Tuesdays with Gorney: SEC’s sleeping giant is still dozing in Aggieland

NCAA Football: Mississippi State at Texas A&M

The 2022 class for Texas A&M will be one for the history books for so many reasons.

Alabama coach Nick Saban’s comments about the Aggies buying their entire recruiting class provoked a fiery response from then-coach Jimbo Fisher about the ways Saban has recruited over the years.

It was a bitter back-and-forth that won’t soon be forgotten and is even chronicled in the new book about college football’s recruiting wars, The Price: What It Takes to Win in College Football’s Era of Chaos.

It was the only time in Rivals history dating back to 2002 that Texas A&M won the team recruiting title, something that was marred when Fisher went on a diatribe about ‘SlicedBread’ from the BroBible message boards who broke down who was paid to join the recruiting class.

An unbelievable time was unfolding in college football’s NIL era – the Wild West had been unleashed – and everybody was getting their minds around it.

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Fast forward just a couple of seasons and college football has shown why it’s the sport of constant change. Saban is retired. Texas A&M paid Fisher more than $70 million to just go away after the 2023 season.

And most shockingly, just under half of that epic 2022 class is no longer with the Aggies as 14 of the 30 have now departed.

I closely covered five-star Walter Nolen’s commitment to the Aggies at midfield when he told Fisher he was coming to College Station. He’s now at Ole Miss as the Rebels look to make a College Football Playoff run.

Star receivers Evan Stewart…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/tuesdays-gorney-secs-sleeping-giant-142917688.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2024-09-03 14:29:17

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