Texas A&M Football: Aggies Add a Key 2024 Recruit

The Texas A&M Football 2024 recruiting class added a key piece last night, as QB AJ Maddox out of Oak Grove High School in Hattiesburg, MS committed to the Aggies.

Watching Maddox’s tape, it’s not hard to make the comparison to another Petrino passing protege in Lamar Jackson. In fact, Petrino himself made that exact comparison, according to a story by Sam Spiegelman of On3. Maddox made this pledge to the Aggies over his other finalists of Alabama and Penn State—bigtime programs, to be sure.  Maddox currently ranks in the 247 Composite as a three-star and the #431 player in the country. This current ranking is likely due to how raw he is as a prospect, with only a year of starting experience under his belt, but his live arm, athleticism, and accuracy still jump off the tape at you—Maddox completed 62% of his passes last year, notching 20 passing touchdowns against only 3 interceptions, and racking up 2198 yards (7.45 YPA) in the process. He also rushed 57 times for 347 yards and 1 touchdown.

https://twitter.com/247Sports/status/1622740749413675008?s=20&t=oJPdHadGZ42ecIEYWFdkHg

Maddox is also the older brother of 2025 DL prospect Andrew Maddox, who is already turning heads as an underclassman.  When his time comes, Andrew will be a highly-coveted prospect, to be sure, so you would hope that this connection would help the Texas A&M football program have a foothold in that recruitment as well.

As I wrote yesterday, Maddox is likely to be one of a two-quarterback class for Texas A&M football in 2024, as they continue to pursue highly-rated signal caller Air Noland out of Georgia. Make no mistake, however, this was not just taking a guy to fill a spot at a position of need.  This was an identification by the offensive brain trust for the Aggies of a prospect that they saw fitting within the system, and a quick close on the guy they wanted.  Even if the Aggies only end up taking Maddox without adding another player at the position, this should still be a decision that Aggie fans celebrate.  Welcome to the class, AJ!