We've got full video and quotes below from Mike Elko's National Signing Day press conference on Wednesday afternoon inside the Kyle Field Media Center.
All right, well, thank you for coming out. Obviously, an extremely exciting day for student-athletes across the country. You know, today is a celebration day for so many kids fulfilling their dreams. You know, and we talk about this a lot every year, a lot of these kids, seventh grade, eighth grade had a dream that they were going to become college football players. And today's the day they put pen to paper and make that a reality. And so a lot of happy families out there across the country. And congratulations to all of them. You know, it's a special, special day and a special opportunity for each and every one of them.
From our standpoint, you know, there's a lot that goes into putting together a recruiting class, and today is the end of a process that started really when I got hired and a lot of times in a lot of cases even before that. And so, the relationships, the process, the amount of work that goes into it, the amount of times that we host these young people on campus these days, it's a lot. And so I want to start just with the thank yous. I think these are important every year.
First off, to our general manager, Derek Miller. Derek kind of leads this whole show and, does a phenomenal job organizing, evaluating, scouting, making sure that people are taking care of when they get on campus, the logistics of recruiting, the logistics of making sure when you have 150 kids at a big game that they get around and they're taken care of the right way and he's one of the best in the business and does a phenomenal job. And so we're very lucky to have him.
Our on-campus recruiting recruiting team, which is led by Kayla Hudson, supported by Kianna Jasper in a very big way, and then Lauren Moore, Maya Howard and all of the students who come over here and help on these big visit days and big visit weekends so that everybody who comes through this campus feels special. And that doesn't happen if you don't have a lot of really good people working in that on-campus recruiting department, making sure that everyone's needs are taken care of, everyone's being moved in the direction they need to be moved appropriately. The girls do a phenomenal job of hosting people when they come on campus.
To our scouting team, Allen Gaudet, Shaun Cook, DJ Marquardt, Joe Joe Headen and Daniel Clements. It starts there. It starts with our ability to identify the right players and the right talent. We spend a lot of time with our own internal rankings. That means a lot more to us than anything else that's out there as we go out there and we try to evaluate and locate and find NFL players. And we talked about this a lot through recruiting. We want to identify guys who are going to be draft picks one day. And that starts with our evaluation process and our scouting department is the best in the business. Our player development team, Andrew Bather, Matt Salvaggio and Mason Smith, you know, those three guys do a really good job with continuing to build relationships with kids and then supporting kids when they get here. And I think that's one of the big changes that we've made is not only the job that we're doing recruiting young people into this program, but then how we're supporting them when they get here as freshmen and making sure that there's people on our staff designated to take care of them and help them as they transition from being a superstar high school athlete to being a first-year, away-from-home college kid. And I don't think it can be mentioned how difficult that challenge is sometimes. Those three guys do a great, great job.
And then just a bunch of other people that help, our creative team, led by Jake Namisnak, Joe Mitchell, what Craig Bisacre does and Evan Pilat and Madelynn Gregory. One of the biggest undertakings in recruiting is photo shoots and photo day, to kind of keep those fresh and new. I bet if you ask them, they probably took over 100,000 pictures of recruits for the 2025 recruiting cycle. It is a massive undertaking that they go through. And so we appreciate their work. And then Cade Key, who kind of runs our video team and all the things that he does putting out graphics, putting out videos and content to keep us fresh and hot on social media.
And then some of the people on campus, most notably in academics, Molly Tye and her team, who are always available, always ready to meet with families as they come on campus and need academics support, academic help. Because as much as the world has changed, they're still a huge piece of this, kids coming here to be part of Texas A&M University, getting an Aggie degree, getting an Aggie Ring, and being part of this Aggie Network for the rest of their life. That team does a phenomenal job of always being available.
Our staff did a phenomenal job hustling, working to put this class together. When this started, it was a new staff. It was a new head coach. We were coming off of a 12-13 stretch in back-to-back years. And there were not a lot of positive vibes out there about Texas A&M football and where we were going. We had to work from really ground zero on so many of these kids of building an image of what Texas A&M football should be, what it will be, what their experience will be like. I think our staff did a phenomenal job of hustling and pushing the messaging to put together what I think is an elite class.
As we transition into the class, I think the thing that jumps out to me, I think it's a well-balanced class across the board. We set out to sign a football team, and I think we did that. 11 on defense, 13 on offense. The position balance is exactly what we wanted it to be. We feel like we hit position-wise everywhere we wanted to hit. It's a class that's centered in the state of Texas. 15 of the 24 kids are from the state of Texas. And we always talked about being inside out in how we went about recruiting. But we also went out and supplemented that with nine kids, three from California, two from Florida, one each from Alabama, Tennessee, Utah and Arizona, to show that Texas A&M is a program that can go coast to coast and supplement our class with elite talent. And I think we did that.
Some of the other things that just jump out to me, we wanted to find winners. I think when you talk about closing, winning championships, I think that's a habit as much as anything else. And so I'm excited that seven of our players and commits are still competing to win state championships. Some of them have already won state championships at previous points in their career. I think those are traits that we wanted to add to the program.
95% of the class is either a multi-sport or a two-way player. And so there's a versatility of athleticism that I think we've added that I think is really critical when you talk about building the type of team and the type of program that we want to build.
And so we're extremely excited about this class. I think this class is going to lay a phenomenal foundation for where we want Texas A&M football to go. I'll kind of go through each member of the class briefly and just kind of give you a couple superlatives and then I'll open it up to you guys for questions.
Starting at quarterback, we were able to get Brady Hart from Cocoa High School in Florida late in the cycle. Really excited about that addition, a kid that we had always graded extremely high. He's completed just under 70% of his passes for over 7,500 yards and 77 touchdowns in two years as a starter. He won a state championship as a sophomore. He's competing again to win a state championship this year as a junior. They play in the semifinals this week. And then he reclassified up to join us mid-year.
