Gigem 247’s Jeff Tarpley appeared on the Chuck Oliver Show out of Atlanta to talk about Texas A&M’s upcoming 2026 football season and how the Aggies finished up spring ball. Oliver said “This is all projection as well because he’s only a freshman, Brandon Arrington is a 5-star corner out of California. They brought in maybe the number one corner in America. There are positions where if you’re running man coverage, I can put you out there as a freshman because you know what you’re supposed to do. What’s the shot for Brandon Arrington to have a role in 2026?”
He’s going to have to understand that he is 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds, has long arms, and is running a 10.50 in the 100 meters. He has to say to himself that he has to get up on the line of scrimmage, get a good jam on people, get a hand in their chest, and maybe redirect them a little bit. That makes them play his game which is turning and running up the field with him because you’re not going to beat him that often. He’s just too fast.
However, you have to learn that you have to do these things. You may have to learn that style of coverage may suit you better than any other style even though you haven’t played it before. You’re going to have to learn it. That’s what the reps in the spring are for, for teaching and making adjustments in your game, not just learning the system or acclimating to college life. He’s got to learn how to play that style that suits his body the best and figure out how to make that work within the Aggies’ defensive scheme.
In the spring game, he broke up passes three times. People couldn’t run past him. He was running almost stride for stride with them, and he was able to use his length to get his hands out there and knock the ball down. I think there were a couple of plays where he prevented touchdowns because they were close to the end zone.
I don’t know that he is going to start this year because Dezz Ricks (who missed spring football) is a returning starter on one side. Rickey Gibson, the Tennessee transfer, really impressed everyone before he got put on the shelf part of the way through spring football and didn’t come back out there. Julio Humphrey, the Georgia transfer, and Adonyss Currie, a 2025 signee, are other players to watch there as well.
Nonetheless, he is certainly someone that you can see potentially moving more and more into the rotation as the season goes on and the coaching staff trusts him to a greater extent.