NSD Press Conference: Jimbo Fisher breaks down A&M's 2018 class

The following are live, paraphrased notes from Texas A&M Head Coach Jimbo Fisher's National Signing Day press conference. Video will be added to the story when it is available. 

I appreciate your thoughts and prayers as I try to keep up with Jimbo. 

• Congrats to the young men who are joining the Texas A&M program. Our staff did an outstanding job in recruiting. We were able to meet a huge area of need.
• What's amazing about this group is not only the athleticism, but they're good students and good people.
• We got a lot of guys with good football intelligence - high character, quality young men.
• Texas A&M got a lot better today.
• You have no idea how much work the support staff does to enable us to go out and get the right guys.
• Here at Texas A&M, if we get them on campus here, we're going to have a heck of a shot. People think that's because of the facilities, but it's because of the people. The culture here makes the difference.
• On James Foster: He has an unbelievable story. He's lucky to be alive. And then to come back and get his body back and go at the level he played at. Amazing. I always ask about a guy: Can he win? He took over a team that had no wins, and they were 10-2 his senior year. Dameyune did a tremendous job recruiting him. We had recruited him before, we reached back out and recruited him here. Our goals and his goals matched up.
• You have to (recruit nationally). We want to recruit the state of Texas. The football in Texas doesn't take a back seat to anybody. The coaching is outstanding. So we're going to scour Texas and get all the guys here we can. But if you still have needs, you have to go be willing to reach nationally and have a national brand. Texas A&M can be a national brand.
• Mike Elko does a great job. He's driven and hard working. His rapport with players is natural and easy. His record as a DC speaks for itself. He's a complete coach - recruiter and football coach.
• I think we met most of our needs. We're always looking for linemen. A huge area of need was finding more TEs. We just didn't have enough to practice and do what we do. We had to have a QB in this class. That's one position that no one else can play. It was critical. And we needed more backs, just for the numbers to have the guys to run the ball.
• Building a relationship with new recruits and still maintaining the ones you have is extremely challenging. This was a very challenging recruiting season.
• The new crop of guys (2019 and beyond) are seeing our vision, and it's selling very well, and we have to go get these guys and be in the top 5 classes moving forward.
• Tyree Wilson is one of the most interesting guys we signed. His length and size - big people do a lot more by accident than a lot of people do on purpose. He's maturing in a hurry. He gained 14 pounds in three weeks between visits. He's a very, very interesting guy that I think could end up being a really, really good player. 
• Evaluation is the key to recruiting. You have to know what you need to fit your system. We had to do quick evaluations, find those guys, and get busy.
• It's all about relationships, and we didn't have time for that before the early signing day. We did for this one, and you see we did a lot better.
• If those kids will be as creative and intelligent in school and in life as they are in their commitment videos, they're going to make seven zillion dollars. It's amazing what those guys do.
• Diallo is another guy who I think has unlimited potential. He's so productive as a player. I think he can make an immediate impact.
• Bobby Brown - for a guy that size who can play on the edge, you just don't see those guys. Marcus Spears was one. Guys like that make inside guys even better. He's a very unique talent in so many ways.
• Jeremiah Martin is another guy like this - power, speed, tremendous athleticism.
• Max Wright has that physicality but also that athleticism.
• One the offensive side, Colten Blanton is already here and he's doing excellent.
• Luke Matthews is a great player - smart, heck of a player.
• Barton Clement - powerful inside guy.
• Tank Jenkins - 340-350 pounds and can bend and twitch for a guy that size.
• Someone said, "How do you like College Station?" I said, "I have no idea." It's been crazy running around recruiting for sure.
• We had a relationship with Bobby Brown before, and I think it was just a matter of time rebuilding that relationship here. It came down to the end, and only in the last few days it started to feel better. He was one of the most wanted guys in the country.
• The location here in proximity to so many big cities - Houston, San Antonio, Dallas...that other city (Austin). And then there's the East Texas connection - hard-nosed, tough, well coached football. It's kind of like South Georgia was for us at FSU.

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