AggieYell Mailbag

Here’s your latest edition of the AggieYell Mailbag, coming hot to your screens:

Q: Do you suspect we have any interest in players that are eligible for the “late” portal? (Eyecutter98)

A: Unless it’s someone earth-shattering, no. I think they’re done, unless they can find a running back.

Q: Running back. Did we not hit on any good names because the coaches are satisfied with what they have or was there another reason? 

A: I think it was several other reasons. Bryson Washington was a concern due to his injury history,, and the rest didn’t want to be situational backs.

There are a few walk in’s who most likely will never see the field but would you happen to know if any of them would be worth a look at being used in short yardage situations? (H273)

No. If there was someone who had that ability, they’d be on scholarship and we’d know who they are.

Q: Changes in the baseball staff. Big deal or nothing to see here? Likes Dislikes? (brAg)

A: I really like the addition of Cliff Pennington, and not just because he played at A&M. He did a great job at Dallas Baptist coaching the infielders (fielding) and base running, both of which were real issues last year. Frankly, last year’s team was one of the worst at running the bases that we’ve seen in some time. 

Losing your hitting coach a month before the season starts is never optimal, but Troy Claunch, as a hitter, had an approach I really liked (you can go back to old baseball threads, if you can find them, and see). He and Jack Moss were “professional hitters” in how they worked counts, didn’t give pitchers anything for free and were willing to take an outside pitch to the opposite field instead of trying to pull everything. Head coach Michael Earley thinks Claunch will be a quick mover up the coaching ranks, so hopefully he’ll have a big feather in his cap after this year.

Q: We won’t know how we actually graded out in the portal until say mid-way into the coming season. That said, how would you rate what we did?

A: I think they did pretty darned well. Would I have liked Cam Coleman? Sure. But they moved fast to fill their needs, stocked up big time on the defensive line and got one of the best linebackers and corners available. And Isaiah Horton is a pretty nice consolation prize.

You seemed fairly confident in Marcel taking another big step forward this coming Fall. Can you say more as to why you see that?

Sure. First is the mind of the competitor. Nobody wants to have their season end with two flops, and he knows how close they were against Miami. Sitting around with that in your head for an entire offseason can be a big driver. Second, I always look for trends. He threw for nearly 75 yards more per game last year than compared to 2024, was the first 3,000-yard passer for A&M since Kellen Mond in 2018, ran less and threw much more. He was more patient in the pocket, for the most part, and worked his progressions. He’ll know that he got away from that the last two games, and it will drive him even more. So, if he was more accurate, threw for more yards and had better yards for completion, AND has the Miami and Texas games to motivate him, I expect he’ll take another step.

Do the Texans have a chance at New England?

Yep. Defense tends to travel, and it’s going to be a miserable day weather-wise. That may hurt New England more than the Texans.

The Orioles. Missed the playoffs for the first time in a couple of years. Added Pete Alonso from the Mets at 1st base. A guy others wanted. But their pitching seemed to be the Achilles Heel of the club. This said, I’ve seen where Chris Bassett from the Rays might be an option in the starting rotation, maybe at the back. He’s been a really steady guy over the last 3-4 years. Does this move the needle for you at all? (Tsip Despiser)

Nah. I think they’re looking for an ace, which at this point means Framber. Everyone else is pretty much gone. They’ve made a couple of moves to shore up the rotation, including trading for Shane Baz from Tampa Bay and resigning Zach Eflin. Kyle Bradish and Trevor Rogers are very good to excellent arms if they remain healthy. So they need an inning-eater who keeps the ball down. Can you think of anyone who fits that description?

Q: Any idea if we’ll make a run at Jordan Seaton? Seems like a no-brainer if we expect Reed to take a big step forward. His happy feet might settle down with confidence that his blind side is covered. Thoughts? (Hogtide)

A: I don’t think they will. I think teams that are in dire need of offensive line help (Texas, LSU and Oregon, among others) will drive up the price beyond reasonable levels for a team that already required two tackles.