Tiger Riden, the first running back that committed to us from DeSoto High School, has run for just under 4,300 yards and 50 touchdowns in his career. An extremely productive running back, has won back-to-back state championships already at DeSoto and is competing again this weekend in the quarterfinals. He's also a finalist for Dave Campbell's Mr. Texas Player of the year, which is a very special honor.
Late in the cycle, we were able to add Jamarion Morrow from Melrose High School in Memphis, Tennessee. Unique that Jamarion plays for his father and uncle, who are co-head coaches at Melrose High School. This is an extremely versatile athlete. I think he's played about every skill position you can play. He's played quarterback, running back, wide receiver, defensive back. He's the feature player on a Melrose team that's going to play for the state championship this weekend for the first time in over 20 years. He accounted for over 1,200 all-purpose yards and 12 touchdowns. He'll come in and I think be a very versatile running back for us. And so we're excited to add him.
As we move to the wide receiver group, Kelshaun Johnson from Hitchcock High School in Hitchcock, Texas, I think you're going to see this across the board at wideout and DB, this combination of multi-sport athlete and track. And so, you know, Kelshaun's an elite wide receiver. He's had an extremely talented career as a wide receiver. But he also started on the state basketball championship team last year. He's a 100-meter dash track kid who ran 10.49 last spring. So you're bringing in elite speed and elite twitch.
TK Norman from Carver High School in Montgomery, Alabama, another elite twitch kid who's got tremendous ability to separate. I the thing that jumped out with us to him was his ability to put a foot in the ground and create separation, which obviously is critical at wide receiver. He's got 75 catches for over 1,300 yards and 16 touchdowns in his career. Another track kid. He's a 22-6 long jumper. And that's where you can see the quantitative measure of that explosion, and where the separation comes from.
We were excited today to get the letter in from Jerome Myles. Jerome is the only kid who's not coming in mid-year. Every other member of this class will be here in January. Jerome's the only one who won't be. Unfortunately, Jerome's senior season was cut short by injury. But this is a 6-2, 210-pound kid who broke the 43-year-old state record in Utah in the 100-meter dash at 10.36 last spring. And so we think he's got the ability to vertically stretch the field, be a home run threat. He's averaged over 30 yards a catch in his career. He's an explosive player who has ability to really stretch the field.
Our tight end in the class is Kiotti Armstrong from Jasper High School in Jasper, Texas. A three-year starter at tight end, 36 catches for 683 yards in his career. He's a Navy All-American Bowl participant. And again, he's a multi-sport athlete. He's a baseball player. He's a basketball player. He's an enormous kid. 6-6, 250-plus. He'll play here at about 265, and he'll be a true tight end, a kid who can block, set the edge, but also stretch the field vertically and create a lot of mismatches in the pass game. And so really excited that we were able to bring him into the class.
We were able to add six offensive linemen to the class. And I think that was obviously a goal of ours, to build an offensive line. We wanted to make sure that we had the future of that position solidified. We thought it was a really strong class this year in the state of Texas. It was important that we went out and got the ones that we coveted, and I think we were able to do that well enough.
Marcus Garcia from Denton Ryan High School, we think Marcus is going to project to play offensive tackle for us. He's a 6-5, 285-pound kid. We felt like there was growth potential in him when we signed him. He's already put on 20 pounds. I think there's room in there to put on another 30. He's an elite athlete. He moves really well. He's also an elite discus thrower. And that's, again, when you talk about power transition and making sure that you see it in other quantitative measures, He won the AAU National Championship and the USA Track and Field National Championship in the discus in 2023. And so he's elite when he gets on the track as well.
Nelson McGuire, guard that we added through the fall, from Midlothian High School in Dallas, Texas. Nelson's a road grader inside. We talk about wanting to become more of a people mover offensive line. You know, it's great to be able to block people. We have to be able to move people. And he's going to be able to help us do that. He's a shot put kid on the track team. Extreme power, explosion through his hips. Expect big things from him.
Josh Moses from the Legacy School of Sports and Science in Houston, Texas...Josh was probably the easiest kid I recruited, and I appreciate him for that. He was committed when I got hired and him and his family stayed very true to the process. They stayed committed through it all. They never wavered. I thought they did a phenomenal job from a character standpoint as they went through this process. And so we certainly appreciate that. Interesting that they're at the Legacy School, which was founded by two former Aggies, Reggie Brown and his wife, Kerrie Patterson Brown, both phenomenal athletes here at Texas A&M. And so a lot of strong ties to the Legacy School down in Houston.
Jonte Newman from Bridgeland High School in Bridgeland, Texas, played at high school for another former Aggie, Lonnie Madison, who's the head coach down at Bridgeland. Good luck to those guys as they play in the quarterfinals this weekend. Jonte's a three-year starter. He's an offensive lineman who's a finalist for the Houston Touchdown Club Offensive Player of the Year, which I think speaks volumes. He's 6-5, 300 pounds. I think he projects to play offensive tackle, but I also think he probably has the most versatility across the offensive line of anybody that we brought in.
Lamont Rogers was a kid that we were really high on, sought after kid for a long time. We were able to get him in the boat late in the process and really excited about that. He's 6-6, 300-pound offensive tackle who plays basketball and was the goalie on a soccer team that won a state championship here in Texas. He'll play in the Navy/Army All-American game as well. Really fired up to add him to the class.
And then to round it out was Ty Thomas from Dickinson High School over in Dickinson, Texas, a high school that's been really good to us. Their head coach, John Snelson, is the president of the Texas High School Coaches Association. Ty's another finalist for the offensive player of the year from the Houston Touchdown Club. So for us to be able to sign two offensive linemen up for that type of award, I think speaks volumes for their quality. And he's 6-4, 330-pound interior offensive lineman again that I think is a people mover. And so I think we've got a really, really strong offensive line class coming in.
