Tag: Michael Van Buren

Texas A&M’s uniform against Mississippi State has been revealed

Here is Texas A&M’s uniform combination ahead of Saturday’s road test vs. Mississippi State

Texas A&M (5-1, 3-0 SEC) is just a few hours away from facing Mississippi State (1-5, 0-3 SEC) inside a packed Davis Wade Stadium in a game where the Aggies are heavy road favorites have reeling off five consecutive wins.

However, coming off the first of two bye weeks this season, A&M could deal with some early-game rust, while the Bulldogs are a week removed from one of their best offensive showings in last Saturday’s road loss to Georgia. This game will come down to the Aggie offense, especially the ground game led by junior running back Le’Veon Moss.

Ahead of the matchup, Texas A&M will be highly visible compared to Mississippi State’s home uniform combination, as the Aggies will go with the maroon helmet, white jersey, and maroon pants for the first time since 2019, as new head coach Mike Elko continues to experiment with A&M’s game day looks.

Here’s a video of senior defensive tackle Shemar Turner showing off the game-day digs ahead of the 3:15 CT. Kickoff.

https://twitter.com/aggiefootball/status/1847034981010624604?s=61&t=8oFqLV6woR9VOy4qh-s-mg

Texas A&M will face Mississippi State on the road on Saturday, Oct. 19, at 3:15 p.m. CT. The game will air on the SEC Network.

Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes and opinions. Follow Cameron on X: @CameronOhnysty.

Everything Texas A&M HC Mike Elko said during Wednesday’s SEC Teleconference

Head coach Mike Elko and the Aggies will be ready to take on the challenges Mississippi State present

Texas A&M (5-1, 3-0) enters Week 8 after resting and recuperating during the first of two bye weeks this season, as head coach Mike Elko and his team are ready to get back to work ahead of facing Mississippi State (1-5, 0-3 SEC) on the road for a Saturday afternoon showdown.

Looking back at the last six matchups with the Bulldogs, the Aggies are a dismal 2-4, including devastating midseason losses that led to poor finishes and even season-ending injuries at key positions. So, it’s fair to say that Aggie fans are worried despite the home team’s ugly 1-5 record.

However, this is a different Texas A&M team under Elko’s guidance, as the culture is stronger than ever, coupled with a focus on physicality and competitiveness that was sorely missing over the last three seasons.

On Wednesday, Elko spoke to reporters during the weekly SEC Teleconference to give a final preview of the Bulldogs before heading to Starkville (MS) on Friday. Here’s what he had to say.

Elko on QB Conner Weigman’s health ahead of Saturday:

“His shoulder is getting healthier and healthier. You’re starting to see him throw the ball the way he wants to.”

Elko notes that no matter the recent success, Texas A&M is still evolving as a team: 

“Internally, there are still a lot of areas we need to get better at.”

Elko on facing Mississippi State freshman QB Michael Van Buren

“A kid that has grown tremendously. … He has a big-time arm. He can throw the deep ball really, really well. You saw that last week.”

“With this being his first home start this week, I’m sure he’s really, really excited about that.”

The Aggies know that no matter the Bulldog’s record, this is going to be a dog fight (no pun intended):

“excited with where we are” after a “good, productive bye week.”

“We’re getting ready for what’s going to be a very challenging trip to Starkville.”

Texas A&M will face Mississippi State on the road on Saturday, Oct. 19, at 3:15 p.m. CT. The game will air on the SEC Network.

Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes, and opinions. Follow Cameron on Twitter: @CameronOhnysty.

Mississippi State 4-star quarterback Michael Van Buren previews the Under Armour All-America Game

Michael Van Buren talks Mississippi State commitment, Under Armour All-America Game.

Michael Van Buren is an electric quarterback, and the four-star from Maryland is eyeing up the national stage next week when he participates in the Under Armour All-America Game. He is part of a very solid recruiting class that signed with Mississippi State earlier this month.

The class of 2024 prospect is coming off a strong senior season at St. Frances Academy (Baltimore, Maryland) where he showed increasing pocket poise and the ability to extend plays with his legs.

A four-star quarterback, Van Buren is the No. 230 player in the nation in the 247Sports Composite. He sees the Under Armour game as an important next step as he gets ready for SEC football.

“Most definitely looking forward to going out there and competing against the best players in the country and showcasing my talents,” Van Buren told USA TODAY High School Sports this week.

