Texas A&M got some bad news on the recruiting front last night when longtime LB commit Aston Whiteside flipped from the Aggies to the Miami Hurricanes. Whiteside was a three-star when he committed to the Aggies, but a good senior season thus far from the Burleson, TX product has buoyed him to a low four-star ranking— still outside of the top 300, but he's trending upwards.
Whiteside was the lowest-ranked of the Aggies' three linebacker commitments, behind Mikahi Allen and five-star Kaden Henderson, but the staff clearly liked what they saw out of him. In that sense, this hurts— also in the sense that it's never good to lose an in-state recruit to an out-of-state program— but the Aggies' class isn't terribly affected by this news.
The Aggies are still no. 1 in the nation in the recruiting rankings, even though this takes their overall class rating down just a touch (in an interesting irony, Whiteside's decommitment actually made A&M's average recruit rating rise a bit). The Aggies still boast six five-star players in mark Matthews, Kamarui Dorsey, Kaden Henderson, Raylaun Henry, JayQuan Snell, and Kennedy Brown.
Texas A&M loses a commitment to Miami, but as long as it doesn't become a trend, they're okay
However, this is a point that the Aggies desperately need to not become a line. A&M has done well to craft the top class in the nation, and they can't afford a bevy of decommitments— many Aggie fans, though, are pessimistically predicting that this is exactly what Whiteside's flip heralds.
There was a lot of speculation this past weekend that the aforementioned Mark Matthews, the top-ranked offensive lineman in the nation and the 4th-ranked player overall, may be visiting Miami for the FSU game. There are no indications that that came to pass— and you'd have to think that if it did, Miami's media would be broadcasting it far and wide— but this is still something to monitor.
A lower-rated Aggie offensive line commit in DeMarrion Johnson made his way to SMU this past weekend and could be setting up visits elsewhere in-state. Johnson visited Texas at one point during the spring, which led to some strife among the Aggie fanbase, but all of that hubbub quickly died down— still, it's worth monitoring.
As long as this class stays together, things will continue to look good for the Aggies. But if things start coming apart at the seams— if decommitments and flips begin to populate the Aggies' list— then things could really begin to snowball.
You don't tend to see as many high-level late flips in recent recruiting cycles, though, and that's probably a point in the Aggies' favor. A&M has done a lot to lock this class in and keep them together, so even through these unanticipated lows, the players should, in large part, stick it out.
It also helps that the Aggies have two huge games to close the year at home, against Tennessee and Texas. The former will be the Aggies' now-yearly blackout game, and the latter will have one of the best environments in the country, as you'd expect. Getting as many players on campus for those games as possible will be huge for A&M, and should go a long way towards staving off the vultures, no matter the results.
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