2021 Recruiting Recap
How did the Aggies do this recruiting cycle? By: The Hammer
Recruiting is the number one indicator of sustained success in college football. Sure, a team or coach can catch fire for a year or two and outperform their recruiting and roster talent level. Some coaches have made a living off of it - Gary Patterson, Mike Gundy, Pat Fitzgerald, just to name a few. These coaches consistently find diamonds in the rough recruiting and do an excellent job of developing the players they do get. However, there is a reason these schools never quite reach the ultimate prize of a national championship: they don’t have the talent to out match big time schools.
They can overachieve every year, or a few years during a coach’s tenure, but when you run into another well coached, motivated team with more talent, the talent will win out nine times out of ten. For example, Mike Gundy, who has done an excellent job in Stillwater, has only beaten Oklahoma twice during his 16 years as head coach. Bottom line is if you want to be competing for championships on a consistent basis you need to be recruiting at an extremely high level year in and year out. Top 10 and top 5 classes every year. You can have some success without recruiting that well, but it won’t be very consistent and it won’t result in national championships.
247’s 2021 recruiting Rankings
As an A&M fan, we know this all too well. For many years in the Big 12 days, Texas and Oklahoma would out recruit the Aggies and typically beat us in the fall. We had some upsets and fun wins sprinkled in there, but overall those two schools got the best of us. Fast forward to the SEC, and it’s on a whole new level. Dang near every school in the SEC recruits at a top 25 level and sends multiple players to the NFL Draft every year. The talent pool in the SEC is deeper than the holler Randy Travis sings about. You have to recruit well and develop your players or you’ll get whooped on Saturday. Thankfully, Jimbo understands that and has been recruiting extremely well in his first few years.
According to 247Sports and Rivals, here is where Jimbo’s recruiting classes have ranked, including this most recent 2021 class. I am not including his “first class” in 2018 because the majority of those kids were Sumlin recruits he inherited.
247 Sports Rivals
2019: #4 #6
2020: #6 #6
2021: #7 #4
Rivals 2021 Recruiting Rankings
Not too shabby. These are the kinds of classes that will have you competing at the highest level. My favorite thing about how Jimbo has been recruiting has been the emphasis on the lines of scrimmage. Sumlin brought in some good classes but a lot of the key players were skill positions that either didn’t pan out, or had trouble making an impact because A&M could not win the battle up front. Not the case any longer. Jimbo recruits beasts on the line of scrimmage and it shows on the field. We run the ball, stop the run and wear down our opponents in the trenches.
That trend continued in the 2021 class. On the offensive line, Jimbo signed 4 star Trey Zhune, 4 star Bryce Foster (top 100 nationally), 4 star Rueben Fatheree (top 100 nationally), and some solid 3 stars like Jordan Moko, Matthew Wykoff, and Remington Strickland. #MaroonGoons
On the defensive line, we hauled in 4 star Tunmise Adeleye (top 50 nationally), 4 star Marcus Burris, 4 star Elijah Jeudy, 4 star Jahzion Harris, 5 star Shemar Turner (top 25 nationally), and 3 star Albert Regis. That’s an impressive list of players just on your offensive and defensive lines.
For those keeping track, that is eight lineman 4 stars or better between the two lines of scrimmage. Grown ass man football.
Moving onto the other positions there are still plenty of highlights. In the defensive backfield, A&M signed 4 star cornerbacks Deuce Harmon, Dreyden Norwood, and 4 star safety Jardin Gilbert. On the offensive side of the ball, Jimbo plundered Houston and Miami for his skill talent. Isaiah Spiller’s big year clearly got the attention of running back recruits because two 4 star running backs pledged to the Aggies. The highest rated is LJ Johnson at 45th nationally, followed by speedster Amari Daniels out of Miami Central.
Keeping the South Florida vibe going, Daniels' teammate out of Miami Central 4 star Yulkeith Brown signed as well. Brown is listed as an athlete and played both ways in high school but put up more impressive numbers at wide receiver. Given our lack of depth at wide out, I’m guessing that’s where he will end up. Finally, we need to highlight the stud QB coming to Aggieland. Eli Stowers is a 6’4” 215 pound dual threat quarterback out of powerhouse Denton Guyer. He’s a long shot to win the job this year, especially with how complex Jimbo’s offense can be (just ask Demas), but Stowers can ball. I would not be surprised to see him lighting up Kyle Field a few years down the road if he can keep his nose to the grindstone.
Eli Stowers on his official visit.
All in all, this is a damn good recruiting class. Tons of talent at skill positions and in the trenches, where it truly matters in my opinion. Crazy thing is this great class is only the 3rd or 4th best in the SEC, depending on what outlet you use. That’s the SEC for ya. The best players come to play in this conference. Deepest and most talented league in college football and it isn’t close. That means the work ain’t done, and Jimbo knows that. The 2022 class has to be just as good or better, and all the kids in the 2021 class need to be developed and prepared to play when their number is called. Otherwise, the powers that be in the SEC will pass by and leave you in the dust.
I did want to make note of the recent news that 4 star Kendal Daniels was granted release from his NLI and will no longer be joining the Aggies. Speculation is that the departure of defensive analyst Ishmael Aristide, who was hired as the Linebackers coach at Miami, is a big reason Daniels backed out. Although this loss hurts, I think we have great depth in the secondary for the first time in a while so we should be just fine. Gig everyone.
#BTHOOffseason
