Texas A&M Aggies

Having the same combination of players in the secondary from week to week wasn't a common occurrence for Texas A&M in 2012.

Whether it was an injury or simply trying fit the right pieces into the right places, the defensive backfield was an area where the Aggies moved a lot of pieces.

The unit had its ups and downs but returns plenty of experience for 2013.

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"Introducing the class" is a series in which GigEmNation conducts a Q&A session with each of the incoming recruits in Texas A&M's 2013 class to give readers a closer look at each recruit individually. Today, we visit with Manvel (Texas) High School receiver Kyrion Parker.

Parker is a 6-foot-2, 192-pound receiver who is ranked No. 96 at his position nationally. The three-star prospect committed to Texas A&M on June 24, 2012 and is teammates with another Texas A&M signee, cornerback Tavares Garner. The pair helped lead Manvel to an 11-2 record, a district championship and a third-round appearance in the Texas Class 5A Division II state playoffs.

Parker was originally an LSU commit, but decommitted on June 16, jumping on board with the Aggies just more than a week later. Here's our Q&A with Parker, who caught 46 passes for 951 yards and 13 touchdowns this season:

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"Introducing the class" is a series in which GigEmNation conducts a Q&A session with each of the incoming recruits in Texas A&M's 2013 class to give readers a closer look at each recruit individually. Today, we visit with Manvel (Texas) High School cornerback Tavares Garner.

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"Coach's take" is a series that offers readers a closer look at the incoming recruits in Texas A&M's 2013 class by visiting with someone who coached the player or coached against him. Today, we take a look at Manvel (Texas) High School receiver Kyrion Parker by visiting with his head coach, Kirk Martin.

The 6-foot-2, 192-pound Parker is a three-star prospect who is ranked as the No. 96 receiver in country. Parker was an Offense-Defense All-American and a first-team all-district selection for the Mavericks. This season, he helped the Mavericks to an 11-2 record, a district championship and a third-round playoff appearance.

Parker caught 46 passes for 951 yards and 13 touchdowns this season. Here's Martin's take on Parker:

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Team needs: There are three key need areas for Texas A&M in this recruiting class: defensive tackles, linebackers and receivers. The defensive tackle need stems from the Aggies' scheme switch. The 2010 and 2011 seasons were spent in a 3-4 alignment, and recruiting was tailored to that. Once Kevin Sumlin arrived and hired Mark Snyder as his defensive coordinator, the Aggies switched to a 4-3, meaning another defensive tackle on the field, meaning more were needed. At linebacker, the Aggies say goodbye to a pair of senior leaders, Sean Porter and Jonathan Stewart, both of whom were starters. The other starting linebacker, Steven Jenkins, will be a senior this season. At receiver there are several contributors leaving as well. Ryan Swope, Uzoma Nwachukwu and Kenric McNeal were all seniors. Thomas Johnson, a true freshman who appeared in 10 games and was one of the gems of the 2012 recruiting class, withdrew from school and might not return. There's another scholarship spot at the position in the form of Brandal Jackson, who was on scholarship but not part of the 105-man roster at the start of fall camp.

Help is on the way: At defensive tackle, A&M scored commitments from ESPN 150 defensive tackle Justin Manning and ESPN 300 defensive tackle Isaiah Golden. Three-star prospect Hardreck Walker and three-star Jordan Points (who is already on campus) round out that group. There are six linebackers in the class, led by ESPN 300 ILB Jordan Mastrogiovanni. Three are already on campus and enrolled: Brett Wade, Reggie Chevis and Tommy Sanders. At receiver, the Aggies have plenty. Ricky Seals-Jones tops the list, prep school standout Ja'Quay Williams is already in school, and there's a pair of three-star receivers as well. Not to mention, No. 1 tight end prospect Derrick Griffin would be a receiver at A&M if he makes it in, and athlete LaQuvionte Gonzalez likely would be an inside receiver.

Other key commits: A pair of Under Armour All-Americans, guard Joas Aguilar and cornerback Noel Ellis, plus a U.S. Army All-American, safety Kameron Miles, round out a group 10 prospects that are among ESPN's top 300. Two quarterbacks are in the class (Kohl Stewart and Kenny Hill), but it's worth keeping an eye on them as Stewart is a potential high MLB draft pick and Hill took official visits to Baylor and Kansas State. Eight early enrollees in the class are already on campus (Chevis, Points, Sanders, Wade, Williams, Cameron Clear, Alex Sezer and Jeremiah Stuckey), and there are plenty of promising three-star commits, including guys like cornerback Tavares Garner and outside linebacker Darian Claiborne.

Other key targets: There aren't a ton of targets left for the Aggies at this point. Their focus is on a small handful of guys. Adding a defensive end would be ideal for the Aggies, and they're pursuing Washington commit Daeshon Hall and USC commit Torrodney Prevot in that regard. Hall visited recently, and Prevot could soon. They are also still looking at another receiver. Former USC commit Sebastian LaRue is one of those targets, and he was in on an official visit recently. They are also looking at Florida State commit Levonte Whitfield, who said he plans to officially visit Feb. 1.

