Catching Up on Texas A&M Football's Efforts in the Portal

Texas A&M Football Continues To Add Quality Through the Transfer Portal

One of the first tangible differences we've seen between Mike Elko and Jimbo Fisher, even in these first few weeks of Elko's tenure with Texas A&M football, is how much more predisposed to the portal the new Aggie head man is than his predecessor. Jimbo, though he got a couple of high quality players from the portal (Jahdae Walker chief among them) and seemed to be ramping up his use of it, never was a huge advocate of it. Elko seems to be the opposite, at least early on.

The Aggies have already built a really impressive lineup of additions so far to address some of their top needs. They haven't won every battle, and haven't had a lot of splash, but they've made several impressive moves nonetheless.

That continued over this past week, with Texas A&M football adding former KSU WR Wesley Watson and former Vanderbilt DB De'Rickey Wright. Watson is a native of College Station, and though he received several scholarship offers out of high school, the Aggies were not one of them. He headed to Kansas State to play, and is now returning home to Texas to play for the Aggies.

The amazing part here is that he, though good enough to be on scholarship at another Power 5 school, will walk on to the Texas A&M football team. This adds flexibility for the Aggies to use that spot for another position of need, and adds quality depth to the room.

De'Rickey Wright is another great add. A physically impressive player, Wright stands at 6'4" and 220 LBs, absolutely massive for a safety. This size gives him the ability to spin down to a hybrid linebacker spot if the situation calls for it—and with the system that Elko runs, that kind of versatility is highly prized.

Wright is a graduate transfer and will only have one year of eligibility remaining. This is not a huge concern with him, though, as having sat under the tutelage of Clark Lea for the past several years, he is already well familiar with the defensive scheme that Elko runs—Lea was Elko's protégé at Notre Dame.

Again, neither of these are huge, splashy names. They don't bring the clout of the high star ratings. But they add quality depth and a piece that fits a need the Aggies have, which is exactly what this team needs to be seeking out of the portal right now. It's still early, but I continue to be impressed with Elko's moves in the transfer ranks.