Elko/BMA have to find a niche in recruitment (HS/portal) when probably your main tool ($) will be 2nd best in the state for the foreseeable future.

I think he has an idea and alluded to it the other day when he mentioned guys with eligibility left deciding to come back instead of going to the draft.

Shemar Stewart is a perfect case: 1st round talent, 4th round player.

If you can entice players like him to come back or portal in, that's better than a 5* freshman in the short term.

This should be our way: Talented grinders that want to get better...

I think the best strategy is for the GM/recruiting staff to maximize ROI on NIL funds. What was the ROI for Evan Stewart last year? Conner this year? Vs guys like Will Lee, Reed-Adams or Scooby Williams. If we spend big on a couple of WRs we need them to produce and be top 10 in the SEC at the end of the season.

You also need to heavily invest in the developmental process. The new rule allowing unlimited field coaches should be exploited to this end.

The players have to believe that you'll turn them into a 1st rounder, along with the nice NIL $ to stay.

historically the best way to beat superior talent in most sports is by having an older more mature team. with nil and the transfer portal i would hope we can have a combo of both top ten talent and a junior laden team.

Until A&M wins a championship the program will always be based on HOPE and next coach up.

TMartin said:

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Until A&M wins a championship the program will always be based on HOPE and next coach up.

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That descibes almost all other programs, correct?

Recruiting out of high school should be for depth.

You need to stock up on the key talent from portal/NIL. Juniors and seniors will always be looking for a pay raise to end their college careers.

We need to have Elon musk come in and create a Department of program efficiently. D.O.P.E.

Older teams have always outperformed in CFB. Would love to have as much experience back as possible.

QB.

You have to get the right guy at QB.

For every bit you drop in talent at QB you have to make up for it with the overall roster.

Obviously, it's best to have both, but you cannot win without a great QB or an overwhelming talent advantage.

I like Reed's ceiling but I'm not sure he's the right guy for us long term. We'll see.

The Banned said:

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Older teams have always outperformed in CFB. Would love to have as much experience back as possible.

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Yes, but instead of a bunch of 6th year 'Try Hard' 3*s, you get JRs who are right on the cusp of going to the draft early who want to stay for a chance to be a 1st next year (and fat $ bag).

Ex: Shemar Stewart

McKinney Ag69 said:

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We need to have Elon musk come in and create a Department of program efficiently. D.O.P.E.

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Efficiency but sweet acronym.

JDCAG (NOT Colin) said:

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QB.

You have to get the right guy at QB.

For every bit you drop in talent at QB you have to make up for it with the overall roster.

Obviously, it's best to have both, but you cannot win without a great QB or an overwhelming talent advantage.

I like Reed's ceiling but I'm not sure he's the right guy for us long term. We'll see.

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I think longterm he is the right guy , but in the immediate we are going to go through some growing pains with him

I expect him to take a step up in 25 and then a huge on in 26

Some of you seem to think that spending the most money is going to equal a championship every year. That is not going to happen. We need to focus on getting one of those 12 spots every year. From there, all kinds of crazy stuff can happen.

If we had beaten USC and Auburn this year ( two teams we are probably out-spending, btw), we would be in the playoffs even with the bad loss to sip.

Stinky T said:

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Some of you seem to think that spending the most money is going to equal a championship every year. That is not going to happen. We need to focus on getting one of those 12 spots every year. From there, all kinds of crazy stuff can happen.

If we had beaten USC OR Auburn this year ( two teams we are probably out-spending, btw), we would be in the playoffs even with the bad loss to sip.

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FIFY

Yeah the HS guys should be guys you can project, develop and believe will stick it out. I think that is what Elko was referencing when he talked about the players parents, etc. We are actively trying to avoid the pay me now HS kids. I fully expect we are highly active in the portal and that's where a good chunk of change is spent but also are allocating money to player retention.

Quote:

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That descibes almost all other programs, correct?

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I mean most teams have won something since we have.

SteveA said:

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Quote:

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That descibes almost all other programs, correct?

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I mean most teams have won something since we have.

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Curious if that is actually true or not considering how many teams have gone on runs and repeated, it feels like in my lifetime there have not been many teams that have won it outside of Bama, UGA, OU, Clemson, UF, and a few others.