As we transition over to defense, starting with the defensive line, at edge, Marco Jones from San Ramon Valley High School in Dublin, California. I think the thing that's going to stand out the most is production in this defensive line class. Marco had 440 tackles on his career, 53 TFLs, 14 sacks, seven forced fumbles, five fumble recoveries and six interceptions. He's also an elite baseball player. He's going to bring his talent across the street to Blue Bell Park as well. He was the Cal High State Junior of the year in 2023. And so you're talking about just an elite football player. He'll also play in the Navy All-American Bowl.
Landon Rink played for his father as the co-defensive coordinator, Shane Rink, at Cy-Fair High School. Had a career total of 255 tackles, 86.5 TFLs and 34 sacks. He was a district MVP as a junior. A shot and disc thrower. An extremely powerful, explosive kid. Again, another kid who committed early and handled this process extremely well. Today was a really, really calm, quiet day. And I think when you talk about putting character into your program and putting the right people into your program, that's what we did. And I think Landon's a phenomenal example of that.
DJ Sanders from Bellville High School in Bellville, Texas. 304 tackles, 42.5 TFLs, 36.5 sacks in his career. An extremely explosive athlete, he was a member of Dave Campbell's Super Team after a phenomenal junior year. He's going to play in the Navy All-American Bowl this year. Again, another kid who is sought after heavily throughout the process, stayed very true to his word, very true to his commitment. Always believed he was an Aggie. And we were really excited when he put pen to paper today.
And then Chace Sims rounds out our defensive line class, and he has had a phenomenal career as well. Chase was a kid that we were really excited about. We were a little surprised with how maybe lowly ranked he was in the beginning of the recruiting process, because we always felt like he was an elite player. He committed to us in the spring. And we were really, really excited when we got him. And I think everything caught up. I think he has jumped more than any other recruit in the country in the recruiting rankings since the time he signed with us, and I think a big part of that is that scouting process, and not really worrying about what other people evaluate kids to be but trusting our own eyes and trusting what we see. We think Chace is a phenomenal player. We think he's going to have a phenomenal career for us. He's got 142 tackles, 40 TFLs and 20 sacks. But I think it's worth noting that his stat line is really based off playing only a half of football each game. Their team has been so dominant in his two years there that by halftime, he's usually watching the rest of the game. So we're excited with that group.
At linebacker, Noah Mikhail from Bonita High School in La Verne, California. A two-way stand out. 446 career tackles, 11 sacks, over 2,000 all-purpose yards, 29 touchdowns. Really athletic linebacker, can go sideline to sideline. Really important in the modern day and age. He's a Navy All-American. And he's also a finalist for the Butkus Award, which goes to the high school outstanding linebacker across the nation. A really talented kid that we were able to get in the class.
Kelvion Riggins from Forney High School in Forney, Texas. He was the first kid in the class who committed to me. So Josh was the first commit, Kelvion was the first one who committed after I got here. Again, phenomenal family. Very true through the process. Has already become a great Aggie. Really see him enjoying game day. Kelvion had 172 tackles and eight sacks in his career. Tremendous twitch and speed and athleticism that he brings to the linebacker room.
As we transition into the secondary, the story is going to be speed. It's speed across the board. We were going to go out and we were going to find length and we were going to find speed, and we were able to do that.
Jamar Beal-Goines from Desert Edge High School in Goodyear, Arizona. Jamar's going to play for a state championship Saturday night. Another two-way player, plays both sides of the ball. Had over 1,200 all-purpose yards, also had 72 tackles, 22 pass breakups and four picks. He ran 10.43 in the 100-meter, 21.41 in the 200 meter. He can fly, and he's going to be an elite cover kid.
Adonyss Currie from Quartz Hill High School in Lancaster, California. Another two-way DB, 1,500 career yards, 30 touchdowns, 60 tackles, four picks, 6-2, 10.5 100-meter, 21 flat 200-meter. Again, length and speed in the secondary.
The one true safety that we're bringing in in the class, Rashad "Tom Tom" Johnson from South Sumter High School in Bushnell, Florida. 6-2, 190, has the prototypical safety body, another two-way player which to me is really, really important at safety. I think ball skills matter. Balance and body control matter. And safeties who can play on both sides of the ball usually have those two skill sets. He's got 900 all-purpose yards, 15 touchdowns, 186 tackles and nine interceptions in his high school career. He's also a 22-5 long jumper, which again, is your is your explosion in measurement form.
Deyjhon Pettaway from Paetow High School in Katy, Texas, probably has the most Aggie ties of anybody in the recruiting class. His brother, Daymion Sanford, is here playing linebacker. He played in high school for David Hicks, whose son obviously David Hicks Jr. plays here, defensive tackle for us. Deyjhon's another dual sport athlete. He's a 10.59 100-meter kid. Probably has the most versatility in where he can play. We kind of project him to play nickel. But he also can play out at corner. He can play at safety. I think he can fit a lot of different positions back there.
And alphabetically, the last one of the group is Cobey Sellers from Shadow Creek High School in Houston, Texas. Another multi-sport, multi-positional kid, played quarterback. Was basically a wildcat quarterback as a junior, accounted for over 35 touchdowns throwing or rushing, went to full-time DB as a senior, had two picks although they didn't throw the ball his way very much at all. And then he's another long track athlete. We think he's going to be an elite corner for us.
And so that's the class. We're excited about every single person coming in in this class. I think they all have the opportunity to be a major contributor for us. Again, I think our staff did a phenomenal job putting this together.
