Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.
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.
The Aggies also landed another 2026 pledge late Sunday, when four-star linebacker Samu Moala (No. 211 in the ESPN Junior 300) committed, securing the program its third top-300 commitment in the 24 hours after the LSU win.
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 seven prospects pledged to Texas A&M’s 2026 class.
The Aggies trailed LSU 17-7 in the third quarter Saturday when Elko benched starting quarterbackConner 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.”
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. 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.
Gurriel was hurt in the sixth inning after he jumped awkwardly out of the way to avoid center fielder Blaze Alexander, who made a diving catch on a line drive by Rowdy Tellez for the third out of the inning.
Alexander was playing his first game in center field as a big leaguer.
Gurriel stayed on the ground for several minutes while medical staff attended to him. The 31-year-old eventually got up and walked to a cart before being driven off the field.
Additional tests confirmed the torn ACL.
Gurriel is batting .248 this season with 19 homers and 80 RBIs.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
College football reporter; joined ESPN in 2008. Graduate of Northwestern University.
While Dabo Swinney isn’t inflating LSU‘s grade for beating his team in Saturday’s season opener, Brian Kelly is ready to give the Clemson coach an incomplete for his evaluation.
Both coaches weighed in Tuesday on how LSU’s 17-10 win at Clemson should be viewed. After trailing 10-3 at halftime, LSU outscored Clemson 14-0 in the second half and finished with significant edges in both total yards (354-261) and first downs (25-13).
LSU rose six spots to No. 3 in the AP Top 25 poll Tuesday, while Clemson dropped four spots to No. 8.
“It was a helluva game, down to the last play,” Swinney said in his weekly news conference. “Right out of the gate. It’s like getting the final exam [on] Day 1 of class. They made a 65; we made a 58. Neither one of us were great.”
Kelly had not won a season opener at LSU before Saturday, and the victory was his first with the Tigers against an AP top-5 opponent.
“I thought we dominated them in the second half, so he’s really a really good grader for giving himself a 58, or he’s a really hard grader on us,” Kelly said in his news conference when told about Swinney’s comment.
“Or he didn’t see the second half, which, that might be the case. He might not have wanted to see the second half.”
Kelly added that LSU is moving on to this week’s game against Louisiana Tech.
“Clemson is a darn good football team,” Kelly said. “That’s a top-notch team, and they’re going to be a team in the hunt for [the] playoff picture. We hope we are, too. But it was only one game. So I don’t know if he’s a hard grader or an easy grader, but I like the way that we played in the second half.”
Ohio State climbed to No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 college football poll on Tuesday, LSU and Miami moved into the top five, and Florida State jumped back into the rankings at the expense of Alabama, which plummeted to its lowest spot in 17 seasons.
The defending national champion Buckeyes received 55 of 66 first-place votes to move up two spots after their win over preseason No. 1Texas. Ohio State is at the top of a regular-season poll for the first time since November 2015.
The Longhorns dropped to No. 7 as the media voters shuffled the rankings following a topsy-turvy Labor Day weekend. It was only the second time — and first since 1972 — that two top-five teams lost in Week 1 and the first time that four top-10 teams lost.
Only three teams in the Top 25 are in the same spot they were in the preseason poll.
Penn State got seven first-place votes and remained No. 2. LSU, which received three first first-place votes, was followed by Georgia and Miami to round out the top five.
The biggest movers in the poll were Florida State and Alabama after the Seminoles’ 31-17 victory in their head-to-head matchup.
The Seminoles, who were 15 spots outside the Top 25 in the preseason, are now No. 14. The Crimson Tide fell all the way from No. 8 to No. 21 — their lowest ranking since Bama was No. 24 in the 2008 preseason poll. That was the second of Nick Saban’s 17 teams in Tuscaloosa.
It’s been quite a turnabout for Florida State. The Seminoles were No. 10 in the 2024 preseason, lost their first two games, finished 2-10 and weren’t ranked again until now.
Utah, at No. 25, joins Florida State as the only newcomers to this week’s poll. The Utes are ranked for the first time since last October, when they were at the front end of a seven-game losing streak.
Utah had received the second-most points, behind BYU, among teams outside the preseason Top 25, but the Utes got more credit for beatingUCLA on the road than the Cougars received for hammering FCS foe Portland State.
Boise State, which had been No. 25, received no votes following its 34-7 loss at South Florida. The Broncos had appeared in 14 straight polls.
Ohio State is the first team to take over the top spot in the first regular-season poll since Alabama in 2012. It was the biggest jump to No. 1 in the first regular-season poll since USC was promoted from No. 3 in 2008.
Texas’ fall was the biggest for a preseason No. 1 since Auburn dropped to No. 8 in the first regular-season poll of 1984.
LSU has its highest ranking after Week 1 since it was No. 3 in 2012, and Miami has its highest ranking after Week 1 since it was No. 5 in 2004.
South Carolina is in the top 10 in the regular season for the first time since it was No. 8 in December 2013.
No. 15 Michigan at No. 18 Oklahoma: This weekend’s game will be the first meeting since Oklahoma beat the Wolverines in the Orange Bowl to win the 1975 national championship. Wolverines freshman QB Bryce Underwood gets put to the test in his second start.