Five-star DL David Hicks talks his decision to commit to Texas A&M

On3 imageby:Tim Verghese09/28/22

TimVerghese

For 2023 Katy (Tex.) Paetow five-star defensive lineman David Hicks Jr., his decision to commit to Texas A&M over Oklahoma ultimately came down to family.

“So it was like, do I want to stay close to home or do I want to go far away,” he said. “Seeing my little brothers and sisters today and just seeing how happy they were and how happy they are seeing me around, I just wanted to stay around here and watch them grow up.”

Hicks spent his junior season at Allen (Tex.) High, nearly four hours away from his hometown of Katy and to have to spend another three, potentially four years hours away from his younger siblings ultimately led him to the decision to commit to Texas A&M, which is just under an hour and a half from his hometown of Katy.

“I love everybody here,” he said. “I grew up here pretty much and this is is my city, these are my friends and this is my family.”

After making back-to-back visits to College Station in recent weeks and some conversations with his family, Hicks who was an Oklahoma lean for months, made his decision just thirty minutes before he announced it to the world on Wednesday. The five-star noted that he didn’t even tell Texas A&M that he was committing prior to announcing, but is excited to see the staff’s reaction to his decision to join the class.

Now that he’s committed, Hicks is putting on his recruiting hat, and working on others to join him in College Station. He has one five-star in-state prospect in mind specifically.

“Peyton Bowen,” he said. “I need him.”

Looking ahead to his Texas A&M career, Hicks has high expectations both for himself and the Aggies.

“I’m most excited to come in and contribute and come in show everybody what I can do,” he said. “Show everybody that we can go out and win a national championship.”

With the addition of Hicks, Texas A&M’s class now ranks as the No. 15 recruiting class in the country with 12 commits, including two five-stars in Hicks and Denton (Tex.) Ryan linebacker Anthony Hill Jr.

Hicks ranks as the No. 9 prospect and No. 1 defensive lineman in the country per the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. The five-star has an On3 NIL Valuation of $248K. The On3 NIL Valuation is an index that looks to set the standard market value for both high school and college-level athletes. The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.