And then Jaylen Henderson obviously played a big role last year for the team, helped win us some games. Was really never able to get his foot going with this staff in this program. But again, another great character kid. Was there every day, brought tremendous energy to the practice field and to the room. And so, appreciate him and appreciate what he did and hope both those guys land somewhere and have a tremendous amount of success the rest of their career. You know, it's still early in terms of our plans moving forward, but obviously something we've got to figure out and address.
And we've been dealing with this all the way back to when I was a defensive coordinator. When you get kids on this campus for the first time, they're always blown away by what this is. And I don't think the message is out there as loud and as clear as it needs to be. About what Texas A&M really is. And so I think the more that word travels and the more they understand what this place and this university is really all about, that makes this process a lot easier.
And that we do a good as job as we possibly can with each and every one of those schools and kids. Again, I think it's 63% of the class is from Texas. Certainly as it builds out into some of the kids that we add in different types of ways, you're going to see more and more Texas kids and more and more kids who are born Aggies or kind of raised in Aggie families. I think all that stuff matters.
For kids who have to play the football in the air, whether that's DBs, wideouts, it's are they basketball players? For DBs, do they play on offense? If you're an elite defensive back, you should play on offense as well. And sometimes that's harder in the state of Texas where there's a little bit more one way stuff. But when you get out of the state of Texas, for sure you want to see kids play on both sides of the ball and showcase ball skills and all of those things that come along with it. We try to do a really good job of studying what happens, not what people say, not what people tweet, not what people talk about on social media, but like, literally what actually happens. And I think what happens a lot is dual-sport high school athletes become really talented college football players and get drafted at really high levels. And that's what we're trying to build here.
All right, well, thank you for coming out. Obviously, an extremely exciting day for student-athletes across the country. You know, today is a celebration day for so many kids fulfilling their dreams. You know, and we talk about this a lot every year, a lot of these kids, seventh grade, eighth grade had a dream that they were going to become college football players. And today's the day they put pen to paper and make that a reality. And so a lot of happy families out there across the country. And congratulations to all of them. You know, it's a special, special day and a special opportunity for each and every one of them.
From our standpoint, you know, there's a lot that goes into putting together a recruiting class, and today is the end of a process that started really when I got hired and a lot of times in a lot of cases even before that. And so, the relationships, the process, the amount of work that goes into it, the amount of times that we host these young people on campus these days, it's a lot. And so I want to start just with the thank yous. I think these are important every year.
First off, to our general manager, Derek Miller. Derek kind of leads this whole show and, does a phenomenal job organizing, evaluating, scouting, making sure that people are taking care of when they get on campus, the logistics of recruiting, the logistics of making sure when you have 150 kids at a big game that they get around and they're taken care of the right way and he's one of the best in the business and does a phenomenal job. And so we're very lucky to have him.
Our on-campus recruiting recruiting team, which is led by Kayla Hudson, supported by Kianna Jasper in a very big way, and then Lauren Moore, Maya Howard and all of the students who come over here and help on these big visit days and big visit weekends so that everybody who comes through this campus feels special. And that doesn't happen if you don't have a lot of really good people working in that on-campus recruiting department, making sure that everyone's needs are taken care of, everyone's being moved in the direction they need to be moved appropriately. The girls do a phenomenal job of hosting people when they come on campus.
To our scouting team, Allen Gaudet, Shaun Cook, DJ Marquardt, Joe Joe Headen and Daniel Clements. It starts there. It starts with our ability to identify the right players and the right talent. We spend a lot of time with our own internal rankings. That means a lot more to us than anything else that's out there as we go out there and we try to evaluate and locate and find NFL players. And we talked about this a lot through recruiting. We want to identify guys who are going to be draft picks one day. And that starts with our evaluation process and our scouting department is the best in the business. Our player development team, Andrew Bather, Matt Salvaggio and Mason Smith, you know, those three guys do a really good job with continuing to build relationships with kids and then supporting kids when they get here. And I think that's one of the big changes that we've made is not only the job that we're doing recruiting young people into this program, but then how we're supporting them when they get here as freshmen and making sure that there's people on our staff designated to take care of them and help them as they transition from being a superstar high school athlete to being a first-year, away-from-home college kid. And I don't think it can be mentioned how difficult that challenge is sometimes. Those three guys do a great, great job.
And then just a bunch of other people that help, our creative team, led by Jake Namisnak, Joe Mitchell, what Craig Bisacre does and Evan Pilat and Madelynn Gregory. One of the biggest undertakings in recruiting is photo shoots and photo day, to kind of keep those fresh and new. I bet if you ask them, they probably took over 100,000 pictures of recruits for the 2025 recruiting cycle. It is a massive undertaking that they go through. And so we appreciate their work. And then Cade Key, who kind of runs our video team and all the things that he does putting out graphics, putting out videos and content to keep us fresh and hot on social media.
And then some of the people on campus, most notably in academics, Molly Tye and her team, who are always available, always ready to meet with families as they come on campus and need academics support, academic help. Because as much as the world has changed, they're still a huge piece of this, kids coming here to be part of Texas A&M University, getting an Aggie degree, getting an Aggie Ring, and being part of this Aggie Network for the rest of their life. That team does a phenomenal job of always being available.
Our staff did a phenomenal job hustling, working to put this class together. When this started, it was a new staff. It was a new head coach. We were coming off of a 12-13 stretch in back-to-back years. And there were not a lot of positive vibes out there about Texas A&M football and where we were going. We had to work from really ground zero on so many of these kids of building an image of what Texas A&M football should be, what it will be, what their experience will be like. I think our staff did a phenomenal job of hustling and pushing the messaging to put together what I think is an elite class.
