I know most here don't really respect the Aggies but they're a legitimately good program now. Their recruiting really took off when they first announced the move to the SEC and beat Bama in their first year. It dropped for a while after the Manziel craze died down, but recently it's been very strong again with three consecutive top 10 classes:

247Sports

2016 - 18
2017 - 13
2018 - 17
2019 - 4
2020 - 6
2021 - 8

By contrast, here are ND's rankings from the same period:

2016 - 15
2017 - 10
2018 - 10
2019 - 15 (!)
2020 - 18 (!!)
2021 - 9

I know this is just one service but, I swear, Kelly and his staff should be pilloried for getting outhustled by Texas' little brother. It's embarrassing, but facts are facts: A&M has been out-recruiting Notre Dame for the last three years. And they aren't just coasting by on class size. They've enrolled FIVE 5* recruits going back to 2018 where we've pulled exactly one.

They play an SEC schedule, so a bunch of no-names (who cares), a few mid-tier programs (South Carolina), and usually one or two elite teams (Bama, LSU). The best that can be said for them is that they haven't been completely dominated in the SEC as everyone seemed to think they would be. They've been competitive in most of their games and have even knocked off an elite team here and there (top 10 LSU in 2018).

I think ND would have all it could handle if we were to play A&M. Fisher isn't top-tier but he's a better gameday coach than Kelly, and he's got the talent to match ours.