Where does Texas A&M football turn at safety after Trey McNutt commits to Oregon?
Where does Texas A&M football recruiting go at safety now that Trey McNutt spurned Ags for the Oregon Ducks?
After making a huge push in the eleventh hour, things seemed to be trending in the right direction for five-star safety Trey McNutt and Texas A&M football. The original date of July 19th was pushed back to August 3rd—this after reporting on the day of was that the pick would be Oregon without a doubt.
With that in mind, getting McNutt to campus in that interim period, as the Aggies ended up doing, looked like it could be a coup de grace in this high-profile recruiting bout. Of course, the five-star DB ended up making his way to Eugene as well in that time—and perhaps the UO staff were able to save their bacon because of it.
As of yesterday afternoon, McNutt is an Oregon commitment. There's no two ways about it: this is a blow to the Aggie class. But it's not one that they will be unable to recover from.
For one thing, the Aggie DB class is really solid as it is. Guys like Deyjhon Pettaway and Jamar Beal-Goines bring plenty of speed and coverage ability, so it's not as if this class would be a wreck without McNutt.
For another, the Ags are still right in the thick of things for top-10 recruit Jonah Williams. While he and McNutt are far from the same archetype, Williams has earned every bit of that high-leverage ranking with his physical gifts and development as a player, meaning that the Ags would not be bad off at all if they ended up landing him.
Finally, we shouldn't necessarily assume that this one is over. There has been a recent spate of decommits and flips away from the Ducks amid rumors of NIL promises going unfulfilled, so Aggie fans shouldn't assume that this one is over until the dotted line is signed.
Trey McNutt to Oregon; it will be a very, very interesting recruiting stretch at safety from now until Signing Day.
— Jaxson Callaway (AT) (@AggiesToday) August 3, 2024
No doubt they’ll continue to pursue (as they nearly were able to land him), but with Jonah Williams yet to make a decision, there’s some work to do.
As I say, you'd much rather have come out on the other side of yesterday's decision. But the Aggies are still sitting in a good place on the back end of the defense in this upcoming cycle—and with a while to go until signing day, things could keep looking up.
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