Recruiting Country: The latest recruiting news surrounding the Maroon & White

Key notes from Recruiting Country

• Harold Perkins‍ is on the visitor list this weekend. Texas has had back-to-back home games and has had some of A&M’s targets on campus. The Aggies will have a big visitor list this weekend and will get them back inside Kyle Field. So much of the sales pitch across the street is about the Aggie Netowrk and everything else. Nobody wanted the result of last week, but if you’re an A&M fan that considers yourself part of the 12th Man, this is how you help the coaching staff: You make it a ruckus atmosphere at Kyle Field so they can sell these recruits. Sure, the team has to play better. There should be some motivation and some fire within the fan base, and you have a chance to impact this thing by making Mississippi State and Alabama uncomfortable.
   
• I don’t want to get into what Texas is doing, but if they’re watching A&M games with A&M targets, that sounds like desperation and not recruiting to me. It was rumored that Harold Perkins was one of those players they watched that game with. If things continue for both teams, both will have plenty of ammunition. What’s the point of trying to do that when just two weeks earlier, you were on national television getting your doors blown off by the same team?
   
• Recruits judge the season by its entirety more than the fans do. They are not as attached emotionally as the fans are. Once they get to campus, they will be. Right now, nothing has changed for what A&M is going to offer these top targets. If A&M loses three or four more, nothing will change with their sales pitch. A&M will have to overcome some early season adversity, but it doesn’t change the sales pitch. It might help the sales pitch, telling some of these kids that they can make an early impact. Conner Weigman‍ isn’t coming in to sit.
   
• Recruits look at their position and how it’s coach. They see how it performs. They look at their potential development and everything off the field, outside of football, including NIL. All of those things will remain key factors in some of these recruitments, and it will come down to relationships like it always does. This coaching staff is still elite in recruiting and building relationships. They’ve overcome much worse than a bad day in Dallas against Arkansas.
   
• Weigman had 480 total yards. He’ll be back in town on Saturday with a whole host of recruits. I don’t get tired of talking about this kid. Some of the things he does are sensational. They’re undefeated. Bridgeland lost so much from last year, and Conner has been carrying them against some of the toughest competition in Houston. He’ll be on campus in a couple of months, and that will instantly make that quarterback room that much better. He’s not a real rah-rah guy. He communicates directly and talks to people. Guys listen to him. That’s the kind of leader that he is, and when you watch him play, his clock and the way he processes stuff on the field might be his most elite trait. The decision-making and getting the ball out and the feel for the game are off-the-charts good.
   
• I think they are at four five-stars coming in town this weekend, and that number can only go up.
   
• I think things did change some for Eli Stowers after his injury. I was not the day-to-day guy watching him during his recruitment. Eli Stowers is a great human being. He got to campus, and the coaching staff decided to move him to tight end to help impact this football team. These coaches see these kids every day at practice. If they thought a kid would give him the best chance to win, they’d make that move. Jimbo Fisher said on Monday that he’s going to continue splitting his time. He has done that since he got here. There seems to be some confidence that Blake Bost can do some things. I don’t know how he’ll perform, but nothing the kid, I don’t think the moment would be too big for him if he had to play.
   
• A&M is in a good spot for Jacoby Mathews‍. Nothing has changed. I’m trying to work out a trip to see him and Le’Veon Moss. Some guys in the F5 network saw Eli Holstein‍ play, and I don’t think he threw an incompletion this week. The Louisiana target that A&M has been trending best with is Mathews. A&M is still right there and doing a great job, but I know they would’ve preferred to wrap that one up towards the end of the summer. Moss’ recruitment is a little more difficult to read. He decommitted from Alabama. LSU is involved. A&M is involved. Alabama is still involved. It seems like that could be a late-in-the-cycle decision.
   
• There has been a giant narrative built on our message boards about our offense, but that hasn’t trickled out to recruits. Judge the season in its entirety before you get concerned about that. A&M’s offense has had so many injuries. Yes, it has to get better. Zero question about it. That narrative hasn’t been spun on the recruiting trail.
   
• Dallas is really strong in 2023. Johntay Cook‍ is very, very good. Rueben Owens‍ at El Campo is incredible. Langham Creek’s Jaquaize Pettaway‍ is one I’m hoping to see. Houston is very strong on the defensive side.