Recruiting Country: The latest recruiting news surrounding the Maroon & White

TexAgs Recruiting analyst Ryan Brauninger joined this morning for another edition of Recruiting Country, highlighting the latest news and notes from the recruiting trail and a surprise visit from former TexAgs Radio social center host Lexie Hudson.

Key notes from Recruiting Country

• I got down to watch Matthew Wykoff‍ yesterday. He is working out with a very impressive list of clientele. I wanted to get down there and talk to him about his commitment to A&M. He's a really cerebral and smart kid. He has said that he's very happy with his commitment to A&M. He knew he could go play at a lot of different schools like Notre Dame or Penn State, but everything they have to offer, A&M has right down the road. He's surrounded by a ton of Aggies in Magnolia. He knew that after football, he'll be taken care of. With the visits being canceled, he knew he wanted to get this over with and shut it down.
   
• Wykoff grew up with Bryce Foster‍ because Foster is originally from Montgomery and moved to Katy later on. Wykoff grew up playing against Foster, and obviously, that's a big target for A&M. Wykoff has already been texting with Trey Zuhn‍ to discuss continuing to build this offensive line haul.
   
• Wykoff was a big head-to-head victory over Auburn, Notre Dame and Penn State. It's a big pick up for Jimbo Fisher. Look what Notre Dame has done in the NFL. Brian Kelly knows what he's looking for in offensive linemen.
   
• Steve McKinney knew that Matthew had started working on snapping, and Steve has begun working with him a little bit on the dynamics of center, snapping and taking the next step. Center is the only unique position on the offensive line. Getting that background and help from someone who has done it makes a lot of sense. There might not be a better guy in the Houston area to teach you how to play center. With the contracts that centers are getting in the NFL, why wouldn't you want to learn that? It's such an important position and takes a special mindset to really get it. A&M fans will appreciate that with what Erik McCoy did. A stud center makes a good offensive line into a great one.
   
• LJ Johnson Jr‍ has been trending towards A&M. If you've been reading the site and listening to the content, that should not surprise you. I'm not sure how much we've mentioned that on Recruiting Country. There was a time when A&M didn't have a running back coach, so Mike Elko was recruiting Johnson because he was the area guy. They bridged that gap. They've really knocked that out of the park. LJ is not a very vocal kid and doesn't give a lot of interviews, but I would feel comfortable calling A&M the leader.
   
• Aside from Johnson, both Deuces (Deuce Harmon‍ & Reuben Fatheree‍) are still trending towards A&M. Tyreek Chappell‍ is going to be a mid-summer decision. Amari Daniels‍ is another one they have their eye on. Taleeq Robbins‍ as well. If A&M could get all of those guys before the end of the summer, that would be a very impressive haul for Jimbo Fisher.
   
• The videos of Reuben Fatheree that came out on Twitter are just so impressive. The way he moves for a guy that big is not fair. He moves like he's Tyler Davis as a junior on the court. Fatheree is so athletic.
   
• A&M is doing more virtual recruiting this week. I won't say the name because we put out an update on that last night. It's a big in-state name that's committed elsewhere. If you want to read about it, subscribe to TexAgs. When they do these virtual visits, they have more than just the lead recruiter on the call. They stress the academics, the Aggie Network and everything they would have on a real visit. If they can close out some of these out-of-state recruitments without getting them on campus, that would be so impressive. If the get them committed and then get them on campus, that will drive their commitment home even further. When other schools are experiencing commitments, A&M could have that card in their back pocket.
   
• Tywone Malone‍ is one of the best prospects in the country. A&M is in his top schools and you don't count Elijah Robinson out. We saw that with McKinnley Jackson‍ and Victory Vaka‍. He is a high-end player that maybe not enough schools are looking at right now. He's a big dude and he's going to play baseball in college too. Just give him a bat. He'll drop bombs.
   
• The freshmen are planning on moving in. I think they can be here on the 25th. I don't believe any A&M football players live on campus. A lot live at Callaway and at Park West, but that is not campus. I haven't heard any plans of the freshmen not being able to get in.
   
• A&M has a shot with plenty of other big o-linemen in 2021. Savion Byrd‍ will probably still go to SMU though.
   
• The rankings aren't about us being right. We do our best to try and get them right when we see them in high school. Everyone has a different story when they get to school. We try our best to provide the best content to our subscribers as we can. With the top end kids, we can hit on that more easily.
   
• The school of kids that are going to be hurt by this shutdown are the guys who were making huge jumps with the maturity in their bodies. John Paul Richardson is one of them. We thought he was poised to make a huge jump this summer. With us and with college coaches, you have to trust what you see on the junior film. Any kind of verified measurables and videos of kids working out becomes really important. This is something that we've never seen before. It'll be good practice for coaches. Desperation is the mother of innovation, and we're seeing a lot of people adapt. You can just do your best until they get on campus and you can see them eye-to-eye.

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