Jimbo Fisher and the Aggies signed 22 to national letters of intent on Wednesday, the first day of the early signing period. The class is ranked in the top 10 nationally.
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A partial transcript of Coach Fisher's comments at his press conference is available below, along with full audio and video.
Wrapping up a very busy day. You're trying to have signing day and practice on the same day. That's always a joy, and getting ready for a bowl game, working on third down, Red Zone and all those situations and then worry about who signed. So it's fun.
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But no, it was a great day for us. I thought our coaches did a tremendous job in the recruiting battle, building relationships and staying very strong with our 22 guys today. 11 from this state, which as you know we're always gonna work inside out. I thank the coaches so much for help they give us. We try to directly involve them in recruiting, stay involved in that. They do a great job of staying with their players and locking onto that, the straight-line recruiting, which we always want to have contact with those who have a great relationship. They did a very good job. The coaches did a good job of going out of state and finding some guys who were very interested in the program. And as you get folks to A&M for the first time, they love it, they realize all the things that are here personally, of your culture, of who you are, academically, how we are committed athletically. And then they find out about that Aggie Network. It's a great thing. It's a very good thing to recruit to. So very proud of our guys. I thought our students, our players, did a great job in recruiting. Make no mistake, when you sign great classes and you bring all these guys on visits and they get around your players, you can recruit till you're blue in the face. Those players are gonna tell them the truth, what they want, how they want on your team, and their personality is really going to rub off on these kids about, Do they fit in? Do they like them? How they treat them. And I thought our players did a tremendous job of expressing how much they need these guys and wanted to embrace them in the program, did a great job of helping us recruit so in that regard it was very good.
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So it was a very good day. Had 12 offensive players, 10 defensive players. We had needs all the way across the board which we hit. We had all position groups. We're building depth. And I think that's, as I say, when your practices are your greatest competition as far as making guys play hard, get better each and every day, that's good. We'll keep developing that depth which we have. Very proud of the guys we signed. Our coaches did a good job evaluating. These guys are all guys that we tremendously wanted and went after, battled everybody in the country for them. So it was a great group of guys. Very excited. Now we'll find out here, you used to say in a couple of years, but you play these freshmen pretty quickly now, so it's a different day and time. You gotta have those guys contribute. It is a huge number of guys coming in in in the midterm, which would be great getting through spring ball when those guys have a tremendous advantage to help us next year. But the other guys that come in, we had a lot of guys who didn't come in early, who made great contributions this year, too. So it works both ways. Very excited to have these guys going forward and then get ready for this bowl game.
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I want to ask you about edge rushers specifically, how big a need that was, and then corner as well. Those are two big positions.
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Well, you need depth in the secondary and we had to have corners. We have corners. I mean, we had a great group here. The three guys we got, Josh Moten, Jalen Jones, Brian George and then at safety, Antonio Johnson, who can play corner, at safety. Those guys are very vital because you've got to be able to move guys around. You see guys in three and four wides and have multiple great receivers in this league. You gotta have matchups across the board. I think we got great size in that group. We got great length. I think we got really good ball skills. All those guys are tremendous offensive players. If you watch them as return guys, Antonio Johnson had 1,000 yards. Jaylon Jones had a ton of plays on offense. Brian George is a returner. Moten has ball skills. I mean, all those guys. They all tackle well, very physical. Very excited there. And you always gotta pressure the quarterback, length on the edge, the size in which we are bringing Braedon Mowry in. Getting Diggs back down here from New Jersey, he was the Gatorade Player of the Year. This guy is a heck of a tight end, you see the ball skills and that's the athleticism. And why do I say that's important as an edge rusher? Just your body control, your ability to create power. He can do that and then getting Donell Harris late there, who I think is a tremendous edge rusher, a long guy that can stand up, get down, be a tremendous edge guy when he rushes. All those guys have multiple uses and could be moved around. So that was very big, along with the big guys inside. And we had a lot of big guys in the offensive and defensive lines that we're very proud of, too.
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Five offensive linemen, I know it's not a position you can develop overnight, but how big a step did y'all take towards shoring that up?
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You can't get enough of those guys and you gotta have a lot and hope some of those guys can come in and be ready to go and do it. We think some of those guys can help us in the depth really quickly. You see the games that you struggle up front? I don't care what good skill guys you have, without depth you can't function. We gotta build that depth and keep getting better at that position.
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First, going with Brian George the JUCO transfer. How much was that wanting to get someone who could step in immediately to help shore things up?
