Aggies land dedication from 2 4-star recruits

• Eli Lederman, ESPN Personnel WriterOct 27, 2024, 03:56 PM ET

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  Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He signed up with ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.Texas A&M followed

its seismic win over LSU on Saturday night by landing a pair of crucial 2026 commitments Sunday afternoon, protecting pledges from four-star prospects Jordan Carter and Aaron Gregory one day after the Douglas County(Georgia)High School teammates went to College Station.Carter is the No. 2 protective end and the 23rd-ranked total prospect

in the ESPN Junior 300, while Gregory is ESPN’s No. 41 prospect and the seventh-ranked player at his position in the 2026 cycle. Both players are standout factors for a Douglas County football program that improved to 8-1 Friday night with a 42-0 win over Chapel Hill( Georgia ). Carter and Gregory followed their Friday triumph with a visit to Texas A&M on Saturday, and both were on hand to see the Aggies ’38-23 triumph over LSU. Their respective promises arrive with coach Mike Elko & Co. riding seven successive triumphes and sitting alone atop the SEC standings getting in Week 10. Between them, Carter and Gregory now represent the highest-rated dedicates among the 6 potential customers vowed to Texas A&M’s 2026 class.The Aggies trailed LSU 17-7 in the 3rd quarter Saturday when Elko benched starting quarterback Conner Weigman in favor of backup Marcel Reed.

The freshman passer was the spark to a 31-point 2nd half that left Texas A&M as the last staying undefeated in SEC league play and in company College Football Playoff contention with 4 regular season games delegated play. Elko followed the win with a pointed statement on the state of the Aggies in his first fall in charge at Texas A&M. Editor’s Picks 2 Associated” This is a genuine program,”the first-year coach stated late Saturday night.”It’s not fake. It’s not a politician running this program,

talking quick and

B.S.-ing everybody. This is a real program, and for all the employees out there, this is a real location. “Less than 24 hr later on, Elko landed a set of anchors for his 2026 recruiting class.Carter, a 6-foot-3, 235-pound edge rusher, is the No. 9 general protector in the ESPN Junior 300 and routes only four-star edge Zion Elee(No. 15 in the ESPN Junior 300) as the highest-rated defensive end in the class. Gregory is a big-bodied, two-way star at Douglas County, where he’s emerged as a standout at both wide receiver and defensive back.Carter is now the Aggies’leading commit in the 2026 cycle in a class that now includes three ESPN 300 potential customers. Texas A&M landed its very first ESPN 300 pledge in the cycle on Oct. 17 with a dedication from three-star quarterback Helaman Casuga, ESPN’s No. 5 dual-threat passer in 2026. The Aggies also hold 2026 pledges from safety Markel Ford, cornerback Ryan Gilbert and defensive tackle Trashawn Ruffin.Texas A&M holds dedications from 12 ESPN 300 prospects in a 2025 class that sits eighth in ESPN’s most current group rankings for the cycle. The Aggies moved up to No. 10 in the Associated Press Top 25 Sunday afternoon ahead of a Week 10 see to South Carolina(7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN ).