James Coley explains how freshmen WRs Chris Marshall, Noah Thomas can contribute early

Texas A&M football put together the best and loudest recruiting class during the 2022 cycle. The Aggies landed big time players and upset some other top powers during the process. And as part of that class, A&M wide receivers coach James Coley added a few new toys to the war chest for his wideout room.

Namely, five-star, No. 24 overall players in the ’22 class, Chris Marshall. And top-400 four-star Noah Thomas. Both lofty, lanky targets standing 6-foot-3 or taller while weighing under 200 pounds. Thomas is especially slim at 6-foot-5 and 180 pounds, while Marshall tightly packs 15 extra pounds despite standing a couple inches shorter.

Will this pair of playmakers find their way onto the field immediately? Or will they have to fill out and learn the playbook first? Here’s the answer to those questions, according to co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach James Coley, when prompted by a reporter who asked what his goals for those freshman are:

“Yeah, being on the field, you know what I mean? I think that when you’re in training camp, you’re competing for jobs, you know. So, hopefully, they’re competing to be the starter.”

Coley then emphasized the size of the two wideouts and wonders how they’ll use that physicality to their advantage.

“With their size, one thing that you have to bring up with that is — big guys like that — are they guys who body you up to make grabs. Or are they guys who have a catch radius. And those guys have shown that they have a catch radius, right. They got to continue to work, you know. To continue to improve that catch radius and to stay on top of their game, right. But they got a skillset that makes them an issue on the perimeter.”

Skillsets *and* a body that make them real problems as pass catchers. Remains to be seen whether that alone will earn them snaps as true freshmen. But sometimes with wideouts, raw talent trumps all. Per their position coach, the pair of them have that and more.