Q: Longhorn sites (as well as us and half of the NCAA) are now focused on Jordan Seaton as the best player left in the portal and that it could take $3-4 million to land him.

1) What did Cam Coleman get in his NIL deal?

A: That’s not public knowledge. Yet.

2) Do you believe it’ll take $3M or more to land a OT?

In this market, I would not be surprised.

3) Do we have more “dry powder” than most of the top schools that can afford to spend that on a single player since we didn’t get Coleman? Obviously we were wiling to spend 7 figures on a single player and now those dollars are available elsewhere. I don’t know how much of our budget is left, but just after signing Nobou and Craver to keep our own guys happy I can’t imagine how much is left

I think most of the remaining money went to guys like CJ Mims and to retain some current guys.

4) If Seaton isn’t the highest priority player left on the board for the staff, who is? (Boone8466)

At this point, I don’t know if they have one. 

Q: Player number wise, how many towards the 105 are the Ags at (as good as you can considering recruiting now is like Texas weather)?

A: We can take a stab at it.

QB: 4 (Reed, Hart, Morcos, Casuga)

RB: 5 (Owens, Morrow, Riden, Edwards, Baker)

TE: 7 (Armstrong, Anderson, Thomas, Riley, Jacobson, Johnson, Tafua)

WR: 11 (Craver, Horton, Bethel-Roman, Bussey, Norman, Johnson, Myles, Warren, Gregory, Brown, Williams)

OT: 7 (Adams, Formby, Bourdon, Rogers, Garcia, Krempin, Morcho)

OG/C: 10 (Nabou, Baugh, Echols, Ivy, Ahfua, Rink, Moses, McGuire, T. Thomas, Roseborough)

DE/Jack: 10 (Jones, Searcy, Saka, Henderson, Perry-Wright, Givins, Moala, Jackson, Miller, M’Pemba)

DT: 9 (Hicks, Rink, Mims, McCullom, Sanders, Sims, Davis-Swain, Kinsler, Scarlett)

LB: 8 (Coney, Sanford, Mikhail, Lockhart, Riggins — let’s say he is for this instance — King, Beck, Watkins)

S: 8 (Brooks, Ratcliffe, Anderson, Davis, Johnson, Byard, Collins, Wilson)

CB/Nickel: 11 (Ricks, Humphrey, Shaw, Griffin, Rogers, Pettaway, Currie, Arrington, Beal-Goines, Singleton, Hamiel)

ST: 3 (White, Olano, Freibaum)

That puts them in the neighborhood of 93. But then you have guys like Asher Murray (PK), Colton Chmelar (PK), Waylon Peters (P), TJ Smith (LB), Will Huntsinger (OL) and Hunter McKinney (OL) who are preferred walk-ons but are guaranteed to be on the team. That gets you to around 99. I’m sure there are other PWOs they’d like to keep around too. I think the 12th Man, Nana Boadi-Owusu, would be in that bunch as he’s a redshirt junior now (redshirt senior next season), but he was also introduced with the seniors before the Samford game so I’m not sure where he’s at.

Do you think it is realistic that teams will end up with 105 players as it seems difficult to reach that number as teams add players out of the portal only to have players go into it thinking they will not get time on the field? (DentonAg80)

I think they can get to 105, but there will probably be significant turnover for everyone every year.

Q: Have you seen a decent post-mortem on the football season? Like what changed after the Missouri game? (submarineAg)

A: No, I haven’t. All I’ve seen are the people who called A&M a fraud after the Miami loss trying to backtrack.

Q: Give me your “way too early” record prediction for next year and include which teams we will lose to. (Elkofricks)

A: You’re right, it’s way too early. I don’t even know how the teams will look yet. Let’s at least get the portal closed and work from there.

