2-minute drill: Texas A&M’s 2024 season preview (2024)

Jimbo Fisher isn’t the only person missing from the Texas A&M sideline in 2024.

They used to say it takes 4 years to honestly evaluate a recruiting class, but the transfer portal has quickly rendered that old chestnut obsolete. Four years now may as well be an eternity. Take Texas A&M’s infamous 2022 recruiting class, celebrated at the time as the highest-rated haul of the online rankings era. Two years later, it has largely unraveled.

Of the 18 players in that class ranked in the top 100 nationally according to 247Sports’ composite rating, only 8 are still on the roster in 2024; the majority of them — including 6 of the 8 players billed as 5-stars — having already scattered to the wind along with the coaching staff that recruited them. Of the 8 who remain, only DB Bryce Anderson started at least 6 games in 2023, and only 3 others (QB Conner Weigman, RB Le’Veon Moss, and DL Shemar Stewart) appear assured of prominent roles in ’24.

Cautious optimism still prevails for Weigman, who was beginning to look the part as a sophom*ore before suffering a season-ending foot injury, and a couple members of the bottom half of the class are also on track to pan out, most notably WR Noah Thomas. But to the extent that the ’22 class was supposed to be group that finally delivered the Jimbo-era Aggies into national contention, well, here’s guessing it’s going to be a while before another incoming crop anywhere is met with that level of hype again.

Wherever there’s a surplus of talent in one place, the portal patiently awaits its share.

How well Mike Elko manages that situation will go a long way to determining the Aggies’ ceiling.

Aggies at a Glance …

2023 Recap: 7-6 (4-4 SEC; Lost Texas Bowl)
Best Player: DL Shemar Turner
Best Pro Prospect: Edge Nic Scourton
Best Addition: Scourton (Purdue)
Best Name: OL Kam Dewberry
Most Grizzled: DL Josh Celiscar (5th year; 39 career starts at UCF)
Emerging Dude: Redshirt sophom*ore QB Conner Weigman

Biggest strength: A d-line rotation that legitimately goes 10-deep. The addition of aspiring first-rounder Nic Scourton — a Bryan/College Station native who had to go off to Purdue and lead the Big Ten in sacks to get noticed back home — should be an immediate upgrade on the edge, allowing 2023 sack leader Shemar Turner to shift back to his natural position on the interior.

Nagging concern: Marginal juice at the skill positions. The backs and receivers underwhelmed as a group in ’23, and the lone exception, WR Ainias Smith, left for the NFL Draft. The backfield took a hit when 5-star sophom*ore Rueben Owens suffered a season-ending injury in preseason camp. There’s no danger of running out of options, but singling out one of them who moves the needle on his own could be a process.

Looming question: Is Conner Weigman still on schedule? Technically, Weigman is still in the green zone in Year 3 with just 253 attempts across 9 career games. Still, he’s shown enough in that limited span to keep his blue-chip rep intact. Prior to his injury last year he was off to a fine start, putting up big numbers in terms of Total QBR (87.5) and overall PFF grade (91.9). Considering A&M’s opening-day starter has failed to make it out of September in any of the past 3 seasons, the prospect of a healthy, productive campaign behind center almost feels like a revelation.

The schedule: Pretty friendly, all things considered. The 4 toughest games (Notre Dame in the opener, Missouri and LSU at midseason, Texas in the finale) are all in College Station; meanwhile, A&M misses Georgia, Alabama, Ole Miss, Oklahoma and Tennessee. The wild cards are road trips to Florida and Auburn, both of which are probably must-wins to get a whiff of the Playoff.

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The upshot

A&M is so thirsty for a championship that its former university president famously greeted Jimbo Fisher to campus with a preemptive championship plaque, date TBD. They’ve been more circ*mspect about that kind of thing with Fisher’s successor, Mike Elko, who is projecting a deliberately down-to-Earth demeanor in contrast with the drama that followed Fisher and his Himalayan contract. Make no mistake, though: They didn’t fire the last guy to set lower expectations, and whatever patience they’re willing practice for Elko’s sake is not going to extend for long to also-ran seasons that end in the Texas Bowl.