Texas A&M in the top five for four-star LB Grayson Howard

2023 Jacksonville (Fla.) Andrew Jackson four-star linebacker Grayson Howard is shutting down his recruitment to focus on five schools: South Carolina, Georgia, Clemson, Florida and Texas A&M.

“This journey has been nothing but a blessing,” the four-star said in a statement. “I thank God everyday for giving me the opportunity to explore the world of collegiate athletics! The best part of the process was building relationships, not only with coaches, but with staff, and recruits. I will cherish these relationships forever! With that being said here is my TOP FIVE schools. I will be shutting down my recruitment as I will be focusing on these schools”

Texas A&M has Howard high on the linebacker board, right in the mix with Denton (Tex.) Ryan five-star Anthony Hill and Marlin (Tex.) High four-star Derion Gullette as the top three linebacker targets for the Aggies as things stand.

Howard last visited College Station in the fall, to take in the Aggies’ win over South Carolina, another school in his top five, 44-14. The four-star has yet to return to Aggieland in 2022, but that should change at least once in the coming months.

Howard has just one official visit scheduled to date, to South Carolina in late June, but all five of his top schools are expected to get official visits from the junior.

According to the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine, South Carolina has the best odds at 41.6 percent. Florida checks in at No. 2 with odds of 13.9 percent.

Shane Beamer’s program has hosted Howard three times in 2022 and recently secured an official visit date as well. That return trip to Columbia is set for June 24. Paired with the fact that South Carolina played host multiple times in 2021 as well, it’s no surprise the Gamecocks are positioned nicely early on.

“The first person when I checked my phone (on Sept. 1) was definitely South Carolina,” Howard told On3 last fall. “It’s all love. It’s like a family. I talk to Coach (Shane) Beamer on the regular, GAs, everyone.”

He added.

“I get on meetings after meetings. I’m definitely going to try to get up to a couple of games this season, especially since it’s just four hours away.”

Texas A&M will need to make up some ground on the Gamecocks, and hold off Georgia, Clemson and Florida, to land Howard’s commitment. The Gators most notably are a school that’s trending in the right direction for the four-star since the arrival of Billy Napier and the new staff in Gainesville.

“Being able to play big-time SEC ball being in the backyard is a real blessing,” he previously told Gators Online. “Having all my coaches, friends and family come down and watch me, that would be a huge plus.”

Linebacker is a key position of need in the 2023 cycle as the Aggies signed just two in the 2022 cycle, have three veterans entering their fourth year in the program and could potentially lose standout Edgerrin Cooper to the draft after the 2022 season as well. The Aggies currently holds no linebacker commits to date, but linebackers coach Tyler Santucci has the Aggies involved with some of the top linebackers in the country including Howard and the aforementioned Hill and Gullette.

Howard ranks as the No. 235 prospect and No. 18 linebacker in the country per the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. The Jacksonville native ranks even higher in the On300, as the No. 130 prospect and No. 7 linebacker nationally. The four-star has an On3 NIL Valuation of $16K. 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.