'I'm a Recruit Turned Recruiter'

Texas A&M is trending on the recruiting trail thanks to longtime Aggie commitments and a big official visit weekend

The next time Bobby Taylor II visits College Station, he will hit double digit trips. It won't be long. 

In fact the Katy (Texas) defensive back, a longtime Texas A&M commitment, says he will be back in town whenever the recruiting visitor list looks like what it did over the weekend. 

Jimbo Fisher and his staff brought in a talented group of official and unofficial visits with coveted targets like Bear Alexander, Deyon "Smoke" Bouie, Anthony Lucas, Harold Perkins, Chris Marshall and Bryce Anderson on the list along with A&M commitments like Malick Sylla, Donovan Green, PJ Williams, Connor Weigman and Isaiah Stegna in addition to Taylor. 

The NFL legacy cornerback was in town for his official visit and coming off of the trip announced he was done considering other programs. Not only is he effectively cancelling trips to places like Alabama, but his focus will shift towards helping the Aggies land other elite prospects.

"I'm used to A&M, that's home for me, I'm locked in," Taylor said. "Getting all those guys on campus, it was business, to me, at the end of the day. I see this as my class and I'm trying to build it to be one of the best classes that A&M has ever had and being able to get those guys on campus this past weekend, those are some of our top guys.

"I'm a recruit turned recruiter." 

The work of Taylor, Weigman, other commitments and Fisher's staff has already proved tangible with the targets on the weekend visitor list. Both Alexander and Bouie were committed to Georgia while on the trip and each has since backed off early in the week. 

"I already knew about Bear and Smoke," Taylor said. "It's not a coincidence that they go to Georgia first, A&M after, and both decommit within the same 24 hours. Before I left, I had a conversation with Jimbo and I was real confident about those decommits. They were at Georgia earlier in the week, then they came to visit us and see what we do. Obviously we're doing something that Georgia isn't.

"Guys are leaving and we're giving guys the opportunity to hit the field early. Some schools can't offer that."

Texas A&M seems poised to add prospects from the visit weekend, a conversation Taylor says lies well beyond the pair of Georgia decommitments. There is growing confidence in running back Ish Harris, defensive lineman Anthony Lucas, wide receiver Brenen Thompson and hybrid defender Harold Perkins, among others. 

Fisher's class entered the week at No. 9 on SI All-American, but could trend up into a top five class when all is said and done. A&M finished No. 6 on National Signing Day 2021 back in February.  

Taylor says the combination of the staff and unified peer recruiting efforts will help to get the job done. 

"Look at what he did at Florida State," he said of Fisher. "He won them a natty and then he came here and turned the whole program around. It just takes time. He got the extension thought the years, so it's a guarantee he'll be here when I get here. 

"And me having so much knowledge about the program, having been here so many times, I just had to show them the reasons that I fell in love with College Station before I committed. So with recruiting I see it like, if I can get some of the best guys to come play with us, and we're under a head coach who can get the job done, I don't see how getting to the top is an impossible circumstance."

Taylor admits Alabama is the program he is looking to compete with in recruiting and on the field. He says his pitch centers on College Station, though, when he is able to immerse into the community with fellow prospects.

It happened on routine over the weekend.

"We saw people when we were out and they got the feeling of what it is to be a college football player in a college town like College Station," he said. "People were saying, 'hey, that's so and so!' There's no better feeling, getting that validation from somebody you don't even know. It just shows the amount of love that College Station can show."

It results in easy-to-digest positivity towards the program, something every college coach wants to see happen near campus with the recruiting world back and open for business in June.

"I let the recruiters do what they need to do," he said. "Then after that it's like, 'alright, we're gonna come here.' I'm going to show them and they just have to take it in. The conversations are regular small talk like, 'how you feeling?' And they tell me they mess with it, and want to come here, and then they decommit from the school you been committed to for a long time.

"It shows A&M is coming different."

The pitch may be seen not only throughout the month of June in College Station, but well beyond. One of the program's prized commitments, and perhaps most intriguing, won't soon stop making the trip up Highway 6. 

"I told coach I would come up here 30 times if I had to," Taylor said with a laugh. "I'm gonna be up here! It's an hour away from home for me and it's already home, so it's no problem for me." 

Texas A&M currently holds eight verbal commitments in the class of 2022. 

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