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Well not only that, I mean, I think our young freshmen will be able to do that Jaylon, Moten, Johnson, I think they all can, too. But as we evaluated his talent, we thought he was a very, very special talent. Hopefully, as a JUCO guy, you want him to make an immediate impact and he'll have that opportunity. But it was, one, have an impact quickly, but two, his talent level was extreme. And we're very comfortable with that.
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How much did Jashaun Corbin's departure surprise you? And what reasoning did he give for leaving?
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Well, I'll keep those private. I have the utmost respect for Jashaun. He's a tremendous young man, a heck of a player and would have been for us again. We were expecting it. And you'll never know how this thing turns out in these portals. You can get guys back. As you see now, Glenn Beal's back with us, out there practicing. He's out the portal back there with us right now, too. As you talk things out and you work through things you never know. But at the same time, Jashaun was a heck of a player, is a very good player. Unfortunately, that's today's day and time sometimes.
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Other than the physical attributes that you look for in a quarterback, what is it that Haynes King showed you that made you want to go after him?
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First of all, he's a winner. He lost two games in his life. First was as a sophomore, and one as a senior. And he did it with different teams. Last year he had a tremendous experienced offensive line and receivers and threw for 4000 something yards, 40 some touchdowns. This year, didn't have that experience at the line and in the receivers and still took his team to an undefeated season through the regular season. Took them deep in the playoffs. The guy understands how to win and motivate players, be around guys, and has the intangibles. We measure the physical things, but the intangibles. Will the players play for him? Will they love him? It's his personality, and your team takes it. The competitive nature of him, the toughness of him. Does the defense want to get the ball back for him? Does the offense want to protect him? And does he inspire you? Can he do the things that make you rise above your level in certain levels of time? And he does that. You look at everything about him when you're around him. This guy's a gym rat. He's a coach's son. He knows ball. Everything about him you love. You feel his toughness when you're around him, and his competitiveness and his physical skills are tremendous. Love everything about him.
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Jordan Jefferson from Navasota played on both sides of the ball. Do you see him being an offensive lineman or defensive lineman here?
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We'll see. We'll wait and see when he gets here. We originally recruited him offensively, he played some defense. All those guys, we'll evaluate and do a test with them and things in the offseason and see where they best fit in, where the needs are. But we're very blessed to have him. Very good player.
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Last year, I asked who you thought one of the more underrated players in your class was and you said Jalen Wydermyer. He turned out to be pretty good this year. Who do you think may be a little bit on the under the radar scale that you guys are excited about?
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These guys, there were a lot of them thought of pretty highly. For some reason, people don't think 114 touchdowns and 20.4 in the 200 meters is very good, and playing in a very high league of ball…So I think that guy's pretty good, Achane. Blake Smith, look who he was recruited by as a tight end, he was a three star guy. This guy's big, athletic, long, can do all the things he has to. I'm trying to think, Chris Morris is very high rank. Aki, some had high, but I think he's a really good guy inside that doesn't get much acclaim. Braedon Mowry, a guy we snuck in back from last year who doesn't get (as much), I think he's really growing when you see his body. The d-linemen, Dallas Walker and Raikes. But they're all pretty highly ranked. I guess I don't pay attention. I'll be honest with you, I don't know, I couldn't tell you what our guys were ranked. I hear our guys say that, but I laugh. I don't care. I gotta worry about those guys who I'm picking, I've got problems. Doyle's a guy, but he's pretty highly ranked. Most of them are pretty highly ranked. They're supposed to be good, anyway. We better coach them and get them to play well.
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Hearing today some of the national media talking about coaches, that kids are flipping at the last minute on national signing day. What do you think the key is for you that you've been about? Do you think it's the relationships that you built with these kids that they stay true to Texas A&M?
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I don't know enough about the other coaches, how they recruit as much because I'm not in the meetings with them, but hopefully we're building strong relationships and bonds and there's a trust factor there. One thing we do try to pride ourselves on is every time you come here, we're the same. Listen, I ain't in to dog and pony recruiting. I'm gonna tell you the truth, what's there, what we believe, what we see and to be honest with you and genuine with you. And I think people appreciate that. Hopefully they do each and every time. And hopefully we're staying in enough contact with guys that they understand and we're answering questions, being truthful. We're not perfect. This school is not perfect. No place is perfect. But we do understand where we see your vision and we try to explain that to people, where you fit in and what happens. Fortunately our coaches are doing a really good job in the process. And I think we've got a tremendous support staff. I think they feel, when they get here, the genuineness in the culture of A&M. I mean every time, the parents say, you've got great people working for you. And we're blessed to have that. It's not just the full-time coaches. Our support staff are involved in recruiting. Your players. And that's all important.
