Aggies Ink 16 on First Day of Early Signing Period
Dec 21, 2022 | Football
Texas A&M football coach Jimbo Fisher signed 16 student-athletes to national letters of intent on the first day of the early signing period.
| Signees (16) | Pos. | Ht. | Wt. | Hometown (High School / Previous School) |
| Naquil Betrand | OL | 6-6 | 340 | Philadelphia, Pa. (Northeast HS) |
| Chase Bisontis | OL | 6-5 | 305 | Ramsey, N.J. (Don Bosco Prep) |
| Dalton Brooks | DB | 6-0 | 180 | Shiner, Texas (Shiner HS) |
| Chantz Johnson | LB | 6-1 | 210 | College Station, Texas (College Station HS) |
| Rylan Kennedy | DE | 6-3 | 210 | Mansfield, Texas (Lake Ridge HS) |
| Rueben Owens II | RB | 5-11 | 190 | El Campo, Texas (El Campo HS) |
| Jaden Platt | TE | 6-5 | 230 | Haslet, Texas (Eaton HS) |
| Marcel Reed | QB | 6-1 | 171 | Nashville, Tenn. (Montgomery Bell Academy) |
| Bravion Rogers | DB | 6-0 | 180 | La Grange, Texas (La Grange HS) |
| Daymion Sanford | LB | 6-2 | 210 | Katy, Texas (Katy Paetow HS) |
| TJ Shanahan | OL | 6-4 | 325 | Austin, Texas (Westlake HS) |
| Micah Tease | WR | 5-11 | 180 | North Tulsa, Okla. (Booker T. Washington HS) |
| Jayvon Thomas | DB | 5-11 | 185 | Dallas, Texas (South Oak Cliff HS) |
| Colton Thomasson | OL | 6-8 | 325 | Spring Branch, Texas (Smithson Valley HS) |
| Tyler White | P | 6-4 | 200 | Southlake, Texas (Southlake Carroll HS) |
| Taurean York | LB | 6-0 | 215 | Temple, Texas (Temple HS) |
Jimbo Fisher Quotes
It's great to get another signing day started. In a lot of areas, guys did a really good job. Met a lot of needs, got a lot of really good players. I mean, really, really good players. Didn't take as many as we did last year as far as overall and in the high school parts of things, but hit the right guys. Hit needs across the board.
The quarterback (Marcel Reed), very outstanding. Coach's son. Really good player, the Tennessee player of the Year. Been to four state championship games. Really good basketball player, really good athlete. 4.0 student. Got feet, got arm, got everything. Really good player.
Rueben Owens is as good a back as there is. Can catch it, can run it. Very excited to add to that. Micah Tease is a great addition to us at receiver. Can really stretch the field and can run underneath. Has all the tools to be an underneath guy and on top guy which is very rare. Can be in the slot, can be outside. Really good. Jaden Platt, great to get him back. He's an aerospace engineering guy. 5.7 GPA, I had never heard of that, I don't know how you get to there. But he's 6-6, 240 pound guy that can run. Had a tremendous camp for us. Big vertical, 36, 37-inch vertical, really athletic. Excited about him.
O-line class, really excited about them. TJ Shanahan, local guy right here in Texas, is big, physical. Got hurt there at the end of the season, he's going to be an early entry, but he's a tremendous player. I mean physical. I think he's one of the top guys in the country. Outstanding. Chase Bisontis, another one from New Jersey. First guy ever to be an offensive lineman and win the New Jersey player of the year as an offensive lineman. I mean, really, really good player. I think these guys will play it for a long time. Colton Thomasson has been committed to us forever. 6-8, 330 pounds, athletic, long, inside/outside guy, very smart, really good player. Naquil Betrand, Philadelphia, another 6-6 and change guy, 350-some pounds. A basketball player. Can move. Big, long, can play inside, can do everything.