How did we go from being the money-gun kings of NIL in 2022 to sniveling also-rans in 2024??? **** that bull***** We have 70,000 students and a crapload of oil money - we can buy whoever we want. We had a coach go brain dead last year and had to re-set. There is no need to cower from a school making bud-light commercials. These threads make me want to ****ing vomit.

TMartin said:

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Until A&M wins a championship the program will always be based on HOPE and next coach up.

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Well said.

Aggies will win a SEC championship when they have:
- NFL first round pick at LB, who can dominate from sideline to sideline
- #1 RB in the SEC who avg 80-100 yards a game
- an all American at Safety who likes to head hunt
- a couple of 1st or 2nd SEC team OL and DL
- speed at WR and DB
- a JR or SR leader at QB

That's not well-said. That's defeatist bull*****

MaroonRevival said:

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How did we go from being the money-gun kings of NIL in 2022 to sniveling also-rans in 2024??? **** that bull***** We have 70,000 students and a crapload of oil money - we can buy whoever we want. We had a coach go brain dead last year and had to re-set. There is no need to cower from a school making bud-light commercials. These threads make me want to ****ing vomit.

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Jimbo

Jimbo is a ****ing blip. Some of you are wearing the jimbo experience like a ****ing death sentence. He failed us - we didn't fail him. We move on until we find someone worthy and we smash everything in the way until we get there. Wake up people, and stop sniveling.

MaroonRevival said:

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Jimbo is a ****ing blip. Some of you are wearing the jimbo experience like a ****ing death sentence. He failed us - we didn't fail him. We move on until we find someone worthy and we smash everything in the way until we get there. Wake up people, and stop sniveling.

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It's not the man, it's the $90M hole he put us in. We gave him every possible advantage, but the finances are holding us back now. We can claw our way out of it but it will take time. I do think they need to raise the face value of tickets and stop letting stub hub siphon off a lot of the profits. Charge a $20 talent fee per ticket and you're looking at $12M per year. We'll get him paid off in no time and have more NIL funds.

Reduce subsidies for student tickets too. They will pay it. They are not going to go to school at A&M and not go to games. Our admins just need to get creative .

Tickets and school revenue have zero connection to NIL.

We along with every other school is eventually going to do revenue sharing. Tennessee already started charging a talent fee. The winds are already blowing that way

McKinney Ag69 said:

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We along with every other school is eventually going to do revenue sharing. Tennessee already started charging a talent fee. The winds are already blowing that way

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Note the finish line is $21 million in funding with only directly connected boosters without a true business interest to promote being limited on private NIL by the judge-approved settlement.

Still no counterparty to negotiate for current students.

Note especially: https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/state-senators-release-statement-opposing-nil-revenue-sharing-settlement/ar-AA1vkZON

Also worth following: https://www.msn.com/en-us/channel/source/NIL%20Daily%20On%20SI/sr-vid-qw3rp0bg0f5nqg03n4puiedgjhwwvg4mmdesfiunr30vgdi7auua?cvid=2c2c71efe2964c20b50613df2b423f93&ei=11

Don't need a niche just need better evaluation and better development through better coaching.
We are willing to throw enough money to get good players , playing time is important prospects will avoid places that have too much talent in front of them.
Did Clemson pay Klubnik more than we paid CW.

Want better ROI? Incentive based NIL, with a baseline amount.

5*? You have a higher earning potential, if you perform at that level.

It's not perfect, but sure beats paying someone to ride the bench

Regarding OP's initial point about getting mid-round prospects to return. We have been terrible with this.


But here's a question. At what draft level (third round? Fourth round?) is NIL money for returning to the team greater than the money a draftee can sign for in the NFL? At one point, it used to be simply, "go get paid". Now, it's "which pay package is better?"

northeastag said:

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We have been terrible with this.

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The next group of great programs will have coaches & collectives that find a way to do this. Jimbo got fired because he couldn't figure out how to entice the Maroon Goons to play one more year iirc because of Covid most of that unit had one more year of eligibility

If a couple of those guys come back The program in a dramatically different place. We were too busy throwing stupid money and 5* DL and overlooked what we really neede to win.

On this we agree 100%. No team is going to stack and retain 5* talent at a single position year after year. No 5* player is hanging around for a shot to start for 1 year. They are going to transfer out. So keeping strong, experienced, mid-round level talent pieces around your very best players is going to be the key going forward. Not buying the 5* high school players every year.

Pay players the most, out bid every other school every time. This plan will work.

and a cattle prod.