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Q: If Elko expects 8-12 departures after spring, what position groups do you think A&M will see the most attrition from? (Ag20)
A: I think they could come across the board. There’s no telling at this point. I think that almost everyone expected Walter Nolan and Evan Stewart to jump in the portal, but did you think someone like Deuce Harmon would? I thought LT Overton would, but Isaiah Raikes? No. So you can’t tell. Competition will dictate that.
Q: Who is A&M’s best/Ace recruiter? How does that person stack up against LSU/OU/Texas’s ace recruiter? (Big Smoothie)
A: You are asking a question with, realistically, this staff having recruited a total of five commits — three from the 2024 class and two from the 2025 class. All of them have very good reputations. But now they have to sell a new school and a new vision. As a result, it’s an impossible question to answer right now.
Q: With 8-12 expected to leave, how many do we have on scholarship, or committed, right now? (KeithDB)
A: As I’ve laid it out a couple of times over the last few days, they have 91 players, or thereabouts, on scholarship.
Q: Anyway, can you see Shemar Turner becoming the next Michael Leal with a little J Madubuike? Playing inside and spinning out on occasion? (TSmith3001)
A: I think you mean DeMarvin Leal, and yes, I can absolutely see that. I think that that’s exactly what will happen.
Q: Basketball:
Why is the offense play so bad?
A: First, they don’t shoot well. Second, they don’t do a good job of running in transition. Since they can’t get ahead of the pack, they tend to run the shot clock down and wait for Boots or Wade Taylor to drive to the basket or they shoot a 3. Since Henry Coleman got hurt, they have desperately lacked a third scorer. Coleman showed some signs Wednesday night with 8 points, but he’s clearly not 100%.
Can and will it improve going into March? (Spar2cus)
A: Can it? Yes, if Coleman or Jace Carter picks up the scoring pace, and/or they suddenly learn to shoot the 3 consistently.
Q: Now that signing day is over:
1) who is someone you didn’t think we’d get but we got, and why?
A: DE Kendall Jackson, because he wasn’t even on the radar until he committed. That brought a lot of “who?”s. But Sean Spencer got him to follow him to A&M.
2) who is someone you really wanted but we missed on? Why did we miss?
A: Easy, Cam Coleman. With the exception of Dominick McKinley, I couldn’t care less about the rest. But Coleman is going to be awesome, even with Auburn’s crap quarterback situation. And we missed because he wanted to play for Jimbo and Dameyune Craig. That’s a letdown, but I think everyone would make that trade and let him go to Auburn.
3) which recruitment, whether we signed them or not, had the most drama? What was the drama?
A: I’d go with either Dealyn Evans or Terry Bussey. And it wasn’t so much that there was drama, it was that people at Texas and LSU were shooting off their mouths that those guys were going to flip. In the end, neither came remotely close, but since those guys weren’t talking, people on the A&M side (fans, I mean) went into panic mode for nothing.
Why has Manny 0’s playing time vanished? It’s pretty shocking that he’s not getting 10-12 mins a game giving Boots and Taylor short rests. and instead is barely getting garbage time. (AggieWoo)
A: It’s not shocking at all. He’s not playing because he’s done nothing to deserve playing time. He’s 5-21 from the field on conference play, he’s 2-11 from the line and he has 1 assist and 4 turnovers. If he gets the ball, everyone knows he’s going to shoot it. The other four players get to stand and watch as he dribbles around and then drives to the hoop, where three guys are waiting for him. He’s supposed to be the backup point guard. Point guards distribute. He doesn’t. So I can’t find any reason to justify him playing more, except that the rest of the second team has been just as bad.
Q: Any particular new coach that you're impressed with or stands out?
A: Not yet. Too early to say. I will say that I’m most curious to see how Holmon Wiggins works out away from Sabanistan and what Jordan Peterson can do now that he’s back home.
I know we're all cautiously optimistic with Elko and our team, but this is Aggieland where we're always drinking the maroon Kool-Aid, so my question is, come spring ball, what in particular are you looking for to see promise, progress, etc.? (Tip Despiser)
A: I want to see competitiveness, attention to detail and coaches connecting with their players. In all seriousness, we probably won’t see much to go on except for a few players that look so good you can’t miss them (Shemar Turner and Noah Thomas last spring, for instance). But I want to see coaches coaching and players accepting that coaching. There were a few position groups last year (you can probably guess which, considering their coaches were immediately fired) where there was a clear disconnect.
Q: When we were naming a new HC, my big reservation with Elko was that I assumed he would not be a high end recruiter, and we’d start falling behind tu, LSU, and some of the other programs. Now that we’ve gotten a little insight on this front, how would you preliminarily asses the recruiting skills of this staff. (Thepassag)
A: Well, like I said earlier, we’re still in the very early stages. But here’s what you can go off of: they kept nearly everyone they wanted from the signing class except for McKinley and maybe TyAnthony Smith. There was no way they were keeping Coleman. They got 22 transfers. They kept Bussey, they kept Evans and they kept Tristan Jernigan. They added Robert Bourdon and Ashton Bethel-Roman even though they only had a couple of weeks to work with. They’ve already got two studs for 2025.
That’s a long way of saying they’re off to a good start. They all have strong reputations for recruiting well at other schools, so we’ll see if it carries over.
Q: The sips keep messing with young Manning's future at QB at 40 acres. Can you conceive of a potential scenario, including injury, where we might be interested in a portal entry from him at Aggieland? (AginAfIII)
A: No, absolutely not.
Q: What position is the next “Can he play _____?” (Travster23)
A: I was extremely disappointed with the “can he play linebacker?” Schtick continuing last season when A&M had an All-American and a Freshman All-American at linebacker last year. That made it sound stupid. On the other hand, cornerback was just screaming for someone to make fun of it and no one did.
Q: Running back targets 2025
Are we making any progress? (Geb)
A: Uh, yeah. They’ve had their top two targets, Jordon Davison and Deondrae Riden, in for junior days visits already. Landyn has put a futurecast in for Riden to A&M. While I’m not willing to go that far, the Aggies are making much better progress with running backs than they did in the 2024 class.
