College Football

Texas A&M Recruiting: Rough Weekend for Aggie Recruiting

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 6:00 p.m. ET

Fansided, Matthew Bartlett/FanSided via Gig Em Gazette

With most of the 2017 Texas A&M recruiting class finalized some of the last few names on the Aggies wish list seem to be trending in the wrong direction.

Travis Etienne

Jason Howell of TexAgs reported on Sunday that four star running back Travis Etienne from Jennings, Louisiana intended to cancel his official visit to Texas A&M this month. Rather than head to College Station, the strong LSU lean is headed to visit reigning national champion Clemson next weekend.

Etienne was considered somewhat of a tough get for the Aggies as the recruiting cycle wound down. That said, it’s worth nothing that the Aggies are missing out on a good running back because he’s visiting a championship winning program instead. The secret to landing the top recruits is still winning.

Levi Jones

Levi Jones might be the biggest Aggie target left on the board. Jones has been considering Florida, Florida State, and Texas in addition to the Aggies. He took an official visit to Gainsville this past weekend and left Florida with high praise for the Gators. Regarding which way he was leaning, Jones told Zach Abolverdi of SEC Country, “I’d say UF, for sure. It was all up in the air, but just going there and seeing Florida really pushed them out front for me.”

In an ideal situation, the Texas A&M coaching staff probably doesn’t want one of their highest rated remaining targets praising a SEC rival. Jones is still expected to visit A&M before the end of the month. Perhaps that will be enough to keep the Aggies in the race.

Jones would be a huge get for the Aggies. They need to find a way to convince the Austin native to stay in state. If they did, they would be able to pair Jones alongside current Aggie commit Anthony Hines. That duo would be the best pair of linebacker recruits that I can remember under Kevin Sumlin. Here’s hoping that does in fact turn out to be the case.

***Stats from 247 Sports***