Texas A&M quarterback Conner Weigman, a former five-star recruit who began each of the last two seasons as the Aggies’ starting quarterback, intends to enter the transfer portal, a source briefed on the decision confirmed.

The decision, while not unexpected, closes the chapter on what was once a promising A&M career for Weigman.

As part of Texas A&M’s historic 2022 recruiting class, the highest-rated in the modern recruiting era according to 247Sports, Weigman showed early flashes of the talent that earned him his lofty recruiting ranking. He started four of the last five games of the 2022 season, then won the starting job going into the 2023 and 2024 seasons.

His 2023 campaign was cut short by a foot injury suffered in the first month of the season. At the time, Weigman was playing his best football, completing 68.9 percent of his passes for 979 yards, eight touchdowns and two interceptions.

After A&M’s coaching change from Jimbo Fisher to Mike Elko, the program entered 2024 with high hopes for Weigman. But he endured a rough debut in A&M’s 23-13 loss to Notre Dame and missed three games later in September with a shoulder injury. He returned to start the next three, including a 41-10 win over Missouri in which he looked dominant, but he was benched in an Oct. 26 win over LSU for Reed, who had started earlier in the season while Weigman was sidelined.

Weigman only saw the field once in November, playing nine snaps in the second half of a 38-3 win over New Mexico State.

In three seasons, Weigman appeared in 15 games (starting 13), throwing for 2,694 yards, 19 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He completed 60 percent of his throws.

Despite his up-and-down 2024 season, Weigman is likely to find plenty of suitors in the transfer portal. When he’s at his best, he was considered one of the nation’s top quarterbacks. Coming into the season, there was some buzz about Weigman being a potential first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft if he had a strong season.

But he struggled to find consistency as A&M’s starter this season. After being benched in the LSU game, Elko said that Weigman was “sped up” in going through his progressions and not seeing the field as well as he had before. That led to poor decisions and inaccurate throws.

“His clock starts moving faster when he’s not having success,” Elko said on Oct. 28. “His eyes are going through the progressions a little too quick. He’s getting the ball out of his hand a little too quick. I think we saw that a couple of throws.

“Or he rushes his mechanics a little bit and the ball sails on him.”

The fact that his last two seasons were interrupted by injury also didn’t help him. Weigman never had a chance to be a full-time starter for more than four consecutive games during his A&M career. Weigman, from Cypress, Texas, near Houston, was the No. 2 quarterback in the 2022 class, according to 247Sports.

The transfer portal officially opens on Dec. 9.

(Photo: Tim Warner / Getty Images)

COLLEGE STATION — At the conclusion of Week 9, Texas A&M football had just used a second-half comeback to beat the LSU Tigers showing the SEC and the rest of the country that they were a force to be reckoned with.

A&M was 5-0 in the SEC and in the driver’s seat for a playoff berth and a conference championship appearance. Pundits and analysts around the nation began to praise head coach Mike Elko and the job he had done in his first year with the program.

From that point on, things unraveled for the Aggies.

A&M went 1-3 to finish out the last month of the season, with all three of their losses coming at the hands of SEC foes. They finished 8-4 and missed the SEC championship and the playoffs altogether.

“Losing our last three conference games and not being able to close the deal and going to Atlanta. Yeah. I mean, it sucks,” Elko told reporters Saturday following the loss to the Texas Longhorns. “There’s no sugarcoating it. There’s no soft words around it. We had our opportunities, and we didn’t get it done. And so it’s disappointing.”

AGGIES: Texas A&M vs Texas: Aggies’ CFP hopes dashed after rivalry loss

Each loss to South Carolina, Auburn, and Texas was unique in the way A&M failed. Let’s take a look at what ailed A&M in each of those disappointing results.

Gamecocks run over the Aggies

Texas A&M’s fatal flaw: Tackling

Heading into the matchup, some believed the Gamecocks were better than their 2-3 conference record indicated. South Carolina was led by a big-bodied freshman quarterback LaNorris Sellers, and a proven running back in Raheim Sanders.

Despite that, if the Aggies were as good as many believed they were, winning a night game at William-Brice Stadium would be a challenge but something they would be able to overcome.

However, South Carolina jumped on Texas A&M early, using the running game to score two first-quarter touchdowns. The Aggies were able to head into halftime tied 20-20, but thanks to 24 unanswered points by the Gamecocks, A&M was stunned for its first SEC loss of the season.

South Carolina rushed for 286 yards on the ground and exasperated A&M’s poor tackling in what would become the defense’s Achilles heal, missing 25 tackles in the game, according to Pro Football Focus.

