Texas A&M Aggies football coach Mike Elko sends a clear message on TAMU’s view of high school recruiting

Texas A&M Aggies football coach Mike Elko sends a clear message on TAMU’s view of high school recruiting originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Texas A&M Aggies football coach Mike Elko sees College Station as one of the best places to be in collegiate athletics. During an appearance at the Dallas A&M Club, Elko stressed that the Aggies’ cupboard is stocked across the board in every sport.

As for football, Elko assured the 12th Man that traditional high school recruiting will continue to be Texas &M’s primary source of talent acquisition, as opposed to Big 12 power Texas Tech Red Raiders’ transfer portal-heavy approach in West Texas. Elko touted the Aggies’ 2027 recruiting class so far, which is ranked No. 2 overall and features 13 commits, four of them being 5-stars, the most of any team.

"High school recruiting, to me, is still a priority. I think it's critical to your foundation. We have signed a 23-25-man class each year. This one appears to be going pretty well in this '27 cycle,” Elko said.

“Across the board, Texas A&M Athletics is in a phenomenal place … In the spring, you have baseball fighting for a top-eight seed. Trisha (Ford) and the girls are fighting in an NCAA Regional this weekend. We just advanced in women's golf. We are playing for an Elite Eight in women's tennis. It's a really, really exciting time to be a part of Aggie Athletics."

Texas A&M can combine the best of both worlds in recruiting

A&M has always performed well with high school recruits, but Jimbo Fisher was stubborn about the portal during his six seasons at the helm. The Aggies landed 12 non-JUCO transfers during Fisher’s failed tenure. In the high school realm, though, few performed better on the recruiting trail. It got to the point that Nick Saban grew publicly frustrated with Fisher’s dominance and started a back-and-forth because of TAMU’s historic 2022 class.

With the deep pockets A&M possesses, the talent-rich region TAMU sits in, and Elko’s ability to bring in elite transfers like the Alabama Crimson Tide’s Isaiah Horton, at receiver, and Wilkin Formby, at right tackle, and Tennessee Volunteers corner Rickey Gibson, the Aggies are one of the rare powerhouses that can excel in the portal and the high school ranks.

We’ll see if Texas A&M can soon earn the respect it is desperately seeking with the constant heavy investment it puts into football. Elko sounds confident the Aggies will.