As we transition into the class, I think the thing that jumps out to me, I think it's a well-balanced class across the board. We set out to sign a football team, and I think we did that. 11 on defense, 13 on offense. The position balance is exactly what we wanted it to be. We feel like we hit position-wise everywhere we wanted to hit. It's a class that's centered in the state of Texas. 15 of the 24 kids are from the state of Texas. And we always talked about being inside out in how we went about recruiting. But we also went out and supplemented that with nine kids, three from California, two from Florida, one each from Alabama, Tennessee, Utah and Arizona, to show that Texas A&M is a program that can go coast to coast and supplement our class with elite talent. And I think we did that.
Some of the other things that just jump out to me, we wanted to find winners. I think when you talk about closing, winning championships, I think that's a habit as much as anything else. And so I'm excited that seven of our players and commits are still competing to win state championships. Some of them have already won state championships at previous points in their career. I think those are traits that we wanted to add to the program.
95% of the class is either a multi-sport or a two-way player. And so there's a versatility of athleticism that I think we've added that I think is really critical when you talk about building the type of team and the type of program that we want to build.
And so we're extremely excited about this class. I think this class is going to lay a phenomenal foundation for where we want Texas A&M football to go. I'll kind of go through each member of the class briefly and just kind of give you a couple superlatives and then I'll open it up to you guys for questions.
Starting at quarterback, we were able to get Brady Hart from Cocoa High School in Florida late in the cycle. Really excited about that addition, a kid that we had always graded extremely high. He's completed just under 70% of his passes for over 7,500 yards and 77 touchdowns in two years as a starter. He won a state championship as a sophomore. He's competing again to win a state championship this year as a junior. They play in the semifinals this week. And then he reclassified up to join us mid-year.
Tiger Riden, the first running back that committed to us from DeSoto High School, has run for just under 4,300 yards and 50 touchdowns in his career. An extremely productive running back, has won back-to-back state championships already at DeSoto and is competing again this weekend in the quarterfinals. He's also a finalist for Dave Campbell's Mr. Texas Player of the year, which is a very special honor.
Late in the cycle, we were able to add Jamarion Morrow from Melrose High School in Memphis, Tennessee. Unique that Jamarion plays for his father and uncle, who are co-head coaches at Melrose High School. This is an extremely versatile athlete. I think he's played about every skill position you can play. He's played quarterback, running back, wide receiver, defensive back. He's the feature player on a Melrose team that's going to play for the state championship this weekend for the first time in over 20 years. He accounted for over 1,200 all-purpose yards and 12 touchdowns. He'll come in and I think be a very versatile running back for us. And so we're excited to add him.
As we move to the wide receiver group, Kelshaun Johnson from Hitchcock High School in Hitchcock, Texas, I think you're going to see this across the board at wideout and DB, this combination of multi-sport athlete and track. And so, you know, Kelshaun's an elite wide receiver. He's had an extremely talented career as a wide receiver. But he also started on the state basketball championship team last year. He's a 100-meter dash track kid who ran 10.49 last spring. So you're bringing in elite speed and elite twitch.
TK Norman from Carver High School in Montgomery, Alabama, another elite twitch kid who's got tremendous ability to separate. I the thing that jumped out with us to him was his ability to put a foot in the ground and create separation, which obviously is critical at wide receiver. He's got 75 catches for over 1,300 yards and 16 touchdowns in his career. Another track kid. He's a 22-6 long jumper. And that's where you can see the quantitative measure of that explosion, and where the separation comes from.
We were excited today to get the letter in from Jerome Myles. Jerome is the only kid who's not coming in mid-year. Every other member of this class will be here in January. Jerome's the only one who won't be. Unfortunately, Jerome's senior season was cut short by injury. But this is a 6-2, 210-pound kid who broke the 43-year-old state record in Utah in the 100-meter dash at 10.36 last spring. And so we think he's got the ability to vertically stretch the field, be a home run threat. He's averaged over 30 yards a catch in his career. He's an explosive player who has ability to really stretch the field.
Our tight end in the class is Kiotti Armstrong from Jasper High School in Jasper, Texas. A three-year starter at tight end, 36 catches for 683 yards in his career. He's a Navy All-American Bowl participant. And again, he's a multi-sport athlete. He's a baseball player. He's a basketball player. He's an enormous kid. 6-6, 250-plus. He'll play here at about 265, and he'll be a true tight end, a kid who can block, set the edge, but also stretch the field vertically and create a lot of mismatches in the pass game. And so really excited that we were able to bring him into the class.
We were able to add six offensive linemen to the class. And I think that was obviously a goal of ours, to build an offensive line. We wanted to make sure that we had the future of that position solidified. We thought it was a really strong class this year in the state of Texas. It was important that we went out and got the ones that we coveted, and I think we were able to do that well enough.
Marcus Garcia from Denton Ryan High School, we think Marcus is going to project to play offensive tackle for us. He's a 6-5, 285-pound kid. We felt like there was growth potential in him when we signed him. He's already put on 20 pounds. I think there's room in there to put on another 30. He's an elite athlete. He moves really well. He's also an elite discus thrower. And that's, again, when you talk about power transition and making sure that you see it in other quantitative measures, He won the AAU National Championship and the USA Track and Field National Championship in the discus in 2023. And so he's elite when he gets on the track as well.
Nelson McGuire, guard that we added through the fall, from Midlothian High School in Dallas, Texas. Nelson's a road grader inside. We talk about wanting to become more of a people mover offensive line. You know, it's great to be able to block people. We have to be able to move people. And he's going to be able to help us do that. He's a shot put kid on the track team. Extreme power, explosion through his hips. Expect big things from him.
Josh Moses from the Legacy School of Sports and Science in Houston, Texas...Josh was probably the easiest kid I recruited, and I appreciate him for that. He was committed when I got hired and him and his family stayed very true to the process. They stayed committed through it all. They never wavered. I thought they did a phenomenal job from a character standpoint as they went through this process. And so we certainly appreciate that. Interesting that they're at the Legacy School, which was founded by two former Aggies, Reggie Brown and his wife, Kerrie Patterson Brown, both phenomenal athletes here at Texas A&M. And so a lot of strong ties to the Legacy School down in Houston.