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Meet #GigEmGang20
ÂA partial transcript of Coach Fisher's comments at his press conference is available below, along with full audio and video.
Wrapping up a very busy day. You're trying to have signing day and practice on the same day. That's always a joy, and getting ready for a bowl game, working on third down, Red Zone and all those situations and then worry about who signed. So it's fun.
Â
But no, it was a great day for us. I thought our coaches did a tremendous job in the recruiting battle, building relationships and staying very strong with our 22 guys today. 11 from this state, which as you know we're always gonna work inside out. I thank the coaches so much for help they give us. We try to directly involve them in recruiting, stay involved in that. They do a great job of staying with their players and locking onto that, the straight-line recruiting, which we always want to have contact with those who have a great relationship. They did a very good job. The coaches did a good job of going out of state and finding some guys who were very interested in the program. And as you get folks to A&M for the first time, they love it, they realize all the things that are here personally, of your culture, of who you are, academically, how we are committed athletically. And then they find out about that Aggie Network. It's a great thing. It's a very good thing to recruit to. So very proud of our guys. I thought our students, our players, did a great job in recruiting. Make no mistake, when you sign great classes and you bring all these guys on visits and they get around your players, you can recruit till you're blue in the face. Those players are gonna tell them the truth, what they want, how they want on your team, and their personality is really going to rub off on these kids about, Do they fit in? Do they like them? How they treat them. And I thought our players did a tremendous job of expressing how much they need these guys and wanted to embrace them in the program, did a great job of helping us recruit so in that regard it was very good.
Â
So it was a very good day. Had 12 offensive players, 10 defensive players. We had needs all the way across the board which we hit. We had all position groups. We're building depth. And I think that's, as I say, when your practices are your greatest competition as far as making guys play hard, get better each and every day, that's good. We'll keep developing that depth which we have. Very proud of the guys we signed. Our coaches did a good job evaluating. These guys are all guys that we tremendously wanted and went after, battled everybody in the country for them. So it was a great group of guys. Very excited. Now we'll find out here, you used to say in a couple of years, but you play these freshmen pretty quickly now, so it's a different day and time. You gotta have those guys contribute. It is a huge number of guys coming in in in the midterm, which would be great getting through spring ball when those guys have a tremendous advantage to help us next year. But the other guys that come in, we had a lot of guys who didn't come in early, who made great contributions this year, too. So it works both ways. Very excited to have these guys going forward and then get ready for this bowl game.
Â
I want to ask you about edge rushers specifically, how big a need that was, and then corner as well. Those are two big positions.
Â
Well, you need depth in the secondary and we had to have corners. We have corners. I mean, we had a great group here. The three guys we got, Josh Moten, Jalen Jones, Brian George and then at safety, Antonio Johnson, who can play corner, at safety. Those guys are very vital because you've got to be able to move guys around. You see guys in three and four wides and have multiple great receivers in this league. You gotta have matchups across the board. I think we got great size in that group. We got great length. I think we got really good ball skills. All those guys are tremendous offensive players. If you watch them as return guys, Antonio Johnson had 1,000 yards. Jaylon Jones had a ton of plays on offense. Brian George is a returner. Moten has ball skills. I mean, all those guys. They all tackle well, very physical. Very excited there. And you always gotta pressure the quarterback, length on the edge, the size in which we are bringing Braedon Mowry in. Getting Diggs back down here from New Jersey, he was the Gatorade Player of the Year. This guy is a heck of a tight end, you see the ball skills and that's the athleticism. And why do I say that's important as an edge rusher? Just your body control, your ability to create power. He can do that and then getting Donell Harris late there, who I think is a tremendous edge rusher, a long guy that can stand up, get down, be a tremendous edge guy when he rushes. All those guys have multiple uses and could be moved around. So that was very big, along with the big guys inside. And we had a lot of big guys in the offensive and defensive lines that we're very proud of, too.
Â
Five offensive linemen, I know it's not a position you can develop overnight, but how big a step did y'all take towards shoring that up?
Â
You can't get enough of those guys and you gotta have a lot and hope some of those guys can come in and be ready to go and do it. We think some of those guys can help us in the depth really quickly. You see the games that you struggle up front? I don't care what good skill guys you have, without depth you can't function. We gotta build that depth and keep getting better at that position.
Â
First, going with Brian George the JUCO transfer. How much was that wanting to get someone who could step in immediately to help shore things up?
