Texas A&M fighting tooth and nail against surging team in five-star recruitment

Texas A&M had surged ahead in the hotly-contested recruitment of Anthony "Tank" Jones, a five-star edge defender out of Mobile, Alabama, in recent days, battling the Crimson Tide for his signature. It looked like Mike Elko and company had put some distance between themselves and Alabama and were anticipating being the choice when Tank went public.

Now, though, some complications have arisen. The third team in the mix, the Oregon Ducks, have apparently just gone all in to land Jones, and now the predictions have been flowing in for Dan Lanning and company to win the day here.

While this wouldn't be disastrous by any means for the Aggies— they'll have a great class no matter what even if they just hang on to the players they currently have committed— Jones is their last, biggest target left on the board. Things aren't done and dusted just yet, but the Aggies now have a significant challenge facing them.

Texas A&M facing sudden Oregon surge for five-star EDGE Tank Jones

Let's call a spade a spade, here: in this day and age of NIL, there are certain programs with huge advantages. Namely, those programs that have one highly motivated booster who the program can call upon to finance huge deals when they are looking to go all in on one or another player.

Oregon is one of those programs, boasting the backing of Phil Knight. When a team suddenly surges at the last second like this, though, it's usually a sign that something along those lines has entered the equation.

Will Texas A&M be able to measure up in that department? It's hard to say. Can they weather the challenge if they don't match up? It would certainly seem like the answer there is "no," but again, it's hard to say for sure one way or another.

Jones is set to announce his decision midday tomorrow. It would certainly be a gut punch to Aggie fans to lose out on two five-star defensive front players when you felt like you led up until the last moment, but that may be what is about to happen again here if Mike Elko and company can't flip the momentum, a