Denver Harris

Following the end of another exciting season of college football, Billy Liucci shares some thoughts about the state of Texas A&M football, an early look at next season, the NFL Draft, an update on the offensive line coaching search & much more.

Eleven Texas A&M signees will begin life in Aggieland tomorrow as January 11th marks move-in day for the early enrollees of the Aggies' top ranked recruiting class. A few of the kids or families I've spoken with will drive up today and stay the night so they can get an early start at Park West Apartments tomorrow morning. Here are the signees we are expecting this week: Beaumont West Brook DB Bryce Anderson Lakeland (FL) DL Gabriel Brownlow-Dindy Pilot Point LB Ish Harris Katy DB Bobby Taylor Bridgeland QB Conner Weigman North Shore CB Denver Harris Frisco Liberty WR Evan Stewart Scottsdale (AZ) DL Anthony Lucas Lexington S Jarred Kerr Bogart (GA) TE Jake Johnson Kennesaw (GA) CB Marquis Groves-Killebrew Transfer QB Max Johnson

This was a reply I had written up to an earlier post discussing Alabama fans crying foul as they watch Jimbo Fisher and the Aggies inch closer to securing the highest-rated recruiting class of all-time. It also comes on the heels of the ridiculous '$25-$30MM' NIL rumor that Sooner fans have passed around and pushed to go viral over the past two days. Rather than let it be buried in the thread, I figured most of you would enjoy the discussion and didn't want anyone to miss it.Here you go:Welcome to the world of the haves, ladies and gents. As I've already said, Alabama doesn't fear Texas A&M, but between this year's walk-off win and the way the 2022 recruiting classes shook out you can bet your ass that the Aggies have the attention of the Crimson Tide.With that will come all of the accusations of paying players, including ridiculously false numbers like '$25-30 million.' It's amazing coming from fanbases (and even site moderators in some instances) of teams like Alabama, Georgia, LSU and Oklahoma. LSU??? Does 'Our Lady of the Lake' or Will Wade ring a bell? Alabama? We're talking about the same program that the rumor for the past few years - pre-NIL, mind you - has been that the Tide are operating with a $2-3 million 'salary cap?' I'm not saying that's true, and frankly I don't believe it is, but my point is that when you're recruiting at this level, those coming up way short (Texas and Oklahoma, I'm talking to both of you) are going to accuse you of nefarious tactics. Dabo Swinney and Clemson became famously defensive several years ago, and now I'm even seeing some Tiger talking heads in my mentions for the first time, accusing the Ags of cheating. Wonder what kind of 'NIL deals' that entire 2018 defensive line worked out behind the scenes that convinced all four starters to return and, in a couple of cases, pass up top-15 money....and don't even get me started on my buddies in Austin. You know, the same group that openly bragged about 'Horns for Heart' or the pancake factory of whatever the hell they were calling it while openly campaigning to buy prospects via social media? Also the same group that celebrated signing Quinn Ewers for 'first-round money' and has fully embraced the concept of paying whatever it takes to dig Sark out of the deep hole he and his staff plummeted into this fall.Oklahoma??? The Sooners, who have been the most vocal lately when it comes to questioning the validity of the Ags' success on the recruiting trail, have a real mess on their hands and are currently lashing out at everyone and everything. The boys of Big Red Auto and Barry Switzer are tweeting through it this past month, trying to convince themselves that they're better off with Brent Venables and Dillon Gabriel than they were with Dri-Fit Riley and Caleb Williams. It's been wild to watch a proud program coming off of an 11-2 season spiral so badly that even the 5-7 Longhorns sense blood in the water. Maybe the Sooner faithful should worry more about cringe-worthy press releases following a player entering the portal and less about Jimbo and A&M kicking the ever-living crap out of them in the recruiting arena.They're going to do everything they can to keep A&M from ascending to the upper-echelon, folks. This is simply the first step from a few moderators at fan sites and a bunch of loudmouths who will believe whatever they're told on social media. In the meantime, all the Ags can do is continue to recruit at the highest level and start becoming bigger winners on the field. The 2020 season and this year's win over Alabama have to serve as the launching off point, as it goes without saying that expectations are about to be at an all-time high in College Station and everyone is (clearly) lining up to see Fisher and the Aggies fail.The thing everyone tweeting their thumbs to the bone over this either don't