Jonte Newman from Bridgeland High School in Bridgeland, Texas, played at high school for another former Aggie, Lonnie Madison, who's the head coach down at Bridgeland. Good luck to those guys as they play in the quarterfinals this weekend. Jonte's a three-year starter. He's an offensive lineman who's a finalist for the Houston Touchdown Club Offensive Player of the Year, which I think speaks volumes. He's 6-5, 300 pounds. I think he projects to play offensive tackle, but I also think he probably has the most versatility across the offensive line of anybody that we brought in.
Lamont Rogers was a kid that we were really high on, sought after kid for a long time. We were able to get him in the boat late in the process and really excited about that. He's 6-6, 300-pound offensive tackle who plays basketball and was the goalie on a soccer team that won a state championship here in Texas. He'll play in the Navy/Army All-American game as well. Really fired up to add him to the class.
And then to round it out was Ty Thomas from Dickinson High School over in Dickinson, Texas, a high school that's been really good to us. Their head coach, John Snelson, is the president of the Texas High School Coaches Association. Ty's another finalist for the offensive player of the year from the Houston Touchdown Club. So for us to be able to sign two offensive linemen up for that type of award, I think speaks volumes for their quality. And he's 6-4, 330-pound interior offensive lineman again that I think is a people mover. And so I think we've got a really, really strong offensive line class coming in.
As we transition over to defense, starting with the defensive line, at edge, Marco Jones from San Ramon Valley High School in Dublin, California. I think the thing that's going to stand out the most is production in this defensive line class. Marco had 440 tackles on his career, 53 TFLs, 14 sacks, seven forced fumbles, five fumble recoveries and six interceptions. He's also an elite baseball player. He's going to bring his talent across the street to Blue Bell Park as well. He was the Cal High State Junior of the year in 2023. And so you're talking about just an elite football player. He'll also play in the Navy All-American Bowl.
Landon Rink played for his father as the co-defensive coordinator, Shane Rink, at Cy-Fair High School. Had a career total of 255 tackles, 86.5 TFLs and 34 sacks. He was a district MVP as a junior. A shot and disc thrower. An extremely powerful, explosive kid. Again, another kid who committed early and handled this process extremely well. Today was a really, really calm, quiet day. And I think when you talk about putting character into your program and putting the right people into your program, that's what we did. And I think Landon's a phenomenal example of that.
DJ Sanders from Bellville High School in Bellville, Texas. 304 tackles, 42.5 TFLs, 36.5 sacks in his career. An extremely explosive athlete, he was a member of Dave Campbell's Super Team after a phenomenal junior year. He's going to play in the Navy All-American Bowl this year. Again, another kid who is sought after heavily throughout the process, stayed very true to his word, very true to his commitment. Always believed he was an Aggie. And we were really excited when he put pen to paper today.
And then Chace Sims rounds out our defensive line class, and he has had a phenomenal career as well. Chase was a kid that we were really excited about. We were a little surprised with how maybe lowly ranked he was in the beginning of the recruiting process, because we always felt like he was an elite player. He committed to us in the spring. And we were really, really excited when we got him. And I think everything caught up. I think he has jumped more than any other recruit in the country in the recruiting rankings since the time he signed with us, and I think a big part of that is that scouting process, and not really worrying about what other people evaluate kids to be but trusting our own eyes and trusting what we see. We think Chace is a phenomenal player. We think he's going to have a phenomenal career for us. He's got 142 tackles, 40 TFLs and 20 sacks. But I think it's worth noting that his stat line is really based off playing only a half of football each game. Their team has been so dominant in his two years there that by halftime, he's usually watching the rest of the game. So we're excited with that group.
At linebacker, Noah Mikhail from Bonita High School in La Verne, California. A two-way stand out. 446 career tackles, 11 sacks, over 2,000 all-purpose yards, 29 touchdowns. Really athletic linebacker, can go sideline to sideline. Really important in the modern day and age. He's a Navy All-American. And he's also a finalist for the Butkus Award, which goes to the high school outstanding linebacker across the nation. A really talented kid that we were able to get in the class.
Kelvion Riggins from Forney High School in Forney, Texas. He was the first kid in the class who committed to me. So Josh was the first commit, Kelvion was the first one who committed after I got here. Again, phenomenal family. Very true through the process. Has already become a great Aggie. Really see him enjoying game day. Kelvion had 172 tackles and eight sacks in his career. Tremendous twitch and speed and athleticism that he brings to the linebacker room.
As we transition into the secondary, the story is going to be speed. It's speed across the board. We were going to go out and we were going to find length and we were going to find speed, and we were able to do that.
Jamar Beal-Goines from Desert Edge High School in Goodyear, Arizona. Jamar's going to play for a state championship Saturday night. Another two-way player, plays both sides of the ball. Had over 1,200 all-purpose yards, also had 72 tackles, 22 pass breakups and four picks. He ran 10.43 in the 100-meter, 21.41 in the 200 meter. He can fly, and he's going to be an elite cover kid.
Adonyss Currie from Quartz Hill High School in Lancaster, California. Another two-way DB, 1,500 career yards, 30 touchdowns, 60 tackles, four picks, 6-2, 10.5 100-meter, 21 flat 200-meter. Again, length and speed in the secondary.
The one true safety that we're bringing in in the class, Rashad "Tom Tom" Johnson from South Sumter High School in Bushnell, Florida. 6-2, 190, has the prototypical safety body, another two-way player which to me is really, really important at safety. I think ball skills matter. Balance and body control matter. And safeties who can play on both sides of the ball usually have those two skill sets. He's got 900 all-purpose yards, 15 touchdowns, 186 tackles and nine interceptions in his high school career. He's also a 22-5 long jumper, which again, is your is your explosion in measurement form.
