Jacoby Mathews intends to transfer away from Texas A&M football. Why now?

Jacoby Mathews announces intention to transfer away from Texas A&M football; why the timing is telling

Despite entering the spring as the presumed favorite to start at safety, Jacoby Mathews announced today that he will be transferring away from Texas A&M football. The timing here was curious, given the fact that the portal doesn't open again until after spring football concludes.

As I mentioned, this raised some eyebrows due to his status as the presumptive starter. Though an injunction granted to the plaintiffs in the ongoing NIL case against the NCAA—one that could mean that tampering is essentially legalized, for the moment—coming down the pike yesterday is suspicious timing, I don’t ultimately believe that this is the reason this is happening.

For those paying close attention to social media (my fellow sickos, in other words), you may recall that Mathews has had a couple of strange posts, making fans wonder if he did indeed intend on transferring. While they were later deleted, it stayed on the radar for those who caught them initially.

For this reason, what came to my mind first was that this may be a casualty of some renewed high expectations in the program. From all accounts, there was a certain lack of discipline under Fisher—while the team went hard in practice (too hard, by some accounts), rules were not as stridently enforced when it came to offseason workouts, class attendance, and things like that.

I wouldn’t write something like that, though, if it wasn’t at least hinted at by another source. After all, I don’t really have connections inside the program—I’m just a guy! But, when “the source” himself chimed in, it looked like my suspicion was confirmed.

Look, if it is indeed true that this is part of the growing process when the culture shifts, then best of luck to Jacoby, but this may be an opportunity for the Aggies to grow. As far as the on-field concerns go, too, defensive back is always a strength under Elko, and the man has brought in a cavalcade of portal talent in the back end of the defense.

We’ll have more on the shifting culture of the Texas A&M football program soon, as well as where the Aggies will turn next. Suffice it to say, though Mathews’s loss stings from a talent perspective, the Aggies have a lot of great options to turn to.