Five-star DL David Hicks down to seven schools

On3 imageby:Tim Verghese07/01/22

TimVerghese

2023 Katy (Tex.) Paetow five-star defensive lineman David Hicks Jr. is shutting down his recruitment and focusing on seven schools moving forward, and Texas A&M remains in the mix as expected.

In addition to the Aggies, the five-star is considering Alabama, Miami, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Oregon and Texas.

The 6-foot-4, 270 pounder is coming off a busy June, where he took three official visits, to Miami, Michigan State and Oregon and returned to Texas A&M twice for unofficial visits.

The Aggies remain a frontrunner for Hicks because of relationship with the entire staff, in particular defensive assistant Nick Williams and defensive line coach Elijah Robinson has the Aggies standing out. 

“I talk to Coach Robinson all the time,” he previously told Aggie Scoop. “So it’s been the same thing, me and A&M have a close relationship.”

Robinson was one of the first coaches to stop through Katy Paetow when the evaluation period opened early this month to see Hicks, which made an impression on the five-star.

“It says a lot,” he said at the time. “Especially since me and Coach Robinson have been knowing each other since the eighth grade, it says a lot.” 

In addition to his relationship with the staff, Hicks noted that freshman cornerback Bobby Taylor, incoming freshman defensive end Malick Sylla and redshirt freshman defensive lineman Tunmise Adeleye, three current Aggies who hail from the Katy area, are making strong recruiting efforts.

The Aggies have pitched Hicks on playing all over the defensive line, utilizing his talent off the edge and inside. The five-star will have a close eye on how Robinson and staff utilize the loaded group of defensive linemen the Aggies landed in the 2022 cycle, looking to see how he would fit in within the group and how all the pieces fit in first-year defensive coordinator D.J Durkin’s vision for the defense. 

He’s looking to take his recruitment the distance, with a plan to announce his commitment at the Under Armour All-American Game in January. With two official slots left, look for the Aggies to potentially get one of those visits. However, with College Station so close to home, the five-star might opt to use his official visits on schools further away.

As things stand, Texas A&M is the favorite to land the five-star per the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine, which gives the Aggies a 59.5% chance to land Hicks’ commitment. Oklahoma trails in second with a 35.5% chance at the five-star. 

Hicks ranks as the No. 5 prospect and No. 1 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 five-star has an On3 NIL Valuation of $268K. 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.