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Blake Baumgartner, ESPN Staff Writer
Five-star wide receiver Cameron Coleman, the top wide receiver in the 2024 class, committed to Jimbo Fisher and Texas A&M Aggies on Tuesday.
Coleman (No. 8 overall in the 2024 ESPN 300), from Central High School in Phenix City, Alabama, is the sixth ESPN 300 prospect for the 2024 cycle for Texas A&M. Along with his official visit to College Station in June, he also took official visits to Auburn and LSU last month.
“I’d like to play in an offense where they’re using my skill set,” Coleman told ESPN in April. “I don’t really care what I do, as long as I do what’s best for the team.”
In becoming the second ESPN 300 wide receiver to pledge to the Aggies in less than a week after Silsbee High School (Texas) product Dre’lon Miller (No. 89 overall) did so on June 29, Coleman’s presence jumpstarts Fisher’s efforts to get the program back to the top of the recruiting rankings.
Coleman is the first five-star wide receiver to commit to the program since Evan Stewart (No. 13 overall, No. 2 WR) in 2022. The program’s 2024 class currently is 16th in ESPN’s rankings.
In 2022, the Aggies’ offense finished 10th in the SEC in passing (219.4 YPG) and their top two receivers from a year ago — Stewart (53 catches for 649 receiving yards and two TDs) and Mushin Muhammad II (38 receptions for 610 yards and four TDs) — return this fall.
“I feel like I’m good at taking coaching,” Coleman said. “Making big-time plays in big-time moments. Creating separation from my defender. High pointing the ball, blocking and just being a good teammate overall.”
A high school teammate of current Michigan freshman wide receiver Karmello English, the 6-foot-4, 185-pound Coleman caught 31 passes for 542 yards and six touchdowns. Central High School head coach Patrick Nix, who was Calvin Johnson’s offensive coordinator at Georgia Tech, believes the ceiling for Coleman is quite high.
“I had the fortune of recruiting and then coaching Calvin at Georgia Tech and there are similarities,” Nix told ESPN in May. “I think Cam definitely has that kind of speed, that kind of range and the ball skills that Calvin had — as far as whether it be track a ball or whatever it may be. But [Coleman] has those freaky ball skills that Calvin had and that speed that Calvin had.
“He’s not quite as big as Calvin, size-wise, as far as strength and all. Super long, great catch radius, that kind of thing that Calvin had. I think those are going to be the comparisons because of the length and I think the difference that both of those guys have is just their speed.
“I think you have a lot of big receivers. But you don’t have a lot of big receivers that have legit, true speed that both of those guys have. I think that’s where a lot of the similarities will come from.”
Last year, Texas A&M was 13th in ESPN’s rankings, a year after finishing No. 1 overall in 2022.