Â
Well not only that, I mean, I think our young freshmen will be able to do that Jaylon, Moten, Johnson, I think they all can, too. But as we evaluated his talent, we thought he was a very, very special talent. Hopefully, as a JUCO guy, you want him to make an immediate impact and he'll have that opportunity. But it was, one, have an impact quickly, but two, his talent level was extreme. And we're very comfortable with that.
Â
How much did Jashaun Corbin's departure surprise you? And what reasoning did he give for leaving?
Â
Well, I'll keep those private. I have the utmost respect for Jashaun. He's a tremendous young man, a heck of a player and would have been for us again. We were expecting it. And you'll never know how this thing turns out in these portals. You can get guys back. As you see now, Glenn Beal's back with us, out there practicing. He's out the portal back there with us right now, too. As you talk things out and you work through things you never know. But at the same time, Jashaun was a heck of a player, is a very good player. Unfortunately, that's today's day and time sometimes.
Â
Other than the physical attributes that you look for in a quarterback, what is it that Haynes King showed you that made you want to go after him?
Â
First of all, he's a winner. He lost two games in his life. First was as a sophomore, and one as a senior. And he did it with different teams. Last year he had a tremendous experienced offensive line and receivers and threw for 4000 something yards, 40 some touchdowns. This year, didn't have that experience at the line and in the receivers and still took his team to an undefeated season through the regular season. Took them deep in the playoffs. The guy understands how to win and motivate players, be around guys, and has the intangibles. We measure the physical things, but the intangibles. Will the players play for him? Will they love him? It's his personality, and your team takes it. The competitive nature of him, the toughness of him. Does the defense want to get the ball back for him? Does the offense want to protect him? And does he inspire you? Can he do the things that make you rise above your level in certain levels of time? And he does that. You look at everything about him when you're around him. This guy's a gym rat. He's a coach's son. He knows ball. Everything about him you love. You feel his toughness when you're around him, and his competitiveness and his physical skills are tremendous. Love everything about him.
Â
Jordan Jefferson from Navasota played on both sides of the ball. Do you see him being an offensive lineman or defensive lineman here?
Â
We'll see. We'll wait and see when he gets here. We originally recruited him offensively, he played some defense. All those guys, we'll evaluate and do a test with them and things in the offseason and see where they best fit in, where the needs are. But we're very blessed to have him. Very good player.
Â
Last year, I asked who you thought one of the more underrated players in your class was and you said Jalen Wydermyer. He turned out to be pretty good this year. Who do you think may be a little bit on the under the radar scale that you guys are excited about?
Â
These guys, there were a lot of them thought of pretty highly. For some reason, people don't think 114 touchdowns and 20.4 in the 200 meters is very good, and playing in a very high league of ball…So I think that guy's pretty good, Achane. Blake Smith, look who he was recruited by as a tight end, he was a three star guy. This guy's big, athletic, long, can do all the things he has to. I'm trying to think, Chris Morris is very high rank. Aki, some had high, but I think he's a really good guy inside that doesn't get much acclaim. Braedon Mowry, a guy we snuck in back from last year who doesn't get (as much), I think he's really growing when you see his body. The d-linemen, Dallas Walker and Raikes. But they're all pretty highly ranked. I guess I don't pay attention. I'll be honest with you, I don't know, I couldn't tell you what our guys were ranked. I hear our guys say that, but I laugh. I don't care. I gotta worry about those guys who I'm picking, I've got problems. Doyle's a guy, but he's pretty highly ranked. Most of them are pretty highly ranked. They're supposed to be good, anyway. We better coach them and get them to play well.
Â
Hearing today some of the national media talking about coaches, that kids are flipping at the last minute on national signing day. What do you think the key is for you that you've been about? Do you think it's the relationships that you built with these kids that they stay true to Texas A&M?
Â
I don't know enough about the other coaches, how they recruit as much because I'm not in the meetings with them, but hopefully we're building strong relationships and bonds and there's a trust factor there. One thing we do try to pride ourselves on is every time you come here, we're the same. Listen, I ain't in to dog and pony recruiting. I'm gonna tell you the truth, what's there, what we believe, what we see and to be honest with you and genuine with you. And I think people appreciate that. Hopefully they do each and every time. And hopefully we're staying in enough contact with guys that they understand and we're answering questions, being truthful. We're not perfect. This school is not perfect. No place is perfect. But we do understand where we see your vision and we try to explain that to people, where you fit in and what happens. Fortunately our coaches are doing a really good job in the process. And I think we've got a tremendous support staff. I think they feel, when they get here, the genuineness in the culture of A&M. I mean every time, the parents say, you've got great people working for you. And we're blessed to have that. It's not just the full-time coaches. Our support staff are involved in recruiting. Your players. And that's all important.