Q: I’m not sure how I feel about the offense. All the O-Line we brought in has high upside which is great but we have a short amount of time this offseason to get them to that point. I feel it’s going to be a work in progress with that group. Happy with receivers. Hopefully Marcel improves. Then we have to consider the in-house promotions versus going out and hiring “proven talent” for whatever that’s worth. I can see this really working out and Elko is truly the Ivy League coach we hired, or this ends in a disaster the has the potential to blow up in our face.

How do you feel now? (MC9008)

A: My only concern is with the offensive line. They have weapons at all the skill positions and I do expect Reed to improve. But breaking in four new offensive linemen is no easy task. That is my biggest concern going into 2026. If that’s handled, then they’re going to be really good offensively.

Q: Give me your top 5 dream list for guys in the 2027 hs class. (Diskyle22)

A: CB John Meredith, OL Kennedy Brown, DL Jalen Brewster, RB Landen Williams Callis, OL Albert Simien.

Q: Transfer Portal shows two amounts for Adjusted NIL Value:

one in black font and a second in green for positive amounts or in red for negative amounts.

Questions:

1) Why does the black number only appear for some teams and what is its basis?

2) What is the basis of the green/red amounts?

3) Are these amounts close to accurate for the various teams? (Raraeo)

A: I feel like the George Washington skit on SNL: “Nobody knows.” Honestly, I don’t. And I certainly don’t know if the amounts are accurate for teams. 

Q: What factors could prevent A&M from making the CFP next year?

Mine are:

1. An injury outbreak like 2024 obviously.

2. A season ending injury to QB1.

3. 4 new starters on the OL don’t gel.

4. A schedule that looks tough right now turns out to be as tough as we thought it might be. (Phastman)

A: I would say all of yours are right on the money, and I would add not improving in run defense. They’re clearly trying to, but theory does not always lead to practice.

Q: Who is involved in identifying, interviewing, offering and signing FB players from the Transfer Portal? Obviously, Elko, the Coordinators, and Position Coaches – but what about the other FB staff such as Miller (Recruiting GM), Scouting Assistants Headen, Marquardt, Cook, Smith, Cooney (Associate Director of Recruiting/Acquisition) and Gaudet (Director of Player Personnel)? Does the AD get involved? (BoxsterBoy72)

A: The recruiting staff really does much of the work, as you’d expect. Then Elko and the coaches take a look and see who’s the best fit, along with their own recommendations.

The AD is never involved.

Q: It seems like each recruiting class we’ve gotten under Elko has been full of talent, yet we’re always looking in the portal for new key players at a lot of positions the next year and the next year. Why is that? Are they leaving? Are we not developing them? Are they turning out to be Fool’s Gold? What’s the deal? Why do we have 85 players (105 now) and then have to hit the portal to put together a 44-man two-deep plus specialists?

A: You’re forgetting a big part of this: graduating players and early departures for the NFL. They were right at 85 scholarships last year, and have lost the following —

Le’Veon Moss

Amari Daniels

EJ Smith

Jacob Zeno

KC Concepcion

Nate Boerkircher

Trey Zuhn

Chase Bisontis

Ar’maj Reed-Adams

Demetrious Crownover

Deuce Fatheree

Cashius Howell

Dayon Hayes

Albert Regis

Tyler Onyedim

Taurean York

Scooby Williams

Tyreek Chappell

Will Lee

Randy Bond

Jared Zirkel

That’s 21 guys right there, and I’m probably forgetting someone. They’ve also got 11 scholarship players who have transferred or are in the portal, so that’s 32. So it’s not fool’s gold; it’s the cost of doing business. 

LB Transfer from HCU – TJ Smith. Is he any good? (3rd Gen Ag)

He’s a preferred walk-on. Probably won’t play a ton, but could help on special teams.

Q: Do you think A&M should have tried to sign another Safety, RB and WR from the portal? (Ag20)

A: I would have liked another running back, but they had a clearly defined need that most backs wouldn’t go for (short yardage). Safety, I think they’re ok with what they have. Wideout? If the other WR was Cam Coleman, yes. Otherwise, I don’t see a reason to add another. I like the freshmen.