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HOUSTON -- Manvel (Texas) High School cornerback Tavares Garner was one of the best defensive players the Greater Houston area had to offer in 2012. He has the video to prove it.

Highlights of his season were played on Wednesday at the J.W. Marriott during the Touchdown Club of Houston's annual High School Awards Dinner, where Garner was one of 10 finalists for the Clark Nealon Defensive Player of the Year award.

The 5-foot-10, 165-pound, three-star prospect, who is committed to Texas A&M, finished the year with five interceptions, returning one for a touchdown. He also didn't allow a touchdown pass to be thrown against him during the season.

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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 takes a look some of the top performances from Texas A&M 2013 commits on the field from the previous weekend's action. Here's a glance at some of the best performances from the weekend of Nov. 1-3:

Kohl Stewart, Houston St. Pius X: The quarterback had another strong performance, going 23-of-28 passing for a whopping 462 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions in a 49-20 win over Tomball (Texas) Concordia Lutheran. On the ground he ran for 26 yards and a touchdown on two carries to help lift the Panthers to 8-1 on the year.

James White, Pearland (Texas) Dawson: The running back went over the 200-yard mark for the fourth consecutive week, netting 244 yards and four touchdowns on just 14 carries. On the night, White averaged 17.4 yards a carry in 56-0 win over Galveston (Texas) Ball.

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We introduce a new feature on GigEmNation today: Five from Friday, where GigEmNation writer Sam Khan Jr. discusses five things he saw and learned while on the road watching football recruits from games in the Midlands region.

1. Rosenberg (Texas) Terry tight end Derrick Griffin is still as good as advertised. The 6-foot-6, 228-pound Griffin displays incredible athleticism, from his speed, his hands, his leaping ability and his propensity to block downfield. His team uses a run-heavy veer offense and the Rangers are on their third-string quarterback, so Griffin didn't get as many opportunities on Friday in his team's 30-0 win over Bay City (Texas) High School. But when he got the opportunities, he took advantage as two of his three catches were for touchdowns. He said he's still "keeping his options open" at the moment while maintaining his commitment to Texas A&M, but it's noteworthy that he was sitting front and center at Kyle Field for the LSU game on Saturday with teammate Victor Davis and Manvel's Tavares Garner, both Texas A&M cornerback commits.

2. Whoever takes a chance on Eugene Wright is going to get a quality player. The Rosenberg (Texas) Terry back is undersized (5-8, 160 pounds) but he's quick and shifty and can change the game at a moment's notice when the ball gets into his hands. On Thursday against Bay City (Texas) High School, Wright averaged a whopping 14.2 yards per carry, gaining 128 yards on nine totes including a 58-yard touchdown to lead the Rangers to a 30-0 win. Notably, all those numbers came in the first half as Wright was injured in the second quarter and didn't return. But the Rangers already had the 30-0 lead at halftime so his services weren't needed in the final two quarters. Wright has had interest from Boise State, Texas Tech and West Virginia this year.

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A huge SEC West tilt is on tap Saturday at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas. That's when No. 18 Texas A&M hosts No. 6 LSU.

In addition to the expected sellout crowd, a healthy number of recruits should be in attendance, including some of the Aggies' top targets in the 2013 and 2014 classes.

Here's a list of recruits who are expected to be at the game Saturday. As the week goes on and we confirm more visitors (or those who change plans), we'll update the list.

• 2013 WR Quincy Adeboyejo, Cedar Hill (Texas): No. 77 WR; Texas A&M commit
• 2014 OLB Gyasi Akem, Broken Arrow (Okla.): (Arkansas State offer)

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GigEmNation is taking a weekly position-by-position look at the 2014 recruiting class as it relates to Texas A&M, whom the Aggies are targeting, as well as 2013 commits and who on the roster will graduate. Today, we begin with the cornerback position.

2013 commits: Noel Ellis, New Orleans Edna Karr; Tavares Garner, Manvel (Texas) High School

Cornerbacks who'll graduate: Dustin Harris

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PASADENA, Texas -- Opposing quarterbacks haven't been looking the way of Manvel (Texas) High School cornerback Tavares Garner much this season. His most recent game, a 35-14 Manvel victory over Pasadena (Texas) Memorial, was a good example why.

Garner, a three-star Texas A&M commitment, only saw five passes thrown his way in the game. He made Memorial quarterback Jordan Wyatt pay with one of them with his second interception on the season. Three others resulted in incompletions and the final one was a pass-interference call that Garner wasn't too thrilled with.

The throws in Garner's direction seem to be few and far between. But he hasn't allowed that to hinder his focus.

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MANVEL, Texas -- This season has started well for Manvel (Texas) High School receiver Kyrion Parker.

The Texas A&M commitment has had three productive games for the 2-1 Mavericks, averaging nearly 100 receiving yards per game, catching 15 passes for 294 yards and five touchdowns thus far. He was one of 20 commitments on hand to take in Texas A&M's season opener against Florida on Sept. 8.

And during his team's open week, Parker got some good news: he has been selected to play in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl.

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