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Eli Lederman, ESPN Staff Writer
Texas A&M followed its seismic win over LSU on 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 Friday night with a 42-0 win over Chapel Hill (Georgia).
Carter and Gregory followed their Friday victory with a visit to Texas A&M on Saturday, and both were on hand to see the Aggies’ 38-23 victory over LSU. Their respective pledges arrive with coach Mike Elko & 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 B.S.-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).