Texas A&M head football head coach Jimbo Fisher and his staff had their first National Signing Day in Aggieland this week. The Aggies started the week with the No. 35 recruiting class according to 247sports.com and finished sitting in the No. 17 spot.
The jump was a feat as Fisher had his work cut out for him, coming to A&M just two weeks before the early signing period. Fisher said the key to winning recruiting battles is relationships, which take time to form.
“It’s all about relationships, and we didn’t have time for that before the early signing day. We did for this one, and you see we did a lot better,” Fisher said.
The Aggies started the day with a flip from four-star defensive end Bobby Brown, which Fisher said came down to the wire.
“With Bobby Brown, it’s rare that you see a guy with his size that can play on the end,” Fisher said. “Reminds me of when we signed Marcus Spears [from LSU]. That’s huge when you can hold up out there and set the edge. I was a nervous wreck all the way up to the end. He was one of the most wanted guys across the country.”
The Aggies followed up the addition of Brown with a couple of four-star cousins — offensive lineman Tank Jenkins and quarterback James Foster. Jenkins joins a signing class of three other four-star offensive lineman who signed in the early signing period: Colten Blanton, Barton Clement and Luke Matthews.
“With big Tank Jenkins, you’re talking about a guy that’s 350 pounds and is as twitch as can be,” Fisher said. “You don’t see guys that can bend their ankles, knees and hips at that size and create power and size. I’m very happy with the offensive line.”
Fisher said the reason behind signing Jenkins’ cousin was a dire need for a quarterback, due to only having three scholarship quarterbacks on the roster. Thus, Fisher turned to Foster, drawing on their prior relationship from when Fisher was the head coach at Florida State.
“We spent a lot of time talking and our goals and his goals matched up and he decided to come to Texas A&M and we’re extremely happy,” Fisher said.
The Aggies then received a commitment from four-star defensive end Jeremiah Martin and three-star tight end Glenn Beal in the early afternoon. Fisher said tight end was one of the biggest areas of need for the Aggies, who rarely utilized the tight end under Kevin Sumlin.
“A huge area of need was finding more tight ends,” Fisher said. We just didn’t have enough to practice and do what we do.”
The Aggies rounded out their class with a pair of running backs in the early evening, adding four-star Jashaun Corbin and three-star Charles Strong.
Fisher made it known that he thinks he can repeatedly succeed at A&M primarily because of the community vibe.
“With the people here … once we get them on campus we’re going to have a heck of a shot,” Fisher said. “People always say ‘Oh it’s because of the facilities.’ No, it’s the people here at Texas A&M. That’s the thing that has impressed me the most since I’ve been here, the genuineness of the people and the true culture of this university.”
Four-star safety and longtime A&M commit Jordan Moore has been a leader of the 2018 recruiting class and said that class has already built strong relationships with each other and have their eyes set on a national championship.
“I really like the class that we got, we have all gotten really close and we feel like that is what we need in order to win a national championship,” Moore said.
Fisher has echoed the goals of bringing a national championship to College Station, and will have his first full recruiting period to hand-select all the players that he wants in the 2019 class. Fisher’s 2019 class currently ranks No. 4 in the country.
“The new crop of guys [in the 2019 class] are seeing our vision, and it’s selling very well,” Fisher said. “We have to go get these guys and be in the top five classes moving forward.”