimate trophy some day soon.

I think a couple weeks ago might've been the closest I'll ever get. I'll never be happier to be wrong
/BAS

remind me again of jimboo's #1 ranked class performance so far !

fightinag said:

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remind me again of jimboo's #1 ranked class performance so far !

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Remind me which school with untucked classes that won an NC???

BCEDAg said:

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I hope we never have a #1 class again. We all know what that got us.

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Georgia and Bama have had #1 classes, too. I hope we have a #1 class every single year for the rest of our existence.

BCEDAg said:

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infinity ag said:

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BCEDAg said:

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I hope we never have a #1 class again. We all know what that got us.

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Dumb take. I hope we get all the top players AND Elko coaches them up and the players play up to their potential.

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I've followed Aggie football for over 60 years and we've had excellent recruiting years under Bellard, Sherrill, Slocum, Sumlin and Fisher. Still waiting to see something on the field that is a direct result of that excellent recruiting class.
I'm a huge fan of Elko and his coaching staff and truly believe he'll get us to the football promised land. Just hope I witness it before I leave this earth.

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Sumlin's recruiting was 16, 9, 5, 11, 18, and 13 in his years here. Our college team talent according to 247 under Sumlin never got above 10 (Exactly 10 in 2015). It was 13 in 2016 and 15 in 2017. On paper, that actually equates to a lot of 8-5 and 9-4 seasons in the sec, just like we went most of those years.

Fisher is really the only one who underachieved greatly to their talent levels. On paper, in terms of team talent, we were 16 in 2018, 12th in 2019, 11th in 2020, 8th in 2021, and 4th in 2022/2023.

Sumlin may have underachieved by a game or two his 6 years. Fisher was by 6-8 games in 2021-2023 alone. Slocum and Sherrill probably about achieved to their talent levels, though Slocum should have won a national title since at one point, we had the most NFL players. He still won a ton.

The fact is, we haven't spent enough time in the top 5-8 range to act like we are always supremely talented. On paper, we have only been in the top 10 of college team talent three times in the modern era of recruiting. Most years, we have been outside the top 10. Which again, in the sec, means a lot of 8-5 and 9-4 seasons. I would like to be in the top 5-10 range for longer than just three seasons before giving up on the idea. Just my opinion though

If the coaches show that they can coach this fall, the recruiting class will come together nicely.

We just have to win some big games this fall and show a brand of football that top recruits want to be a part of.

Only thing rankings now prove is that someone is pretending to be working.

Our biggest problem in the last 20 or so years hasn't necessarily been overall talent level.
It has been that we have always had at least one position group that has been a glaring weakness that other teams have been able to exploit and coaches that haven't been able to figure out how to coach around these holes in the lineup.

fightinag said:

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remind me again of jimboo's #1 ranked class performance so far !

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In fairness, they just finished up their true sophomore year. At some point, maybe we won't throw the world on 1st and 2nd year players to save the day. See Elko and how many 4th and 5th year SRs he just added to the depth chart this offseason to go with the 2022 class now being in their 3rd year.

The 2022 class probably actually hurt fisher more than it helped him. When he went upper-class heavy on the field (2018 and 2020), those were his two best teams. And the 2021 defense which was elite. When we were young and played a bunch of FR/SO, that's when we really struggled.

If anything, the 2020/2021 classes were the real disappointments for the 2022/2023 seasons. We had minimal SR/JR leadership those seasons. Maybe it was in part to recruiting over them and promising playing time to the true fish.

The 2022 class are now JRs this year, and even despite the losses, they would still rank as a top 3-4 overall class with Weigman, Moss, Thomas, Dewberry, Dindy, White, Stewart, Anderson, Sylla, Green, Ohrstrom, Erb, Harris, Kerr, Nabou, Scarlett all still here. So I wouldn't quite give up on them winning some games over the next two years just yet now that they are finally upperclassmen. If Elko does win a lot of games this year, it will be in large part due to the 2022 class, even with the departures.

Emilio Fantastico said:

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Our biggest problem in the last 20 or so years hasn't necessarily been overall talent level.
It has been that we have always had at least one position group that has been a glaring weakness that other teams have been able to exploit and coaches that haven't been able to figure out how to coach around these holes in the lineup.

