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

TexAgs' recruiting analyst Ryan Brauninger joined TexAgs Radio on Wednesday morning for another edition of Recruiting Country, highlighting the latest news and notes from the recruiting trail now that the 2022 college football season is officially over. 

Key notes from Recruiting Country

• There were two last weekend and they committed elsewhere. Jalen Catalon is going to Texas. Al Walcott is going to Arkansas. The portal window is closed for A&M. Sam McCall and Tony Grimes are here. McCall never visited and committed. Maybe there will be guys that go in the portal that have familiarity with A&M. 
   
• There is work to be done. You are running out of time. They have to find a receiver. They have to find a linebacker and a corner. They need offensive line help, a depth guy. I don’t know if you have to have a depth guy on the line but it would be a nice insurance policy. You just went through a season where if something could go wrong, it did. Same thing at corner, you probably need another one. They have to do something. You cannot go into the 2023 football season with this roster. You have to add. 
   
• There are people that throw a fit on the message board. It’s not about who you don’t sign. It’s who you do. At the end of this, you can’t put grades on recruiting until it's done. Maybe we are sitting here in May and looking at how they finished. I don’t think we will know the full story of this class until April or May. The portal opens in December, and it doesn't close until the following June. 
   
• The NCAA has no structure. There are guidelines, no rules. When these kids go to the portal, 30 minutes later, they commit elsewhere. The NCAA has let this happen. They have no backbone. They pop Jim Harbaugh for buying a kid a burger during COVID-19. It's an arbitrary rule of enforcement. As soon as they figure out a way to dissolve that whole body, college sports will go back to what it was. I don’t think this is a way to go about the next 10 years.
   
• When you are trying to flip an entire roster, the best way is through the portal. Look at Hugh Freeze at Auburn. Look at Deion Sanders at Colorado. It also allows first-year coaches to overhaul the whole thing and build it from the ground up. We saw Jim Schlossnagle do it last year. I don’t think that's a long-term recruiting strategy. Maybe like Kansas State. They built their entire roster off of JUCO players. It makes sense for schools like that. For the big schools in a talented state, your best bets are to build your program through high school.
   
• The first portal window is Dec. 5 through Jan. 18. The next window is May 1 through 15.
   
• Jadon Scarlett signed in the 2022 class. I don’t know what they are calling him. Maybe a gray shirt or blue shirt. He lost his father during the season last year. His dad was a trainer in the DFW area. He moved in with the 2023 early enrollees.
   
• We had heard TJ Shanahan was having a paperwork issue, but he's here now. Raymond Cottrell is trying to get everything lined up to get here early.
   
• You're going to have locker room guys. Rueben Owens is moving in with Conner Weigman and Bryce Anderson. They want to bring this program forward.
   
• Colton Thomasson has been locked in. With Taurean York, we have seen his emotion. He was already texting coaches at two or three in the morning asking what does this defense mean. He wears his heart on his sleeve and has a ton of leadership qualities.
   
• Aidan Siano is a preferred walk-on. He was Rice’s Freshman of the Year and Freshman All-Conference. You needed some depth in that room. He offers veteran experience. That's a really good roster addition. 
   
• We continue to monitor the portal stuff. Junior Day is coming up on Jan. 21 and 28. If you are a recruiting junkie, start paying attention to this 2024 class. 2025 is loaded. Every power program in Texas could sign guys from the state in 2025 and be a top program.