see or aren't bothering to acknowledge is that Fisher and the Aggies have been building to this for quite some time (and long before NIL was ever a thing). In his head coaching career, Jimbo Fisher's complete classes have ranked 4, 11, 4, 3, 3, and 6 at FSU and 4, 6, 8 and now 1 in Aggieland. That's an AVERAGE class ranking of 5 over a ten-year stretch at two different schools. Jimbo has always been an elite recruiter, dating back to his days as Nick Saban's top assistant at LSU...a fact that folks seem to have conveniently forgotten of late.A full year ago, I was pretty outspoken about the stated goal in Bright. The Aggies believed they had an excellent look at signing the No. 1 class in the nation in 2022 and they were going to go for it. An absolutely loaded crop of talent in Houston was going to be the foundation, and Fisher's staff had already proven capable of doing heavy lifting throughout the SEC footprint and even in the Northeast. Closing out last year by adding several Houston-area standouts, including five-stars LJ Johnson, Bryce Foster and Tunmise Adeleye set the stage in the Bayou City, and the Ags then kicked things off by landing Katy blue chips Bobby Taylor and Malick Sylla, the Dickinson duo of Donovan Green and PJ Williams and, not long after that, superstar QB Conner Weigman. The ball was rolling early, and today, the Ags' 12-man haul from the city of Houston alone would rank as the No. 10 class in America, one spot behind Michigan and one spot ahead of Oklahoma.That momentum started during and following the 2020 season. Rival fans can discount it all they want, but the Aggies spent most of the 2022 cycle recruiting juniors and then seniors-to-be during a 9-1 run to the Orange Bowl, six weeks of playoff contention and a top-5 finish. After that, they were recruiting throughout an off-season of high expectations and top-10, SEC title-contending talk. Things obviously didn't go according to plan in the fall when Haynes King was lost in game two and the Ags dropped back-to-back games to open SEC play, but the stunning, walk-off win over Alabama came exactly two weeks after A&M fell to Arkansas. With damn near every priority target in the stands at Kyle Field when Seth Small drilled the field goal to beat Nick Saban and the Tide, the Aggies were right back in the center of the conversation. They stayed there for six more weeks, including another big win over Auburn in a battle of top-15 teams in an electric Kyle Field.What am I getting at? Texas A&M had it rolling and was regularly mentioned alongside the likes of Alabama, Georgia, Clemson and Ohio State for damn near the entirety of the '22 cycle. They were out of the conversation for only two weeks in September and then again for the final two weeks of the season. By then, however, Maroon momentum was a snowball rolling downhill, as the Aggie commits and longtime priority targets were locked in, had known where they wanted to play for quite some time and had the added incentive of being part of the highest-rated recruiting class of all-time.It's not that hard to figure out. You have to go out of your way to blow past the obvious en route to your '$30 million conspiracy theory,' in fact.And remember, there's this thing called 'loser's limp.' You've all heard of it. It's very popular amongst college football coaches/recruiters and has been for decades. I've heard many an A&M coach go that route over the years, and I've heard countless coaches from other programs lean on the tried and true "they dropped a bag" line whenever a coveted prospect signs elsewhere. The Ags didn't do a lot of losing this year, and as a result, you're seeing the other side limping around. The result is what you're seeing from these various fanbases and even rival site moderators is "I know someone who knew someone who heard..." Alabama in no way 'lost' in a recruiting cycle that has the Tide currently sitting at No. 2, but they wanted Denver Harris and Anthony Lucas in the worst way down the stretch and also did all they could to sign several other Aggies, including one-time Bama commit LeVeon Moss. Georgia is sitting at No. 3, but the Dawgs desperately tried to flip Deyon Bouie back, coveted Enai White and lost Marquis Groves-Killebrew to the Ags on NSD. Texas? Where to begin. Name an A&M signee, and Steve Sarkisian and the Horns probably wanted him. That's what happens when you sign 20 prospects ranked among the nation's top-102 vs. something like three in Austin. Oklahoma and LSU? Head coaching changes certainly hurt momentum on the Sooner and Bayou Bengal side, but that doesn't change the fact that Ags lapped both of their regional rivals in this year's recruiting race, which has left the folks in Norman and Baton Rouge limping around more so than anyone else. Bring on the hate. All of it. It's pretty entertaining to watch.