Texas A&M’s recruiting rebuild under Mike Elko is starting to show up where it matters most: on campus, in the meeting rooms, and in the eyes of the veterans who get an early look at the newcomers.
Elko arrived in College Station with a clear job in front of him. Beyond coaching on Saturdays, he had to steady the program and repair some of the relationships with high school recruits that had slipped during the previous regime.
The early results have been strong. Texas A&M was at No. 16 nationally when he took over, with a class that was more about holding things together through a coaching change than building fresh momentum.
Since then, the Aggies have put together back-to-back top-10 classes and now sit with the No. 1 class for 2027.
The group that may end up changing the conversation most, though, is the 2026 class. Built around speed, size, and athleticism, it reflects exactly what Elko has pushed as the foundation for a sustainable contender through the high school ranks.
Veteran tight end Micah Riley has already seen enough to be impressed. With more freshmen arriving early, the older players and coaches have gotten a head start on evaluating what this class can bring, and Riley didn’t hold back when talking about them.
"This young freshman class is probably the most talented group of kids I've been around. They work hard.
They show up every single day and do what they're asked to do. We're all really excited."
That kind of praise doesn’t guarantee anything once the season starts and the games count. Still, it fits the larger picture around Texas A&M right now: a staff that believes in what it’s building and a recruiting pipeline that’s starting to look dangerous again. If the 2026 group lives up to even part of the early buzz, it could be the class that helps define a new stretch in Aggieland under Elko, one built on development, accountability, and stability.
In Other News...
Mike Elko Just Spotlighted A Crucial Texas A&M Battle
Texas A&Ms 2026 preseason opened with Mike Elko meeting the media alongside Micah Riley, Mark Nabou Jr. and Dalton Brooks, and one of the early topics was a spot that rarely gets treated like an afterthought inside the program. With KC Concepcion now gone to the Cleveland Browns, the Aggies are not just replacing a receiver, they are also reworking a return job that carried real value last season and helped shape field position in a few different ways.
Elko pointed to Mario Craver, Isaiah Horton and Terry Bussey as the players in the mix during fall camp, which gives Texas A&M a small but important competition to watch as August unfolds. Punt return is one of those roles that can quietly swing momentum over the course of a season, and for a team trying to settle into a new preseason rhythm, figuring out who handles those reps is part of the larger adjustment after Concepcions departure. [Read more 🡒]
Texas A&M Faces A Running Back Battle With Real Offensive Stakes
Fall camp has given Texas A&M a useful problem to sort out in the backfield, where the running back room is still being examined and no starter has been named. Rueben Owens and Jamarion Morrow have emerged as the main names in the mix, and head coach Mike Elko has made it clear the staff is still weighing competition across the roster as it looks for the right fit on offense.
Morrow has a particularly intriguing case after flashing last season, when he logged 43 carries for 182 yards and a touchdown. Owens brings his own appeal, and the conversation in camp is less about just finding snaps than figuring out which back gives the Aggies the best chance to set the tone on offense once the season starts. [Read more 🡒]