Texas A&M football: Building a starting lineup with only 2018-19 recruits

Linebackers

Andre White Jr. – 4-star in 2019, No. 312 overall, No. 18 at his position
Ke’Shun Brown – 4-star in 2019, No. 356 overall, No. 22 at his position
Christopher Russell – 3-star in 2019, No. 892 overall, No. 39 at his position

This is the one position that has a lack of both depth and high level talent, but don’t be too discouraged. Linebackers are not quite as important in Mike Elko’s scheme. While the group doesn’t feature a huge name like Alabama or Georgia routinely recruit, Fisher is throwing a lot of bodies at the position in the hopes they can find at least two who can hold down the fort.

Fisher wasn’t able to recruit any linebackers in 2018, but recruited five in the 2019 class. Expect him to sign more in 2020, but developing two of those five into starters is not an impossible task.

Every single one of these linebackers were listed as inside linebackers, but it’s really moot. They are interchangeable in Elko’s defense. Fisher faced stiff competition for White Jr. and Brown. White Jr. held offers from Michigan State, Penn State, Tennessee, UCLA, USC, and West Virginia, among others, and Brown held offers from Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Florida, Ole Miss, Auburn and Mississippi State. Brown may have been a little underrated in the rankings.

Russell isn’t the third best-ranked recruit among the 2019 linebackers who signed, but he may have the most potential of those remaining. This is also based off his offer list which had teams like Arkansas, Auburn and Tennessee.