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That was definitely part of it under Sumlin. We'd have a handful of elite first round draft picks, but absolutely no depth. I think that's where the 15th or 13th ranked team talent comes in. You have a Myles Garrett, Daeshon Hall, Armani Watts on your team, but mediocre LBers and a mediocre OL after Sumlin lost all of Sherman's recruits. In 2013, the defense was atrocious when the OL and offense was still really damn good. In 2016, out starting 22 was elite. Probably top 5 overall. Our depth was non-existent, and a couple injuries destroyed us. Not to mention playing 100 snaps a game caught up to that depth.

I'm just saying that many years, I believe our talent on the whole was likely less than people realized being around the 10-15 level more so than the 5-9 level, which unfortunately in this league gives you a lot of 8-5/9-4 seasons. Sherman's talent was outside the top 20-25 on paper most years. We had really fallen off a cliff in recruiting around 2006-2009. 2010 had the elite OL class and Damontre Moore, but terrible with regards to depth outside of that. 2011 class was terrible on paper but produced two elite players in Evans/Manziel.

Fisher is really the first coach who I would say greatly underachieved to his talent levels. Sumlin was merely a guy who was average, but not recruiting well enough and destined to be 8-5 with his recruiting depth and style of play (so many snaps on defense). He recruited great in 2014 off the magical 2012 season and was able to land Myles Garrett and a couple others elite guys, but never had depth.

What year will the Matthews' grandchildren be eligible?

Hope it won't take that long before we see a dominant Aggie O-line.

beerad12man said:

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Emilio Fantastico said:

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Our biggest problem in the last 20 or so years hasn't necessarily been overall talent level.
It has been that we have always had at least one position group that has been a glaring weakness that other teams have been able to exploit and coaches that haven't been able to figure out how to coach around these holes in the lineup.

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That was definitely part of it under Sumlin. We'd have a handful of elite first round draft picks, but absolutely no depth. I think that's where the 15th or 13th ranked team talent comes in. You have a Myles Garrett, Daeshon Hall, Armani Watts on your team, but mediocre LBers and a mediocre OL after Sumlin lost all of Sherman's recruits. In 2013, the defense was atrocious when the OL and offense was still really damn good. In 2016, out starting 22 was elite. Probably top 5 overall. Our depth was non-existent, and a couple injuries destroyed us. Not to mention playing 100 snaps a game caught up to that depth.

I'm just saying that many years, I believe our talent on the whole was likely less than people realized being around the 10-15 level more so than the 5-9 level, which unfortunately in this league gives you a lot of 8-5/9-4 seasons. Sherman's talent was outside the top 20-25 on paper most years. We had really fallen off a cliff in recruiting around 2006-2009. 2010 had the elite OL class and Damontre Moore, but terrible with regards to depth outside of that. 2011 class was terrible on paper but produced two elite players in Evans/Manziel.

Fisher is really the first coach who I would say greatly underachieved to his talent levels. Sumlin was merely a guy who was average, but not recruiting well enough and destined to be 8-5 with his recruiting depth and style of play (so many snaps on defense). He recruited great in 2014 off the magical 2012 season and was able to land Myles Garrett and a couple others elite guys, but never had depth.

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There is a lot more to this than most people give credit. We didn't crack the (admittedly arbitrary) 50% threshold for blue chip ratio until 2015, and some people may remember a few extenuating circumstances from that year that turned recruiting around for another half-decade after that. We didn't get back to around that level of talent again until the 2020 season, where we were technically under it (49.5%), but had a very senior team in many ways. Starting in 2021 we began to really have the talent to compete, but managed to be perpetually young and injured.

This coming year, roughly half of the guys listed on 247's talent composite (which I believe has everybody except the most recent high school commits) are listed as JR or SR. That is very different than the past couple of years. That doesn't necessarily mean anything, given the new coaching staff and everything that went along with it, but let's not act like we have really been in a position where we have had this much talent and this level of experience at the same time.

This seems to be overlooked by most of our fan base because in the past a coaching change meant lack of talent and experience. And really outside of a scandal, most programs are not this talented and experienced with a new head coach. Reminds me of Larry Coker taking over at Miami.

Quote:

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Saw him on Facebook. He's gotten fat.

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Care to post a picture of yourself?