Trev Alberts plays no games

As Texas A&M has finally grown up as a sporting power, its approach to hiring athletic directors has changed. It’s gone from the Good Ol’ Boys (Wally Groff), to the bombastic spenders (Bill Byrne) to the good past track record (Eric Hyman) to guys who actually new how to play the game in the modern world (Scott Woodward and Ross Bjork).

But they didn’t have someone who actually set the pace — until now. Trev Alberts may not have been a transparent choice when he was hired, but, like Mike Elko, he had a vision when he was hired and has implemented it.

Alberts recognized A&M’s potential. Big deal; so does everyone else. But he had a plan on how to make the athletic department run efficiently, how to be ahead of the curve when it came to NIL and implementing analytics into the front office. He’s also shown some strong intuition with his hires.

Here’s a brief list of what he’s done since arriving:

Extended Mike Elko, warding off Penn State.

Hired Bucky McMillan to rebuild the basketball program. McMillan took a team with one returning player and advanced to the round of 32 in the NCAAs.

Hired Michael Earley to run the baseball program. After a bad first year, Earley matured in his role and won 39 games to come in third in the SEC.

Extended Jamie Morrison as the volleyball coach after winning a national championship.

Delicately handled a transition with the soccer program, with G Guerrieri moving on from a stagnating organization and bringing in Bobby Shuttlesworth from FSU.

And now, with the greatest track coach in history retiring in Pat Henry, Alberts has hired the best available option in Olympic champion in and former Auburn coach Leroy Burrell. Burrell, a sprinter who won gold in Barcelona in the 4×100 meter relay, ran and coached at Houston before going to Auburn. The Tigers have been a power, just overlooked because of the Aggies and Arkansas, the two really elite programs in the country. It’s impossible to say you can replace Pat Henry and not skip a beat, but bringing in Burrell may be the closest thing to it.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that A&M currently has its best roster of coaches, top to bottom, that it’s ever hard. If it’s not, it’s really close. Morrison and women’s tennis coach Mark Weaver are incumbent national champions; Elko is recognized as one of the top minds in his sport and McMillan’s on his way. Earley has shown promise and bringing Nolan Cain back will only improve recruiting. Trisha Ford has rebuilt the softball program. Burrell brings a stellar reputation. Shuttlesworth was considered one of the best assistants in the nation and helped guide FSU to national titles in 2023 and 2025. Really, the only program not keeping up is women’s basketball.

Alberts doesn’t get all the credit for this, but he should get a lot. Maybe for the first time ever, the Texas A&M athletic department doesn’t look like the gang that can’t shoot straight. If the targeting is right, maybe the Aggies can finally hit the bullseye.

Receiver recruiting at its highest level ever?

Holmon Wiggins came to A&M from Alabama with a reputation for being able to recruit wide receivers at a very high level. I don’t think that can be debated anymore. Here’s what he’s done during full recruiting cycles since he’s been in Aggieland (2025, 2026, 2027):

Player	Stars	National rank
Jerome Myles	5	5th
Kelshaun Johnson	4	29th
TK Norman	3	76th
Aaron Gregory	4	17th
Jayden Warren	4	21st
Madden Williams	4	36th
Mike Brown	3	66th
Eric McFarland	5	6th
Jaden Upshaw	4	10th
Damani Warren	3	57th
Trey Haddad	3	164th

Wiggins also helped bring in Ashton Bethel-Roman very late in the cycle, getting his commitment on Feb. 7, 2024. So you can add another 4-star to the list.

With ABR, Wiggins has landed two 5-stars, six 4-stars (some of whom already appear to be underrated) and three 3-stars they really wanted. But looking at this class specifically, the Aggies have hit on everything they needed. They have the big play slot receiver in McFarland, the big, physical receiver in Warren, a good-sized, excellent speed receiver in Upshaw and a solid receiver with sharp cuts and good route-running in Haddad. They were able to cover all of those bases last year as well, something they had trouble with in most cases in past years.

The Aggies are building depth at receiver. Not just numbers, but guys who are capable of playing (and, for some, excelling) at this level. And, so far, not a single one of them has proven to be a headcase.

Aggies loading up on bullpen arms

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that A&M’s biggest problem this past season was the bullpen. They flat out did not have enough quality arms. Clayton Freshcorn was excellent, but getting to him was a problem. Juan Vargas started the season effectively, then worked his way out of the equation and has now entered the transfer portal. It sure looks like that this was not a friendly parting, as Vargas liked tweets critical of former pitching coach Jason Kelly. Ethan Darden was ok at times. By the end of the year, Cooper Powell and Hunter Bond were the most reliable arms in the bullpen, and they weren’t looked at much earlier in the year. Michael Earley and company were grasping at whatever straws they could.

They’ve made a very big effort to change that in the offseason. The Aggies have stocked up on bullpen arms. Here’s a look at who they’ve added:

Position	Name	2025 stats	Former school
LHP	Trent Collier	1-1, 3.80 ERA	Oklahoma
RHP	Wade Cooper	7-3, 4.73 ERA, 5 saves	Texas State
RHP	Caleb Kimble	0-1, 3.97 ERA	Houston
LHP	Logan Prisco	1-0, 3.45 ERA	South Carolina
RHP	Jase Evangelista	4-1, 6.17 ERA, 4 saves	UNLV

One interesting thing I noticed: the bullpen arms they’ve picked up tend to skew to the young side. Evangelista will be a senior and Collier will be a draft-eligible junior, but Cooper, Prisco and Kimble were pitching in high leverage situations as freshmen last year. With new pitching coach Barry Enright having a reputation for developing younger arms, I doubt that’s coincidental.

A&M’s still after some more pitching help, but they have already invested in some guys with big arms (Evangelista being one), experience and, in several cases, time to be molded. And heck, it will be hard to be worse than what the bullpen provided last year.

Could college baseball’s glory days be coming?

One thing that has been overlooked in the ongoing negotiations between Major League Baseball and the MLBPA are proposed changes to the draft format. The league has proposed removing high school players from the MLB Draft, requiring all players to play college ball to be eligible (international players would also be put into a separate draft).

There are a ton of issues between MLB and the MLBPA and I expect this will end up being pushed to the wayside in favor of matters that are more pressing to both sides, but what if it isn’t? If baseball players aren’t draft eligible until after three years out of high school, college baseball will enjoy an influx of talent the likes of which it has never seen.

Looking at Sports Illustrated’s mock draft, they have 16 high schoolers in the first 36 picks — the first round and supplemental picks. Under the proposal, all of those guys would be going to college because it’s mandated, not because they decide to.

That, I think, would almost be a shot of adrenaline to college baseball. The sport has really picked up in national popularity in recent years (it’s always been popular in the SEC), but if idea were to take off…wow. It would be something.