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

TexAgs Recruiting analyst Ryan Brauninger joined this morning for another edition of Recruiting Country, highlighting the latest news and notes from the recruiting trail surrounding Texas A&M.

Key notes from Recruiting Country

• I texted Olin yesterday and told him, “Not many people have knocked Nick Saban on his heels, and you did it.” Saban was flabbergasted. OB knows the program that he covers, and he knows the truth.
   
• The Warehouse and C.C. Creations have done some cool stuff with A&M athletes across multiple sports. Tonight, there will be a fan-appreciation event for the baseball team with meet-and-greet and merchandise opportunities, and it should be a fun event over there.
   
• It’s not one of the toughest regionals, and it’s not one of the easiest. TCU, Louisiana and Oral Roberts can beat you on any given day. I like this A&M team in this setting, but they’re going to have to go out there and play. They have to play better defense, but the offense will still perform. If you’re looking at it from an A&M perspective, you know that you can do it, but it will not be easy. Let’s not talk about the Road to Omaha. Let’s focus on this weekend.
   
• Oral Roberts has one starter that is a pro prospect, and they have a guy in the bullpen that has great numbers. They will try to use those two guys on the mound, and if A&M can’t get to the bullpen, ORU should feel like they have a chance to win. Ledgend Smith is the starter, and Cade Denton is the bullpen arm. ORU is a tough four-seed. That makes the Friday game so important. With the postseason, you have to focus on winning today.
   
• This A&M baseball coaching staff has experience from their past years in the NCAA Tournament. With their skins on the walls and their mentality, it should translate well to this regional.
   
• June will be busy on the recruiting front, and we will start with the official visits this weekend. It’s not a long list, but it’s an important list. It’s all out of state kids, and there are some names where you can set the bar very high to get them back for an unofficial visit for a game this fall.
   
• Jaden Rashada‍ is a supremely talented kid out of Pittsburg, California, and he has other visits around the SEC. He will be here this weekend, and it’s a chance for A&M to feel that thing out.
   
• I don’t think anything will be cut-and-dry with quarterbacks. They will have Rashada come in, and other quarterbacks will come in as well. We’ve mentioned Austin Novosad‍ as well. This coaching staff will look at quarterback very thoroughly in this cycle. They won’t take a commitment until they know that they have their guy.
   
• Eugene Wilson‍ is a wide receiver out of Tampa. A lot of people think he will stick with the Gators, but he’s doing a tour of the SEC. A&M will get a look this weekend.
   
• Chase Bisontis‍  is an offensive lineman out of New Jersey. He is one of the top pure offensive tackles in the country. A&M missed his top-schools list, but they will still get an official visit this weekend. Getting him on campus is an enormous deal. He might be the most important kid that’s here this weekend.
   
• Sydir Mitchell Jr.‍ came to camp last year. Elijah Robinson has done a great job with him. A&M will have a great chance at landing him.
   
• It has been a little slow since the Jayvon Thomas‍ commitment. This will be a smaller class, and the Aggies will be super, super picky at every position. You want to make sure that any commitment you take will be stapled at the top of that list. Bisontis and Mitchell would be those guys. I do think that Mitchell is at the top of your board because he’s a big kid on the inside. In terms of a big interior presence, Mitchell is a Walter Nolen-type.
   
• There will be some kids that like A&M, and this coaching staff will have to make decisions on some. Evals still have to be made, and camps will be going on shortly. We are picking up steam on the recruiting trail. I think it’s unlikely that they will get a commitment this weekend, but they’re getting very close to getting some people to jump on board. We think they are very close to adding to this recruiting class. We’re about to have a month full of official visits and camps.
   
• A&M has as good of a chance with Rueben Owens‍ as anybody, but they’re recruiting other backs as well. Owens understands that he is a priority in this class for this coaching staff, but he will take other visits. If you’re an emotional follower of recruiting, you will be riding some ebbs and flows of this one. He said he would make a summer decision, but he has pushed that back.
   
• Derek Lagway‍ is a 2024 kid that picked up his 30th offer last week. He’s one of the top 2024 QBs, and he’s from just down the road in Willis. A&M has prioritized him from very early on. I think DJ is looking across the country, but A&M will be in the thick of that one for a very long time.
   
• Brandon Inniss‍ isn’t a name that has popped up much for us. He’s one of the top receivers in the country, and he’s uncommitted. It’s going to take a lot of work, and I saw that he tweeted something about maybe taking a visit to A&M. Until that happens, it’s a longshot for A&M, but we’ve said the same thing about a number of kids that A&M ended up signing.
   
• Miles McVay‍ is from East St. Louis, the same high school as Antonio Johnson. There is some familiarity there, and Miles is a huge prospect. If he decided he wanted to come to A&M, that would be a huge addition.
   
• The NCAA’s rule change has everything to do with the 85 limit on scholarship numbers. All the NCAA has done is give you leeway on how you get to that 85 number. You may hold some scholarships from year to year. We still expect this to be a smaller class. It will be much smaller than last year, but they took 29 last year. I think it will be in the ballpark of 20 signees.
   
• Jason Glenn is the athletic director at Willis. There are a lot of pro Aggies at Willis. Lagway won’t need help. If he chooses A&M, it will be because he chooses them himself. The Aggies are in a great spot, and they won’t need Glenn or anybody else to push him very hard, if at all.