Defensively, Rylan Kennedy, a guy who's only played football one year. Really came on, I mean super athletic. An off-the-edge 6-4 guy that can run. 215 pounds, can run, change, not your big end but a light end that can really run, rush the passer. Was a big-time basketball guy, big-time everything. Really excited about him. Daymion Sanford, a linebacker we had in camp. Athletic as anybody we've had. Can run under 4.5, a vertical of 39 inches. Played great down there. Chantz Johnson, another guy here, a local guy from College Station that can run, play, jump. Worked out great in the summer for workouts. Just moved to linebacker one year and played up and made all kind of plays. Can run. Great special teams guy and linebacker. (Taurean) York, from Temple, really good but very instinctive. Extremely physical, tough. Really good player. Safety is Dalton Brooks. He's a running back, a receiver, DB, can play every position. Multiple state championship guy, and he did everything for them, offense, defense, special teams. I don't know if he ever came off the field. Bravion Rogers, tremendous athlete. Almost a 25-foot long jump guy, a 6-9 high jump guy, runs low 4.4. 6-1, can run, jump and can play. Hits you. Extremely outstanding. Jayvon Thomas, back-to-back state championships with South Oak Cliff and actually played a lot of offense this year. Played defense and offense last year and a return guy. But he's a tailback and like I said some of the best DBs I've ever been around in my life are really offensive guys that play defense. Tremendous ball skills. Can run, can do everything. I mean a really good player.
Tyler White, an outstanding punter. Can really hit it big, long. Problem was at the beginning of the year we didn't know if he could punt because they never punted at Southlake in like the first half of the season. About once every three weeks. So he wasn't getting much action. But we had him in camp. He can hit it a mile. He's an outstanding guy, along with being a big-time baseball player, a pitcher. He was a closer on their state championship team.
So I think at 14 of those guys are multi-sport athletes. And there are still some other guys that their signing days and when they're going to announce and do their work will be coming in, and then we'll continue to add to this class. Like I say now, recruiting with the way recruiting is now, this is just the first part of it. So it's ever extending, and we'll keep going.
Do you have a target number for this class on where you'd like to get to?
No. Just the number guys we have, what will fit with what we think we can win with, do the right things and continue to add to the things we have.
And with the guys that you've already lost to the portal, do you feel like with the portal you can get back to net even?
Oh yeah. It doesn't matter, what matters is getting back to the right (number). I looked at the numbers last year, we had the least number of transfers last year at 12. I think Alabama had 22. Others like 22 and 21 and 23...I think there's going to be another wave of transfers once the bowl games end. I think that thing is everlasting. The transfer portal is good. I think there's some guys that get late in their career that need to play. I understand them leaving, so we'll keep adding and get the right guys.
Do you have a target number? Do you know how much you'll dip into the transfer portal?
As much as we need to get the depth and the guys we need, and possible starters or whatever is available comes up that we think we can win the SEC with and win a national championship with and be competitive in our league with.
The first few years of you here at A&M, the program's been ascending at least from a wins perspective. This is the first time you took a step back. How did that change your pitch when talking to these kids?
It never really did, because the program...you have bad years, but I think our program's in a good position. Look at the catches we have returning, from Evan Stewart to Moose Muhammad to Noah Thomas, those receivers alone, those three. The tight ends we have catches. Quarterbacks we have back, the production. The tailbacks, now you have (Amari Daniels) and (Le'Veon Moss) coming back, who I think are going to be outstanding players. Offensive line, how many guys started all year? I mean we were outstanding. Defensive line...we have 12 returning guys in that group that can make plays and we'll see what else we add to it. Linebackers, (Edgerrin Cooper), (Chris Russell) and then Martrell Harris you saw at the end of the year is really going to be a great player. So those guys are returning. Safeties, you've got (Jacoby Mathews), (Bryce Anderson) and you have (Jardin) Gilbert. All those guys, all still high-production guys. It is as far as your wins and losses, but you look at where we had the experience we had, with the injuries we had, and the kids saw. In recruiting, no one panicked. They said coach, we've got a chance to be a really good team. We want to come in, contribute and play. It ended up being good. It really never affected anything.
