LSU Football: Message board poster claims Aggies paid big for Jacoby Mathews

LSU football missed on one of their top 2022 recruiting targets this past week when four-star defensive back Jacoby Mathews elected to sign with the Texas A&M Aggies.

Mathews, a Louisiana native, was ranked in 247Sports’ composite rankings as the No. 2 safety in the country and the No. 3 player in Louisiana.

In the days leading up to National Signing Day, it felt like the momentum in this recruiting battle was shifting toward LSU.

Florida was the other program that looked like a threat to land Mathews (thanks to the presence of former Tigers defensive backs coach Corey Raymond).

When Mathews signed with Texas A&M it was a bit of a surprise.

Rumors immediately started flying around that the Aggies paid a hefty sum for Mathews via a NIL (name, image, and likeness) deal.

Message board poster claims Texas A&M paid big money to swipe Jacoby Mathews from LSU football

A message board poster on Tiger Illustrated claims to know friends of Mathews’ father.

And that poster claims that Texas A&M is paying Mathews $450k over four years ($100k per year plus $50k if he graduates). The poster also says that the offer was $50k more than LSU’s offer.

I don’t know how we should feel about this rumor. I definitely think there’s some strange stuff going on at Texas A&M. There’s no way they signed the best class ever without paying recruits.

But at the same time, would Mathews really make his decision based on $400k vs $450K?

And if so, why didn’t LSU just match the offer? What’s another $50k when you’re already in that price range?

We’ll probably never know exactly what went down. But it definitely appears that the Aggies are committed to spending as much money as necessary to land recruits.