Texas A&M Football: Early Transfer Portal Window Wrap-Up

The first window for players to declare their intentions to transfer has come and gone, and the Texas A&M football program certainly saw plenty of action. Overall, 25 Aggie scholarship players entered the transfer portal during this timeframe: the most in the conference.

It is, of course, notable that none of the 22 starters in the Aggies’ final game against LSU entered the portal (though three declared for the draft), and only one player that recorded a single statistic of any kind in that game entered the portal: senior LB Andre White, Jr.  Of the seven freshmen that entered the portal, four had been suspended for the whole second half of the season for off-the-field incidents, and one did not see the field.  The other two were at A&M primarily because of former defensive analyst Nick Williams (with one of them, Smoke Bouie, actually being Williams’s cousin), who recently accepted the DL coach position at Colorado under Deion Sanders.

In addition, less than half of the 25 players transferring out of the Texas A&M football program have committed to Power 5 programs.  Three of those are committed to Georgia Tech (Haynes King, Chase Lane, and Andre White), one to Duke (Myles Jones), one to Louisville (Marquis Groves-Killebrew), and one each to Nebraska and Indiana (Elijah Jeudy and Marcus Burris, respectively). Three of the formerly-suspended freshmen are in the number headed to traditional power programs, with Denver Harris heading to LSU, Chris Marshall landing at Ole Miss, and Anthony Lucas deciding on Southern Cal.  Smoke Bouie headed back home to UGA—no surprise, as the Bulldogs were A&M’s biggest competition for his services out of high school (even almost pulling off a signing day flip), and he hails from the same hometown as HC Kirby Smart.

In all, the depth hit the Aggies have taken is undeniable.  But similarly notable is the ability of the Texas A&M football program to retain their key, starting talent in players such as Conner Weigman, Evan Stewart, Walter Nolen, Shemar Stewart, and more after their dreadful record last season.  This core of young players will continue to develop and chart a path for the program going forward.  The future is bright, but the Aggies still have to stock up on depth through the portal after losing so many players.