Texas A&M Aggies

Each week, GigEmNation reporter Sam Khan Jr. will bring you five things he learned from watching high school football action in the Midlands region that week, including observations of Texas A&M commitments and targets and other players that catch his attention. Here's this week's installment:

1. Manvel (Texas) High School cornerback Tavares Garner has good ball skills and instincts. The 2013 Texas A&M commitment made a big play on the Mavericks' first defensive series, returning an interception 22 yards for a touchdown. He also made some key tackles and deflected a pass later in the game, but Sugar Land (Texas) Dulles quarterback Robert Harris mostly refrained from throwing Garner's direction after the pick-six. He turned in a good performance in his team's 39-26 second-round playoff win on Friday.

2. Garner's teammate, 2013 receiver Kyrion Parker, didn't get a lot of throws his way but was still able to make an impact. The Texas A&M pledge made a couple of big plays late in the game. One was blocking -- he did a good job of blocking on a fly sweep for teammate Austin Bennett, an Oklahoma commit, as Bennett went around Parker and scurried for a 39-yard gain to set up the next play, a 20-yard touchdown pass to Parker in the corner of the end zone.

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Each week, GigEmNation will bring you five things from watching high school football action in the Midlands region that week, including observations of Texas A&M commitments and targets and other players that catch our attention. Here's this week's installment:

1. The two 2014 star linebackers on the field Friday night in La Porte, Texas -- La Porte High School outside linebacker Hoza Scott and Houston North Shore inside linebacker Zac Whitley -- played big in what was a big game for both teams. Scott had a sack early, and Whitley was in on the majority of tackles for North Shore in the early going. Throughout the night, both showed athleticism, speed and that they're good tacklers. Both can hit hard and look like smart football players who are in the right position at the right time. Texas and Texas A&M have offered both prospects. A&M leads for Scott, who also has offers from Alabama and LSU, while there's no stated leader for Whitley.

2. La Porte 2013 running back Keith Whitely isn't a large back (5-foot-9, 175 pounds), but he runs bigger than he is. The Bulldogs defeated North Shore, the No. 6 team in Texas Class 5A, 27-10 on Friday, thanks in large part to a huge night by Whitely, who finished with 173 yards and 2 touchdowns on 31 carries. On a 62-yard touchdown run, Whitley broke two tackles and there were several other occasions in which he picked up yards after contact. The top three schools he's considering at the moment are San Jose State, Texas State and UNLV.

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