Standout All-Conference DE Commits to Texas A&M Football

Texas A&M Football Hones Pass Rush With Commitment of DE Elijah Alston

Texas A&M football landed today one of the biggest commitments from a weekend replete with verbal pledges. DE Elijah Alston, formerly of Marshall, has committed to the Aggies.

Alston is a standout defender from what has been one of the top Group of Five defenses over the past couple of years; this past year, he notched one of the highest grades in the nation among defenders per Pro Football Focus. The Thundering Herd rode that side of the ball to a huge win over Notre Dame last year in South Bend. Alston is one of the biggest contributors to Marshall, and he is now bringing those talents to the Aggies.

In 2023, Alston notched 45 tackles, 13.5 tackles for loss, and 6 sacks. Pass rushing is his specialty, just like recent DE commit Nic Scourton. These are two perfect complementary pieces for the Aggie defense that Mike Elko is building so far, given that the Aggies, while not hurting for talent up front, have not had that one dominant pass rusher on their defense since Myles Garrett patrolled the hashes at Kyle.

Alston, along with Scourton, fit perfectly in that niche. Alston is an extremely multiple in his skill set, as well—just take a look at the video from the tweet below.

This shows his flexibility to not only rush up front, but to drop back into shallow coverage. A chess piece like that has got to be exciting for Elko, Bateman, and the whole defensive staff.

This is a huge straight-up recruiting win in the transfer portal, as well. Alston was hotly pursued by the likes of Georgia and other luminaries in the recruiting world, but Elko stayed the course and won out over those other programs.

With Alston's commitment, that brings the tally from this past weekend alone to a whopping twelve portal pledges. Elko is rebuilding this team quickly, and stockpiling proven talent in the process. For however awesome the Aggie defense has been over the past few years, this upcoming season might see the most talented unit yet for Texas A&M football.