Dillon Sterling-Cole

In light of the news that Aldine Davis LB Jeffrey McCulloch will be making it to College Station this weekend, pushing his visit up a week and bumping Alabama, how about some quick-hitting Tuesday recruiting notes?- The first piece of news was obviously the biggest, with the top linebacker prospect on John Chavis' board making his way to Aggieland a week early. The reasons why this is a significant development are obvious, most of all, it keeps the trip to Alabama from clouding the picture even more and it gives the Aggies the chance to immediately make up for any ground lost while 'The Shark' was in Austin last weekend. It also gives McCulloch and his family time to really think things over following the visit, as opposed to scrambling in the three days before Signing Day, which usually results in the prospect falling back on wherever he'd been leaning the past few weeks.- A&M is also working hard to find options at defensive tackle, as evidenced by their recent run at OU commit and one-time Aggie lean Chris Daniels of Euless Trinity. Along those same lines, I've been told by Louisiana sources today that D'Andre Christmas-Giles is considering taking an official visit to College Station this weekend. Christmas-Giles was once a Tennessee commit, then seemed to be leaning Texas' way. However, sources close to LSU believe he's now trending towards the Bayou Bengals following his visit to Baton Rouge last weekend. I'll keep everyone updated on the big DT's status as this potential story develops.UPDATE: As this update was about to go out, Brice actually confirmed with Christmas-Giles that the Louisiana DT was indeed tripping to College Station this weekend.- In case anyone missed my update yesterday, per sources close to Westfield QB Dillon Sterling-Cole, the Aggies have yet to reach out in an attempt to bring the A&M legacy and Arizona State pledge to town for an official visit. As such, it appears unlikely that the Ags look any further than Nick Starkel for this year's QB pledge. Speaking of Starkel, don't be at all surprised to see him pull the trigger on an A&M pledge in the immediate future. UCLA picked up a QB yesterday and all signs have pointed to the one-time Oklahoma State pledge choosing A&M since Kevin Sumlin tabbed Noel Mazzone as his OC just after the New Year. - That would also indicate that, save for some sort of last-minute rally, the Aggies are stepping off of the Tyrie Cleveland roller-coaster so long as they can lock up one-time pledge Quartney Davis with a strong showing this weekend during the Langham Creek receiver's visit.- As for Silsbee OL Patrick Hudson, he's currently in Austin for a mid-week official and his current plan is to trip to Georgia this weekend. It's a very strange trip for the Baylor commit to take this late and certainly feels like a waste of his time but who knows who is pulling the strings in this particular recruitment at this point. At the end of the day, I still think we'll see Hudson sticking with Art Briles and the Bears but the Ags are going to have a very hard time scrambling to get him in town for an official this weekend or next.- Word out of Nacogdoches is exactly what we've been saying: The Aggies are in for a real battle between now and Signing Day as they attempt to ink two-year A&M lean Brandon Jones. Not only is Jones currently enamored enough with Texas and hard-working lead recruiter Jeff Traylor to lead some of our East Texas sources to concede that the Aggies are now perhaps even playing from behind but those same sources believe that Art Briles and Baylor should now be considered legitimate players for Jones' services...especially with the Bears getting Brandon's final visit before Signing Day. Lots of work still to be done here. Not the best of news on the B Jones front and the Ags have clearly lost their grip on the five-star defender, but if you're counting A&M out of this one, you're doing so prematurely.- On a brighter note, sources feel fairly confident that the Aggies will be able to counter any lost momentum with several key prospects visiting campus this weekend. That and other intelligence have this corner feeling pretty confident that the Ags will hold on to Charles Oliver (Baylor) and Moses Reynolds (TCU) and manage to get long-time, one-time commit Quartney Davis back in the fold. While I'm not quite as confident that Mark Jackson sticks with his A&M pledge as I am Oliver and Reynolds remain committed, I would still call A&M the favorite over Texas and OU and feel good about the direction this one is trending in recent days. - Irvin Smith's recruitment continues to have an odd feel to it. The longtime A&M commit is torn between the Aggies and, of all teams, the offense-less Texas Longhorns (seriously, if the Horns can sell offense without having to 'prove it on the field' the way the Aggies were asked to do this fall by the likes of Jeffrey McCulloch, Brandon Jones and others, then they're simply doing something better in the recruiting arena than the Ags are) but there are two wildcards who would likely step over the Longhorns and emerge as A&M's biggest threat. As we've been saying, Smith will be at Alabama this weekend. He'll be on that visit with LSU tight end commit Jamal Pettigrew. As Ryan and I have been saying, the Tigers are the team capable of sweeping in and ripping Smith away from the Aggies' clutches late if they're desperate to add a tight end to the class. That's not the case today, but neither Alabama nor Florida are backing off of the 6-5, 225-pounder from St. Augustine HS in New Orleans. Something that the Ags must continue to monitor as they work to keep Smith in the fold and find a way to pull Thaddeus Moss out of North Carolina.