Deyjhon Pettaway from Paetow High School in Katy, Texas, probably has the most Aggie ties of anybody in the recruiting class. His brother, Daymion Sanford, is here playing linebacker. He played in high school for David Hicks, whose son obviously David Hicks Jr. plays here, defensive tackle for us. Deyjhon's another dual sport athlete. He's a 10.59 100-meter kid. Probably has the most versatility in where he can play. We kind of project him to play nickel. But he also can play out at corner. He can play at safety. I think he can fit a lot of different positions back there.
And alphabetically, the last one of the group is Cobey Sellers from Shadow Creek High School in Houston, Texas. Another multi-sport, multi-positional kid, played quarterback. Was basically a wildcat quarterback as a junior, accounted for over 35 touchdowns throwing or rushing, went to full-time DB as a senior, had two picks although they didn't throw the ball his way very much at all. And then he's another long track athlete. We think he's going to be an elite corner for us.
And so that's the class. We're excited about every single person coming in in this class. I think they all have the opportunity to be a major contributor for us. Again, I think our staff did a phenomenal job putting this together.
I don't think there's ever been that many early enrollees. What is the value of getting those guys in early like that, as you said, 23 of the 24?
Yeah, I think I think it's just becoming more and more popular for kids now. Maybe to some degree it's another one of those spin offs of NIL, which is they can get here and start NIL. But I think obviously the benefit is they're here academically. The transition happens in the spring when you're not in season, they get a full cycle of offseason, our offseason cycle will start when the January semester starts. And they'll be here from day one of that. They get to go through the defense and offensive schemes a lot. So they'll get them in the winter. They'll get them in spring ball, they'll get them in the summer. They'll get them in fall camp. And so I think it just puts them a little bit of a leg up in terms of getting ready to play for the fall.You led me into my next question. How would you evaluate, it's such a different deal now, A&M's NIL efforts. Are you happy with it? How can you see it improve?
Yeah, that's not...I don't think that's a public...all those coaches that talk about that stuff publicly, like, that's just...no. We're good.I was down in Bellville this morning talking to DJ Sanders...
How was he?Quiet.
Good.How unique was that relationship? It sounded like that Bellville was one of your first stops when you got here, and he kept mentioning how he wanted to be a man of his word, even though there were other schools trying to flip him up until the last minute. Just how much did that mean to you?
Yeah, we had a lot of kids in this class that committed to us early, that we set out to get early. DJ certainly is one of them, that a lot of schools never stopped. And I think as the process goes on, it becomes a money grab. You see people throwing more and more and more to try to get kids to change their mind. We want kids that are about value. We want kids that are about a little bit more than that. I think it validates, when all of those kids signed with us, that we picked the right character kids, the right character families. And I think that, again, you have a group of kids that are committed to coming here to play at Texas A&M, to win championships, to go to the NFL. And I think that finding kids that that is the main focus in this day and age with all of this is really critical. And I think we were able to do that.To a lot of the changing landscape of things, I know there's reports that some states have been able to already go into rev share deals with their student athletes. I know that law here prohibits that still, was there at all any challenges with that? And how do you see that shaping things up moving forward?
No, not that. That wasn't a challenge for us at all. I think we're in a really good spot and I don't think NIL played any role...NIL didn't play any role in our inability to land anyone. Maybe our NIL plan didn't allow us to get involved with certain kids, or to continue to recruit certain kids, or to match a number that might have allowed us to land certain kids. But that was more of an internal plan than it was a lack of resources. I think you have to be really intelligent when you manage this thing, how you manage it for the culture of your program. You see some of these insane freshman deals, I would just like to know how the upperclassmen in their program feel when these freshmen come in making five times more than the returning starter. And so I think that will be a really interesting dynamic for a lot of these programs, when these freshmen show up on campus.You had two quarterbacks enter the portal yesterday, a message about those guys leaving out. And then what's the outlook for filling in that room moving forward?
Obviously, so much respect for Conner. I think the way he handled what was an extremely challenging situation for him, you know, to come in the year as the starter, to first deal with an injury, to come back and have the high of the Missouri game to then maybe not have it go the way you want it to go, to lose the job, but to stay a consummate pro, to be a great teammate, to be a great Aggie, to be there supporting his brothers all the way to the end...I told him yesterday--obviously I had an idea that was coming--I think it's the right thing for him, for his future and his career. But just so much respect for him and the way he handled this. Tremendous kid, tremendous character, tremendous leader, all through the process. And so extremely thankful for him. Had we needed to call his number at any point this year, he would have been ready. And that's not an easy thing for a kid to do. And so very thankful for that.And then Jaylen Henderson obviously played a big role last year for the team, helped win us some games. Was really never able to get his foot going with this staff in this program. But again, another great character kid. Was there every day, brought tremendous energy to the practice field and to the room. And so, appreciate him and appreciate what he did and hope both those guys land somewhere and have a tremendous amount of success the rest of their career. You know, it's still early in terms of our plans moving forward, but obviously something we've got to figure out and address.
Mike, you were talking about the process of identifying and then pursuing players. In a perfect world, how far out do you start the evaluation and identification process?
