Texas A&M football: Recruiting bias for Texas has reached ridiculous levels
By Luke Leifker
Isaiah Hookfin’s inflated ranking
Funny enough, this McCoy stuff wouldn’t have even mattered had the recruiting services not given Texas commits undeserved rankings bumps. Don’t let these recruiting rankings fool you. Texas A&M has a superior class, and it really isn’t close. The Aggies dominated this year for in-state prospects, which caused Texas to have to go out-of-state for many prospects and take projects/backup plans.
Texas A&M beat Texas for lots of talented recruits, including 4-star safeties Brian Williams and Demani Richardson, 4-star wide receiver Dylan Wright, 5-star defensive lineman DeMarvin Leal, and 5-star offensive lineman Kenyon Green. The only reason Texas’ class ended up being ranked higher than A&M’s is because Texas gets preferential treatment from recruiting services while A&M does not.
A prime example of this bias is Isaiah Hookfin ranking. Hookfin started out rated as the 1,410th best player in the country. Texas started gaining interest in Hookfin around early October, and Hookfin moved up 780 spots on October 31st, just three days before he was officially offered by Texas. He then moved up by an additional 166 spots two weeks after the Texas offer came in. The day before Hookfin official visit, he moved up 85 more spots.
He committed to Texas in mid-December before gaining 128 more spots in the final ranking. In total, Hookfin moved from the 1410th best player in the country all the way to the 252nd best player per the 247Sports composite. His rating went from .8310 to .9084.
Hookfin had 21 offers in total, with eight of them being from power five teams. His best offers besides Texas were Mississippi State and Auburn, but it quickly went downhill from there. Hookfin has decent size, but his film shows that he is a bit of a project player. Generally speaking, guys who are projects aren’t 4-stars unless they are crazy athletic (and Hookfin doesn’t fit that build).