Sanders, the eighth-ranked defensive tackle in the nation, was relatively cool on the Aggies during Jimbo Fisher's tenure -- in large part due to a lack of effort in recruiting him. But Sanders and fellow defensive lineman Landon Rink were two of the first players Elko visited after taking the A&M job, and that pushed A&M very much back into the hunt. The combination of Sean Spencer and Tony Jerod-Eddie got involved once they were hired, and the two defensive line coaches helped push the Aggies over the top.

Before Elko's arrival, Sanders looked like he was a heavy lean to Texas. Earlier this summer, the Texas coaching staff began to feel confident that they would end up landing him after a couple of visits to Austin, but the Aggies kept pressing. Sanders decided a few days ago he was ready to make his choice and was originally expected to make his move Thursday, but he decided to go ahead and pull the trigger Wednesday night.

In 2023, Sanders had 115 tackles, 28 tackles for loss, 15 sacks, 3 forced fumbles, 3 fumble recoveries, a safety and two touchdowns on fumble returns.

Along with Texas and fellow finalist Michigan, Sanders has offers from the likes of Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Notre Dame, USC and Oklahoma, so plenty of major programs found their way to Bellville.

Sanders is A&M's 20th commit overall and their 15th 4-star. With his addition, the Aggies now have the nation's eighth-best 2025 recruiting class according to Rivals.com.

I have to say that I saw two things in the first 30 seconds of Sanders' film that I've never seen before: a 315-pound lineman say, "I'll take that," and grab a ball right out of a running back's hands and return it for a touchdown, and a terrified quarterback simply drop a ball because he's afraid he's going to get squashed.

Sanders has a combination of power and speed for his size that is freakish. He's a man among boys at 4A, which is a scary proposition. He has work to do on his technique, but physically speaking, he's already a force.

When Sanders gets rolling, he's virtually unstoppable. He can split a double-team and drag a tackle with him, or he can just knock someone over. He doesn't have the classic explosive first step, but is more like a boulder going downhill -- once he gets momentum, you're not going to stop him. He'll just run over or through you.

About once a recruiting class, there's film you watch and just laugh in both amusement and incredulity. Sanders is that guy for 2025. He just batters opponents, and then does things players his size shouldn't be able to do. One of those things is move as quickly laterally as he does. He can toss a blocker aside on the outside and stuff a running back going up the middle or the other way.

He will have to do some acclimating to the SEC and major college football. He'll have to learn to stay low, to uses his hands better and develop a secondary move. But once he does those things, he'll be an absolute terror.

The Aggies are loading up on both size and talent on the defensive line in this class. Sanders joins Rink, who will play both end and tackle, fellow big body Chance Sims and speed rusher Marco Jones up front. That's about as good a group as any in the nation.