Van Buren officially signed with Mississippi State during the early signing period. Committed to Oregon since late May, Van Buren opened up his recruitment early in December.

Following an official visit to Starkville, he committed to Mississippi State. He credits new head coach Jeff Lebby, the former offensive coordinator at Oklahoma, in landing him with the Bulldogs.

“It was the best fit because of my relationship with coach Lebby and he has proven that his offense can be very explosive and put up big numbers,” Van Buren said.

“Also, the vision he has for ‘State’ to turn the program around is something that really caught my eye and something that I wanted to be a part of.”

The next week of the Under Armour All-America Game could and should be an exciting one for Van Buren. There will be fun, but he says he also hopes to learn from the experience of being part of one of the nation’s premier showcase events.

“I would say a little bit of both the main thing is to get better and learn from the great coaches,” Van Buren said.

“But you also only get an opportunity like this once so of course you gotta have fun with it!”

The game, played in Orlando’s Camping World Stadium, takes place on Jan. 3 at 4:00 p.m. ET. It will air on ESPN.

Former Oregon recruit Michael Van Buren commits to Mississippi State

Former Oregon Ducks commit Michael Van Buren announced that he would be committing to the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

The Oregon Ducks had had one of the members of their 2024 recruiting class make a change in his commitment earlier this month, with 4-star quarterback Michael Van Buren announcing that he was decommitting from the team shortly after the Pac-12 Championship Game.

On Sunday, Van Buren announced that he would be committing to the Mississippi State Bulldogs, giving new head coach Jeff Lebby one of the top commitments of his young tenure.

Van Buren is rated by 247Sports as the No. 175 overall player in the 2024 class, and the No. 13 QB. Before decommitting from Oregon, he was one of two QBs in the 2024 class for the Ducks, alongside 3-star Luke Moga.

The Ducks are in a great position at the QB spot going into the future, with former Oklahoma star Dillon Gabriel transferring to Oregon earlier this weekend. The Ducks are also trying to get former 5-star QB Dante Moore to transfer from UCLA to Eugene as well. While Ty Thompson announced his transfer on Sunday, the Ducks also have Austin Novosad on the roster as a true freshman, and 4-star Akili Smith Jr. is the Ducks’ first and likely only QB commit in the 2025 class.

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4-star QB Michael Van Buren decommits from the Oregon Ducks

Michael Van Buren, a 4-star QB commit in the 2024 class, is decommitted from the Oregon Ducks.

Michael Van Buren, a four-star quarterback in the class of 2024, is decommitting from the Oregon Ducks, according to Chad Simmons of On3. Van Buren has been committed to the Ducks since May, but will reopen his recruitment with about three weeks until the early signing period. Van Buren is the No. 7 player in Maryland on the 247Sports composite.

Van Buren was one of two QB commits in the Ducks 2024 class. Three-star dual-threat quarterback Luke Moga, the No. 11 player in Arizona per 247Sports, is still committed.

Oregon’s depth of young QBs might’ve been what pushed Van Buren to decommit. If Ty Thompson and Austin Novosad stick around for next season, Van Buren and Moga would’ve been the third and fourth QBs on the roster with starting QB potential. Additionally, Oregon is expected to pursue a QB in the transfer portal, which will make the QB room even more competitive.

At the time of his initial commitment, Van Buren’s other top schools were his hometown Marland Terrapins and the Penn State Nittany Lions, so look for those schools as potential landing spots for the young QB.

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Recruiting Roundup: 5 teams get commitments from 2024 QB prospects

While Van Buren was the highest-ranked prospect among them, Oregon wasn’t the only team that added talent at QB.

Oregon won the recruiting race over the weekend, hands-down. The Ducks picked up two new blue-chip commits for their 2024 class, starting with Durant (Okla.) four-star defensive lineman Xadavien Sims. They also added St. Frances Academy (Md.) four-star quarterback Michael Van Buren.

While Van Buren was the highest-ranked prospect among them, Oregon wasn’t the only team that added talent at QB. Four other programs also got commitments from quarterbacks in the 2024 class. Here’s who they are, where they play their high school football and where they rank at the position compared to their peers.

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Ducks take another jump in recruiting rankings following latest commitment

Another move up in the national recruiting rankings for the Ducks after the addition of 4-star WR Dillon Gresham on Monday.

Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks have a full head of steam in the 2024 recruiting cycle, and it’s not looking like they plan on stopping any time soon.

It has been a banner few days in Eugene, with Oregon picking up a handful of blue-chip commitments in the class and bolstering their roster with future talent. On Saturday, 4-star QB Michael Van Buren announced his commitment to Oregon, and 4-star DL Xadavien Sims quickly followed suit. The pair of players are ranked among the top 130 nationally in their class.

On Monday, the good times kept rolling with 4-star WR Dillon Gresham announcing his commitment to Oregon as well. This now gives the Ducks 14 players in the 2024 class.

After Saturday’s events, the Ducks jumped up to the No. 6 spot in the 2024 national recruiting rankings. With the addition of Gresham, another bump came along. Here’s where they rank now:

Breaking down Oregon’s history of taking 2 QB recruits in a single cycle

The Ducks took 2 QBs in the 2024 cycle, the sixth time they’ve done so since 2000. What ended up happening the other five times?

The Oregon Ducks are doing something a bit different in the 2024 recruiting cycle. It’s not something that is unheard of, nor is it something that we’ve never seen take place in Eugene. But it is a methodology that you don’t see happen very much, but could see take place more going forward.

The Ducks have a pair of quarterbacks committed to the 2024 class — 4-star Michael Van Buren and 3-star Luke Moga.

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Moga committed near the end of April ahead of the Ducks’ annual spring game, while Van Buren announced his commitment over the weekend. Oftentimes in college football, you see teams take a quarterback each year to keep the depth chart stacked with talent and hopefully maintain the development cycle going forward. However, taking a pair of QBs in the same cycle can complicate things a little bit.

Obviously, both players can’t play at the same time, so it immediately creates competition between the two going forward. Who will eventually become the starter, and what will the other player decide to do? Will he wait it out and try to gain the starting spot eventually, or will he opt to look elsewhere for a starting spot in the new era of the transfer portal?

It will be fascinating to watch how things play out between Van Buren and Moga in Eugene. To try and get a sense of what we might see, I went back and looked at the other times in UO history — since 2000 — that the Ducks have taken multiple QBs in a class.

Here’s what I learned from the five times it happened.

Where does Michael Van Buren rank among highest-rated QB recruits in UO history?

Where does Michael Van Buren rank among the highest-rated QBs to ever commit to Oregon?

The Oregon Ducks had a banner day on the recruiting trail Saturday afternoon, picking up a pair of blue-chip players in the 2024 class and adding them to the mix in Eugene.

4-star quarterback Michael Van Buren and 4-star defensive lineman Xadavien Sims announced their commitment to Oregon on Saturday afternoon. Both players are rated among the top 130 players in the 2024 class, offering a boost for the Ducks in the national recruiting rankings.

For the sake of this article, we want to focus on Van Buren.

While Oregon has seen a major jump in recruiting over the past decade or so, the one position group where they still haven’t had the elite of the elite players come through is at QB. We’ve seen 5-star linebackers, 5-star offensive linemen, 5-star wide receivers, and 5-star cornerbacks come through Eugene, among others. However, the highest-rated QB commit in Oregon history was a 4-star — Ty Thompson.

Van Buren doesn’t change that — he is widely rated as a high-end 4-star prospect, though ESPN has him rated as a 5-star. However, we wanted to look at how highly-rated Van Buren is when you compare him to the rest of the QB recruits in Oregon history.

Here’s where he now ranks in that group.

Twitter Reactions: Duck fans celebrate after Oregon lands pair of blue-chip commitments

On a Double-Duck day, Oregon fans head to Twitter to play.

The strong spring continued for Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks on Saturday, landing a pair of talented blue-chip prospects in the 2024 recruiting class.

4-star quarterback Michael Van Buren and 4-star defensive lineman Xadavien Sims announced on Saturday afternoon that they would be committing to Oregon, giving the Ducks 13 players in the 2024 class and a nice bump in the top 10 of the national recruiting rankings.

It doesn’t come as much of a shock to see that Oregon fans are incredibly happy on social media, celebrating the commitments and looking forward to another potential commitment coming on Monday, with 4-star WR Dillon Gresham set to announce his decision.

Here are some of the top reactions from fans and media members on Twitter Saturday afternoon: