Elijah Blades

The Aggies made two big recruiting splashes on Sunday after landing commitments from DT Isaiah Raikes and RB Deondre Jackson, and Jimbo Fisher and Company have big plans for rounding out the 2020 class and beyond.

With the start of spring football drawing near, Billy Liucci ranks the most highly-contested position battles to keep an eye on and analyzes the latest developments at each spot, including the favorites to fill the big shoes lefft by Erik McCoy and Trayveon Williams.

-- I've spoke a good bit to Baton Rouge (LA) ATH Joel Williams in the last few days. From what I've been told, Williams plans on making a commitment this spring, likely in April. The Aggies hosted Williams at the Super Bowl event, and they came away in a sterling spot to land the 6-2, 180 pound cover man. "Dang man, I love Texas A&M. They did it big during that Super Bowl event," Williams told me. The Aggies' options in the secondary are plentiful, and as Looch has said, the staff is making sure they're being as thorough as possible with the remaining spots. Williams is among a group of guys like Dwight McGlothern, Xavion Alford, Jalen Kimber, Vito Tisdale, Lorando Johnson, Chris Thompson, and Darius Snow that are on the A&M big board and are strongly considering the Aggies. -- Staying in the secondary, it turns out the Aggies inking Elijah Blades in the 2019 class could pay off on the West Coast in 2020, at least in terms of visits. I've had one source tell me Blades' link to California based DB's Elias Ricks and Clark Phillips has got both looking at potential visits, though at last check, nothing had been scheduled. There's also a link between Blades and elite LB Justin Flowe that could lead to a visit. Flowe is reportedly going to be in Texas over the summer. -- I've been given no reason to believe OL commits Akinola Ogunbiyi and Smart Chibuzo won't visit Texas this weekend. I'll check in with them later this week to see if anything has changed. -- New in state name to know in 2021 is Port Arthur Memorial DE/OLB Jordon Thomas. At 6-3, 240 pounds, Thomas could project at a few different spots within the front seven. Texas offered recently, and I've been told by some southeast Texas sources that Terry Price should be by the school soon to check him out. -- I spoke with PNG OL Jaylen Garth a bit today about new A&M coach Josh Henson, and it sounds like the Ags' new man will have some work to do, at least with Garth. Jaylen says he hasn't spoken with Henson since he got the A&M job (not that big of a deal seeing as how he arrives in College Station tonight) and that he wasn't being recruited all that heavily by Oklahoma State.