Texas A&M football: Jimbo Fisher’s dominance of Tom Herman continues

Texas A&M football picked up a surprise commitment on Tuesday, one that was expected to commit to that school down there in Austin.

When Jimbo Fisher took the reins of Texas A&M football back in December, most considered the move a step up from former head coach Kevin Sumlin. It’s hard not to believe that. Sumlin routinely underachieved despite being consistently successful as a recruiter.

Sumlin got the players of Texas to buy into playing in the SEC pretty easily, but it didn’t turn to success on the field.

If you thought Jimbo would basically keep the same level of success as a recruiter, that wouldn’t have been outrageous. I thought that. I was wrong.

It started with the 2018 class, which could have completely fallen apart after the coaching change. Not only was Fisher able to keep it relatively together, he added some surprise commitments in the final hour. 4-star quarterback James Foster and 4-star offensive lineman Tank Jenkins were huge wins from the state of Alabama. He was also able to keep big time Texas recruits Leon O’Neal Jr. and Jalen Preston in the fold.

But Fisher has stepped it up to levels we haven’t seen at Texas A&M in some time, maybe ever. The 2019 class already has 25 verbal commitments, which is second only to Ole Miss with 26. But unlike Ole Miss, Fisher has a plethora of blue chip recruits in the class and has the Aggies ranked No. 3 on the 247 Sports Composite.

Maybe the biggest surprise is how quickly Fisher shifted the balance of power back to Texas A&M in the state of Texas. Tom Herman cleaned up in the 2018 class with so much uncertainty surrounding Sumlin and his job security during the 2017 season.

The Longhorns had the No. 3 class in 2018, but also six of the top seven and 10 of the top 13 recruits in the state chose Herman and that school in Austin.

Things have changed.

In the 2019 class, Texas A&M has secured 12 of the top 32 recruits in the state, where as the Longhorns have just three so far. Fisher completely flipped the state back in favor of the Aggies in less than one year.

One of those commits was a shocker on Tuesday evening. Dylan Wright, who had long been considered a Longhorn commit and was even seen wearing the wrong-colored hat at camps this summer, announced his choice on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/DeunteWright/status/1026633906773213186

Wright pushed the Aggies’ 2019 class to right on the heels of Georgia and Alabama. Given that the class already has so many verbals, it’s unlikely Texas A&M gets the top spot. However, this could end up being a top five class, and is absolutely a top 10 class.

Now t.u. will definitely not want to play us anymore.

Jeff Shull is the Site Expert for the Gig Em Gazette on FanSided. Follow him on Twitter, and be sure to follow the Gig Em Gazette on Facebook and Twitter.