3 Texas A&M standouts who were recruited by Texas

This upcoming weekend, the long-awaited renewal of the rivalry between Texas football and the Texas A&M Aggies in the Lone Star Showdown will finally come to fruition after over a decade of dormancy for this matchup. The winner of Texas-Texas A&M this weekend will determine which team faces the Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta on Dec. 7.

Past recruiting efforts for Texas football on the trail bring connections from recent cycles for Texas A&M players ahead of the Lone Star Showdown this week

The last time the Longhorns and Aggies met on the gridiron was Justin Tucker's game-winning field goal in the fourth quarter in 2011. Since Texas A&M left the Southwest Conference for the Big 12 in 1996, I don't know if there's been a more important matchup in the Lone Star Showdown between the Longhorns and Aggies.

In the past four decades, this will only be the third time Texas and Texas A&M square off in a ranked matchup in the Lone Star Showdown.

This game will have big implications for both Texas and Texas A&M on the recruiting trail for the 2025 class as well as in future cycles. For over the last decade, all we've seen for this rivalry that had actual ramifications on the field for future years was key battles on the recruiting trail.

Since Texas and Texas A&M are the two biggest state schools in Texas, the two programs have duked it out in countless big recruiting battles over the years.

Here are four Texas A&M key contributors that the Longhorns offered as high school recruits.

Chase Bisontis, G

Texas A&M starting left guard Chase Bisontis was one of the highest-rated offensive line recruits from the East Coast in the past few cycles. Bisontis, the No. 1 interior offensive line recruit in the nation in the 2023 class in the 247Sports Composite, was a highly sought-after prospect who had offers from almost every elite college program around the national landscape.

Bisontis was one of the first offensive line recruits in the 2023 class that offensive line coach Kyle Flood and the Longhorns offered after head coach Steve Sarkisian was hired early in the 2021 offseason. Flood and the Longhorns offered Bisontis during the spring evaluation period in the 2021 offseason as a highly touted four-star recruit from Don Bosco High School in New Jersey.

In the summer of 2022, Bisontis chose to commit to Texas A&M over the LSU Tigers, Rutgers Scarlet Knights, and Georgia. He immediately impacted Texas A&M, starting 13 games as a true freshman while garnering SEC All-Freshman Team and ESPN Freshman All-American honors.

After Texas A&M fired former head coach Jimbo Fisher going into this past offseason, Bisontis entered the transfer portal during the winter window in December 2023. But he decided to return to Texas A&M and give new head coach Mike Elko a shot with the new offense with the Aggies this fall.