Texas A&M lands commitment of rising DL Samu Taumanupepe

Make that three 2023 commits in the span of three days for Texas A&M as 2023 Humble (Tex.) Atascocita three-star defensive lineman Samu Taumanupepe committed to the Aggies on Monday evening, siding with Texas A&M over offers from the likes of Texas, Oregon, Baylor, TCU and Houston.

The rising prospect, who stands 6-foot-3, 375 pounds, only landed an offer from the Aggies on Saturday, while in town for the Aggies’ pool party, but defensive line coach Elijah Robinson had maintained contact for months.

The two have bonded on life beyond football and the three-star noted that his “great” relationship with Robinson played a key role in his commitment.

“We connected on something that’s not about football in my personal life,” he said. “It’s great, it’s a good relationship.”

The Aggies have been in search of a true nose tackle and Taumanupepe is exactly the type of player new defensive coordinator D.J Durkin has been looking for to man the interior of the defensive line.

While in town for the pool party, the three-star got to experience the culture that Jimbo Fisher had cultivated at Texas A&M and was sold on the program.

“It was turnt,” he said.

He added.

“Everybody was together as a family. Not just as a team, but as a family. I liked how the coaches treated the players and I had fun.”

Taumanupepe joins a strong pipeline Texas A&M has built to Atascocita, landing prospects like Kenyon Green and Kam Dewberry in recent years. Dewberry spent a lot of time with Taumanupepe over the weekend and played a key role in helping the Aggies land the three-star.

“I know it’s home for him,” he said. “And if it’s home for him, it’s home for me.”

With Taumanupepe in the class, the Aggies boast the No. 17 recruiting class in the country with nine commits to date. The three-star is the first defensive lineman commit for the Aggies’ this cycle. He joins a class that now features one five-star commit and six four-star commits.

Taumanupepe ranks as the No. 988 prospect and the No. 106 defensive lineman in the country per the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. The three-star has an On3 NIL Valuation of $11.8K. The On3 NIL Valuation is an index that looks to set the standard market value for both high school and college-level athletes. The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.