I think you're probably talking anyone in high school who stands out you have to make sure that you're aware of. And again, the closer you are to us the earlier it starts. I don't know that it's fair to be aware of every eighth, ninth grader across the country, but maybe an eighth, ninth grader in Texas that stands out to that level, you're probably aware of to some degree. The challenge with the evaluation process--and this is what I challenge our staff with--is to continue to do it. Because I think what happens a lot of times is you lose sight of...just like kids in our program. There's kids in our program that have really good sophomore years and then don't continue to improve and aren't quite what you expect them to be as juniors and seniors. And there are some kids who maybe don't have the sophomore year that you hoped they would, who get a lot better and have really good junior years. You know what I mean? So I think the challenge is making sure you stick with the recruiting and the evaluation process all the way through and not just put an evaluation together of a 10th grader and then never look at the kid again prior to him showing up in your program.You got Marco Jones, but odds are you're going to probably have to do some work at defensive end. What kind of player are you going to be looking for to possibly replace two starters here in the not-too-distant future?
Really talented ones. I think that's going to be really important. What you're always trying to find is--and again, we talk about this with roster management--you have to balance experienced veterans with youth and development and who your future is. We were able to bring in two defensive ends last year. We had Rylan Kennedy, who was a redshirt kid, last year. We add Marco Jones. And so we feel like our youth is in a really good spot. And I think Rylan Kennedy obviously is going to step out of that pool, and hopefully some of those others do as well, into being able to really be contributors for us. But then when you look at, okay, we're also losing some older guys, some veterans, we're going to have to try to go out and fill those holes. And I don't know that those holes necessarily you want to completely rely on youth and high school kids. And so we'll have to figure that out.I think yesterday Jerome Myles announced that he wasn't going to sign during the early signing period. So what went into closing that one? And just how big of an impact do you think he could make right away?
I'll pause him, because he'll be this year's Bussey, I'm sure. Just again, he's a freshman. He's transitioning. We think he's extremely talented. We think all three of those wideouts are extremely talented. Some of those kids will have instant impacts. He is certainly capable of it. The injury will create a little bit more of a challenge, obviously. But he's a unique skill set that we don't have. 6-2, 210, 10.4, we don't have that. And so his ability to really get vertical and stretch the field really stands out. And so I think his addition and him being able to come in and do that for us will be critical. And, yeah, that's just recruiting, man. It's how this thing goes. You know, you're dealing with 17-year-olds and sometimes it's a lot of fun.Speaking of that, losing the commitment and then deciding to take two quarterbacks, just what went into all of that? Were you guys surprised when you guys lost the commitment? And then how soon did you guys identify Brady Hart as a guy y'all wanted?
Probably a little bit before you guys were publicly aware of what happened in terms of identification of where we were trying to go. Probably a month before it became very clear to everybody, we certainly were aware that it was trending in that direction. Kid's got to do what's best for them. And it's part of the game. It's part of recruiting. And so wish him nothing but success and hope he has a phenomenal career.You talked about how calm this day was, so is the recruiting process--your recruiting process now--exactly where you want it to be? And in this day of NIL, what does A&M have to offer that other people don't have when you're going out and talk to these kids?
I think what we have to offer that's completely different is, is we don't talk about NIL in terms of what we have to offer. You know, we have to offer a phenomenal university, the best fan base in the country, the best stadium atmosphere in the country, the best facilities in the country, unbelievable mentorship, development in every aspect of their life, tremendous support in every aspect of their life, whether it be nutrition, academics, mental health, being an Aggie forever and everything that that stands for and everything that that means. That's what this university is, and that sells. Still the biggest thing for us is continuing to brand that message, because I think we still--and that's why this this season was great, just to kind of pivot to your second question--in terms of getting out in front and getting in a really good position for '26 and '27 because we were able to host some big-time players for some elite games.And we've been dealing with this all the way back to when I was a defensive coordinator. When you get kids on this campus for the first time, they're always blown away by what this is. And I don't think the message is out there as loud and as clear as it needs to be. About what Texas A&M really is. And so I think the more that word travels and the more they understand what this place and this university is really all about, that makes this process a lot easier.
I don't know if you will talk about preferred walk-ons...
We are not.It's fine, but just the local interest and the local recruiting, all the Texas kids you got. How big is that, especially when you have, in-state and in-conference battles that you're going up against?
Texas is really important to us. We've talked about that a lot from day one. It starts inside out and so inside out always starts right down the road at our local high schools. And we want to make sure that we have great relationships with those schools, that we're aware of and identify who those players are,And that we do a good as job as we possibly can with each and every one of those schools and kids. Again, I think it's 63% of the class is from Texas. Certainly as it builds out into some of the kids that we add in different types of ways, you're going to see more and more Texas kids and more and more kids who are born Aggies or kind of raised in Aggie families. I think all that stuff matters.
In a world where it feels like a lot of kids are focusing on one sport, you signed a bunch of guys in this class that are high-level multi-sport athletes. Is there anything other than obviously their skill level that those kids bring that you look at during the recruiting process?
In my mind, it still stems from...if you study the NFL draft, I don't know what the most recent percentages are, but there's a large percentage of players in the NFL draft who are multi-sport high school athletes. And that stat has been around for years. As we try to, again, go through this process which for us is we have to build more NFL talent here at Texas A&M. I've said that since the day I got hired. Part of that is, okay, so where does it come from? Doing studies, running analytics, trying to be aware of where those kids come from, what they look like coming out of high school. And so many of them are dual-sport kids, and many of that second sport is track. It's the speed and the things that you see on a track.For kids who have to play the football in the air, whether that's DBs, wideouts, it's are they basketball players? For DBs, do they play on offense? If you're an elite defensive back, you should play on offense as well. And sometimes that's harder in the state of Texas where there's a little bit more one way stuff. But when you get out of the state of Texas, for sure you want to see kids play on both sides of the ball and showcase ball skills and all of those things that come along with it. We try to do a really good job of studying what happens, not what people say, not what people tweet, not what people talk about on social media, but like, literally what actually happens. And I think what happens a lot is dual-sport high school athletes become really talented college football players and get drafted at really high levels. And that's what we're trying to build here.