{"id":66489,"date":"2025-07-15T03:16:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T03:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/66489\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T03:16:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T03:16:11","slug":"texas-am-football-secures-four-star-defenseman-tamarion-watkins-over-south-carolina-gamecocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/66489\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas A&M Football Secures Four-Star Defenseman Tamarion Watkins Over South Carolina Gamecocks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas A&M Football Secures Four-Star Defenseman Tamarion Watkins Over South Carolina Gamecocks<\/a> originally appeared on Athlon Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Texas A&M football head coach Mike Elko is landing class of 2026 defensemen left and right, and Monday afternoon was no different.<\/p>\n

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This time, the Aggies plucked a versatile talent right out of South Carolina’s hands and added to a thorough defense while the Gamecocks lost an in-state recruit.<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas A&M football Mike Elko.Maria Lysaker&sol;Imagn Images&period;<\/p>\n

The Aggies recruited four-star Tamarion Watkins as a linebacker while South Carolina sought him out as a safety.<\/p>\n

The Rock Hill, S.C. native chose Texas A&M over Miami and Georgia as well, but Watkins checked them out of the competition as he neared his decision. It was a back-and-forth battle between Columbia and College Station for the final few weeks before making his announcement.<\/p>\n

It was a shocking decision as the Gamecocks seemed the most likely to land Watkins. 247Sports Crystal Ball\u00ae Predictions unanimously<\/a> pinned South Carolina as the home for the No. 29 safety’s his collegiate career. Watkins is also 350th overall in the class of 2026 and the No. 8 recruit from his state.<\/p>\n

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He made his announcement inside Northwestern High School’s auditorium, expressing his excitement about Texas A&M and also his high school senior season approaching. Watkins said that he’s taking his senior year as a period to develop further and embrace the linebacker position before getting to Aggie Land.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are repeating \u2014 we do not rebuild, we reload \u2014 so we\u2019re going back-to-back,\u201d Watkins said in regards to his final season at Northwestern, according<\/a> to The Herald.<\/p>\n

Watkins is a major returning piece for the Trojans’ defense. As a junior, he tallied 75 tackles, eight for loss, and averaging 5.4 tackles per game. He helped lead Northwestern to an undefeated season.<\/p>\n

As for the Aggies, Watkins and the class’ defensive depth will be key parts in Elko’s efforts to reclaim Texas A&M’s spot as a top ranked team in the NCAA.<\/p>\n

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The aggressive defense from this class<\/a> is headlined by five-star Brandon Arrington. Edge rusher Tristian Givens and defensive lineman Bryce Perry-Wright are the other blue chip recruits to commit to Texas A&M. Watkins joins cornerback Victor Singleton, edge rushers Jordan Carter and Samu Moala, linebacker DaQuives Beck, and defensive lineman Jermaine Kinsler as Elko’s four-star defensive recruits.<\/p>\n

“The [Texas A&M] coaching staff is great,” Watkins said. “. . . Elko has a great thing building up in Aggie Land, and I\u2019m just ready to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Jul 15, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas A&M Football Secures Four-Star Defenseman Tamarion Watkins Over South Carolina Gamecocks originally appeared on Athlon Sports. Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":66490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,24112,30134,1317,1315,1316,47169,3036,62,47166,11426,47168,47167,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-66489","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-gamecocks","10":"tag-mike-elko","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football","13":"tag-ncaafootball","14":"tag-northwestern-high-school","15":"tag-south-carolina","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-tamarion-watkins","18":"tag-texas-am","19":"tag-texas-am-football","20":"tag-the-aggies","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114855083127627949","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}