The title of this post is a little mis-leading as Jimbo’s biggest goal for 2022 should be to win the SEC West.  That should be the goal every season.  Sure, winning the national championship is the ultimate goal every season but it all starts with the SEC West.  You win that and you’re playing in the SEC Championship.  Win that and you’re in the College Football Playoff.  Win those two games and you’re the National Champion.  Easy enough.

It all starts with winning the SEC West.  If you can’t win the SEC West it doesn’t really matter.  Sure, you can potentially sneak into the College Football Playoff without winning the West but it’s just easier to win the SEC West.

I’m not sure A&M is just ready to win the SEC West in 2022.  I think it’s very possible but this is a really young team with some questions.  I’ll do my season prediction next month but for now this is all about Jimbo’s biggest goal for 2022.

That goal?  Simple – Win every game at Kyle Field in 2022.

The most underrated part of Jimbo’s tenure at Texas A&M is his success at Kyle Field.  In four seasons he’s lost four games at Kyle Field.

Here’s those four games:

2018 – Clemson (eventual National Champion)
2019 – Auburn (Kind of a stinker but Gus had a great game plan and Derrick Brown destroyed our offensive line)
2019 – Alabama (Nick Saban.  Need I say more?)
2021 – Mississippi State (Total stinker like a baby’s diaper.  Pee Yew)

It should really be 2 losses as 2019 Auburn was winnable and 2021 Mississippi State was absolutely winnable.  Either way, I’m not terribly upset with Jimbo’s performances in his first four years at Kyle Field.

Kevin Sumlin lost 10 games at Kyle Field in his final four seasons.

Mike Sherman also lost 10 games at Kyle Field in his four seasons.

I’m not even bringing up Dennis Franchione as my therapist says it’s best.

Jimbo has done really damn good at Kyle with two wins over LSU and that win over Bama. He got the never beat Auburn at Kyle monkey off our back. He’s beat every SEC West team at Kyle and redeemed that Florida loss from 2012.

He has to keep the winning at Kyle momentum going.

Kyle Field must be a home field advantage if you expect to win the SEC West.  Winning in the SEC is tough so you better leverage every advantage you can.  If you can’t leverage Kyle Field as an advantage you’re not going to be successful.

Jimbo appears to be doing that but 2022 is going to be a massive test.

Here’s who we have at Kyle in 2022:

Sam Houston
Appalachian State
Miami
Ole Miss
Florida
UMass
LSU

Those are all winnable games.  Three of those teams aren’t in a current Power 5 conference.  Three of those teams are under new coaches and the other is a team I believe takes a step back from a talent standpoint.

I don’t know about wining the SEC West in 2022. I do know Jimbo needs to put wins over Miami, Ole Miss, Florida, and LSU at Kyle in 2022.  They won’t be easy but they’re more than attainable.  If he’s going to be a championship coach there’s no excuse to not be perfect at Kyle Field in 2022.   

I’m not saying Jimbo can lose the road games in 2022 if he wins at Kyle.  I do believe 10-2 is the baseline in 2022.  Establishing 7 wins at Kyle in 2022 is the easiest path to doing do that.  7 wins at Kyle and at least 3 on the road.

Will Jimbo make it happen?  I don’t see any reason why he can’t.