Texas A&M followed its seismic win over LSU Saturday night by landing a pair of key 2026 commitments Sunday afternoon, securing pledges from four-star prospects Jordan Carter and Aaron Gregory one day after the Douglas County (Georgia) High School teammates visited College Station.
Carter is the No. 2 defensive end and the 23rd-ranked overall 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 contributors for a Douglas County football program that improved to 8-1 this fall Friday night following a 42-0 win over Chapel Hill (Georgia).
Carter and Gregory followed their Friday victory with a visit to Texas A&M Saturday, and both were on hand to see the Aggies’ 38-23 victory over LSU. Their respective pledges arrive with Mike Elko and Co. riding seven consecutive victories and sitting alone atop the SEC standings entering Week 10. Between them, Carter and Gregory now represent the highest-rated commits among the six prospects pledged to Texas A&M’s 2026 class.
The Aggies trailed LSU 17-7 in the third 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 second half that left Texas A&M as the last remaining undefeated in SEC league play and in firm College Football Playoff contention with four regular season games left to 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.
“This is a real program,” the first-year coach said late Saturday night. “It’s not fake. It’s not a politician running this program, talking fast and BS-ing everybody. This is a real program and for all the recruits out there, this is a real place.”
Less than 24 hours later, Elko landed a pair of anchors for his 2026 recruiting class.
Carter, a 6-foot-3, 235-pound edge rusher, is the No. 9 overall defender in the ESPN Junior 300 and trails 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’ top commit in the 2026 cycle in a class that now includes three ESPN 300 prospects. Texas A&M landed its first ESPN 300 pledge in the cycle on Oct. 17 with a commitment 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 commitments from 12 ESPN 300 prospects in a 2025 class that sits eighth in ESPN’s latest team rankings for the cycle. The Aggies moved up to No. 10 in the Associated Press Top 25 Sunday afternoon ahead of a Week 10 visit to South Carolina (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