Q: What is a favorite memory/story from a press conference you’ve covered? Least favorite? (RoosterTAMU)

A: Favorite memory? Probably this season when I asked a two-parter and that opened the floodgates and Elko was like, “Thanks, Mark.” I got a kick out of that.

Least favorite? Anything having to do with a Kevin Sumlin press conference. Always adversarial.

Q: Does Virginia Tech hate Buzz as much as we do? (QuickDrawMcGraw77)

A: They have the benefit of time to calm down about him. That was as good as Virginia Tech’s ever been in basketball, so they feel like they got stabbed in the back when he left. Honestly, I don’t know of any one of his stops where people were sad to see him go. In some cases (Tech’s), they felt betrayed. At the other places, they were sick of the act.

Q: Given the (near) end of the portal and the harder sec schedule next year, what do you think are our ceiling and floor and why? (GConsole03)

A: Ceiling’s the national championship. Floor is 7-5. We think this is a harder schedule, but there’s no way to say for sure. Remember, Florida, South Carolina and LSU were not only ranked at the start of last season, they were ranked higher than A&M. Five CFP teams were ranked between 18 and 23 (OU, A&M, Indiana, Ole Miss and Texas Tech). That just shows that preseason polls and predictions are so much garbage. It’s potentially tougher. Doesn’t mean it actually is.

Q: With the 24/7 news cycle and covering all college sports, do you ever get a freaking break? Maybe just a “slower” period where you can breathe a little? (3rd Gen Ag)

A: Late May, early June, somewhere around there. Unless baseball goes to Omaha.

Q: Baseball preview at the high level – do we have the talent to overcome Earley? 

A: You’re assuming they’ll need to. Let’s see if he’s learned from his mistakes.

Will Pennington help reduce our average errors per game from 4 to 1? 

They will probably be better, yes.

What about the arms? 

A&M gets Shane Sdao back, and he’s the Friday night starter. Weston Moss is also in the rotation in ink. After that, Earley has mentioned Clayton Freshcorn, Aiden Sims and Caden McCoy as potential starters as well. All three worked out of the bullpen last year. 

In the bullpen, Josh Stewart is back and he could close. Grant Cunningham, who only pitched in seven games last year, returns. Transfers MJ Bollinger, Juan Vargas and Ethan Darden look like they’ll be in the pen as well. They’ve got some arms to sift through, and the bullpen should be more competitive.

Are we going to be more reliant on pitching or hitting?

The answer in college baseball is almost always hitting. With Chris Hacopian joining a healthy Gavin Grahovac and Caden Sorrell in the middle of the order and high on-base guys like Terrence Kiel II and Jake Duer at the top, they’ve got contact followed by considerable pop. Add in Nico Partida and they have some guys who can swing it.

If we struggle this year and have the same record mid-year as we did last year, is Earley going to be canned? (Rooster 77)

Coaches very rarely get fired midseason, so I would say no. If they miss the tournament again this year…that’s a different story.

Q: What is the status of all our guys that entered the portal? (J.)

A: 

Player	Position	Destination
Theo Ohrstrom	TE	SMU
Jonte Newman	LT	Texas
Solomon Williams	DE	Cal
Rylan Kennedy	DE	FSU
Jayvon Thomas	CB	TBD
Dealyn Evans	DT	Mississippi State
Tristan Jernigan	LB	Cal
Jordan Pride	DB	Southern Miss
Miles O’Neal	QB	North Carolina
Cobey Sellers	CB	Vanderbilt
Izaiah Williams	WR	Kansas State

Q: Commanders’ new stadium rendering

Like, Don’t like or Don’t care?

That’s all. (geb)

A: I like going back to where RFK was, and I like that they’re using that for the basis of the design. Outside of that, no real opinion except my normal complaint about changing the name back.