On3 has released a new list of their top 100 college football players for the upcoming season—and it conspicuously lacks representation from Texas A&M football. Only one Aggie was listed by the service, and it’s not who you might suspect. Not Ainias Smith. Not Demani Richardson. Not Evan Stewart. Not Conner Weigman or Walter Nolen. The lone Aggie representative on this list was junior CB Tyreek Chappell—and it was by the skin of his teeth too, coming in at 94th.
https://twitter.com/On3sports/status/1659208450096922634?s=20
To add even more insult to the Texas A&M football program, recent recruiting misses Harold Perkins and Kelvin Banks are prominent in On3’s promotion of the list. Both recruits were at positions of great need for the Aggies in that cycle—and those positions (LB and OT) remain without much depth for Texas A&M even now.
It’s no secret that it’s easier to drive engagement when boosting programs traditionally considered blue-bloods or currently trendy—LSU and Texas being examples of the former, and Colorado being an example of the latter. Throw in a player from a token lower-tier program like Iowa and you have a graphic ready to publish. It’s an easy enough formula and one that On3 follows to a T here.
On the other hand, though, it’s easy to see that the Texas A&M football team has much to prove coming off of last season. Though there were flashes from the young bucks in particular on that Aggie team, the 5-7 record looms large over the program. This represents another notch in the column of doubters that this year’s squad can prove wrong with a strong showing in 2023. Here’s hoping they do just that.