GRADES: No A’s for the Aggies in ugly road loss

Tigers light Aggies up

Texas A&M’s fatal flaw: Pass defense

Following the South Carolina loss, the Aggies had its final bye week of the season then an inferior New Mexico State team. Despite the sound win over the other Aggies, A&M’s road test against Auburn on the Tigers’ senior night would paint a clearer picture of Texas A&M.

A&M went down 21-0 against Auburn, stunned early by chunk plays in the passing game. They would respond, ended up tying the game, and eventually took the lead late.

It wouldn’t be enough, though, as the Aggies and Tigers went back and forth for a four-overtime thriller. A&M was unable to make one final stop (on a pass play, fittingly enough) while running back Amari Daniels dropped a pass in the endzone to seal its second SEC loss.

The Tigers finished with 301 passing yards while running back Jarquez Hunter added four receptions and three scores on the ground.

GRADES: Who received the highest marks in heartbreaking loss?

Longhorns were just too much

Texas A&M’s fatal flaw: Line play

Despite the downward spiral that was the Aggies’ late-season collapse, all of their goals were still within range ahead of a massive rivalry-renewing matchup against the Longhorns.

All eyes were upon Kyle Field for the highly anticipated matchup. Then the game became a perfect storm of frustration for A&M as much of what has hurt them this season became abundantly clear against its in-state foe.

A&M’s offense was held scoreless, turning the ball over three times. An offensive line that paved the way for at least 134 yards on the ground in every game this season managed just 98 total, and most of that came from the quarterback. A&M had its worst offensive output since Week 1 against Notre Dame, when then-starting quarterback Conner Weigman passed for a measly 100 yards, the Aggies mustering just 13 points in the process.

As bad as the offense was, the defense had very little answers as well. Texas tallied 458 total yards, highlighted by 240 rushing yards, with running back Quintrevion Wisner racking up 186 of them himself. Even backup quarterback Arch Manning ran in for a touchdown.

While A&M was trying to mount a comeback at 17-7, Texas was able to drain almost three minutes of the game clock and picked up a key first down by running the ball with Wisner four straight plays. The next Texas drive: six straight run plays, 20 yards, and 2:30 more gone from the clock.

A&M’s defensive line, thought to be a strength of the team, sacked a hobbling Quinn Ewers just once on 28 dropbacks.

There is a lot to be excited about when it comes to the future of Texas A&M football. The Aggies, in a sense, outperformed what many had thought they would in Year 1 of the Mike Elko era. There is plenty to work on still, much of it highlighted in the final month of the year.

But the Aggies head into 2025 understanding what they have and, perhaps even more so, what they don’t.

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Blaine Crim has been looking for a path to the Texas Rangers for a couple of years now.

A path to the Majors may finally appear in 2025. But, it may take him being selected in the Rule 5 Draft to make it happen.

Crim was one of several top Rangers prospects that were left exposed in the Rule 5 Draft when they were not moved to the 40-man roster. So, when baseball descends on Dallas for next month’s annual winter meetings, Crim will be on the list of players available to other teams.

He was left exposed last year and wasn’t selected. Things could go differently this time.

Baseball America recently highlighted Crim as a player to watch in next month’s draft.

Why? He’s been a highly-productive minor leaguer since he joined the organization in 2019 as a 19th round selection out of Mississippi College.

He has played two full seasons at Triple-A Round Rock and has built a track record for productivity.

He has had four straight 20-home runs season in the minor leagues, starting in 2021. He slashed .277/.370/.469/.839 with 20 home runs and 86 RBI last season and .289/.385/.506/.891 with 22 home runs and 85 RBI in 2023. He’s never hit below .277 in a single minor league season and his OPS has never dipped below .800.

Under normal circumstances, Crim would have made his MLB debut already. But, the Rangers are set at first base with Nathaniel Lowe. He won the Silver Slugger and a Gold Glove in 2023 when Texas won the World Series. He also has two years of team control left, as he’s not eligible for free agency until after the 2026 season.

The Rangers also prefer to not have a primary designated hitter, which would also be a potential fit for Crim.

Baseball America sees Crim as a “low-risk, low-cost” selection because he can help at team at first base and at designated hitter. Their evaluators compared him to the Ryan Noda. He gave them cheap power as a rookie in 2023, as he hit 16 home runs and drove in 54 runs in 128 games.

So, for teams looking for cheap power at the corner that could play in the Majors in 2025, Crim may be an answer for them next month.

Crim is eligible because he’s played at least four minor-league seasons and was signed after age 19. Players signed before 18 have to play at least five years to be eligible. To be protected, a player must be moved to a team’s 40-man roster.

If he is selected, the team that picks him the Rangers $100,000 and must put Crim on its 26-man roster and, if they decide not to keep him, Crim must be placed on outright waivers in order to be removed from the 26-man roster in the subsequent season.

Should he clear waivers, Crim could be offered back to the Rangers for $50,000.