I got tied up last week and didn’t get a chance to blog about the South Carolina game.

I don’t really know what else to write other than – “It was the worst of halves, it was the best of halves.”

Seriously. We did everything we could in the first half to shoot ourselves in the foot—just mistake after mistake.

And then in the second half, we did everything damn near perfect save for that stupid play call on third down at the goal line.

Despite that stupidity, we still managed to hold on and win.

I can’t explain it. I wish I could offer you some great insight into how or why it happened, but I can’t. Other than to say this is an inconsistent football team, which we’ve seen all year.

Somehow, they find a way to win, and that’s all that matters.

If there is one main takeaway from the South Carolina game, I hope that in the future, Elko and Klein realize we need to punch the gas more on offense.

Especially with the games we have left.  That’s the Texas game, and then whatever postseason games.

At some point in the second half of the LSU game, they felt like the Aggies could control the game on the ground going forward.

Go for a more ground attack than an air attack.

It worked against Missouri, but it was failing against South Carolina in the first half.

I know ball control is tempting, especially for a defensive coach, but we’re gonna have to stress the defense every which way we can.

From here on out, I want to see an offense that stresses the defense across the entire field, even if it means some three-and-outs. We have the talent, so take the shots.

Texas Game:

As for the Texas game, I’m torn on what’s going to go down.

Maybe it’s my Battered Aggie Syndrome, but in the back of my mind, I can’t get rid of two things:

1. It’s tough to go undefeated.
2. Rivalry games are crazy.

I do think A&M walks into DKR with a better team, but Texas is still a formidable opponent.

Sure, we can point to their loss in Florida and the close games against Kentucky and Mississippi State.

Obviously, Georgia had their way with them in the second half.

But at the same time, they handled Vandy and Arkansas. Sure, the Vandy score was close at the end, but it was the equivalent of our Arkansas game. Vandy was never a real threat to win that game.

They kept Arkansas at bay in the first half and then put them away in the second half.

I know the Texas offensive line has struggled to protect Arch at times. At the same time, our defense should have crushed the South Carolina offensive line, but we didn’t do a thing for an entire half from a pressure standpoint.  

So one can rationalize all they want about how this match-up is going to go. As of this writing, the Aggies are a 2.5-point favorite. That says the Aggies are a slightly better team even on the road.

I have a feeling it’s going to be a close game.

I personally think it’s going to come down to three Ts to win:

1. The Toys
2. Tight Ends
3. Turnovers

The Toys:

I’ve referred to Concepcion and Craver as the toys since the Notre Dame game. While I’d love to see the same performance as Notre Dame for these two, I don’t see that happening. They get too much attention now.

I don’t see them putting up a combined 300 receiving yards between the two of them.

That doesn’t mean they can’t bust off 4-5 big plays that either score points directly or lead to the Aggies scoring points.  

The Tight Ends:

While the other receivers, not named Concepcion and Craver, have stepped up their game, I think using the tight ends will be really important to keep the Longhorn defense honest.

Marcel is going to have to recognize it is okay to hit these guys to move the chains rather than focus on the big play downfield.

Now, if you’ve got man coverage with Concepcion or Craver, by all means attack that. However, if you have safeties playing back, then take what’s underneath and keep moving the ball down the field.

No need to get greedy.

Especially near the end zone.

Turnovers:

This is totally obvious, but something that hasn’t been talked about is how sloppy Reed has been with the ball since the LSU game.

He had an awful interception in the end zone against LSU, and then again against South Carolina.  

Sure, he’s bailed himself out of these situations, but that’s a fire that’s gonna burn you at some point.

If Reed continues to turn the ball over, this is likely the game where it finally burns him.

I know those are all pretty obvious points, but most of sports are pretty obvious.  Just do better than the other team, and you’ll win most of your games.

Might as well add a fourth T – Tackling.

Texas likes to do a lot of short passes and get yards after the catch. Our secondary has had a few issues making initial tackles this season, and that can’t happen on Friday night.

Don’t let Texas get additional yards after contact.

So do those four Ts and the Aggies win this game without much issue.

I know, it’s obvious.

Random Thoughts:

Get ready for Texas to score some points. I have little doubt that Sark will have 4-5 plays that take advantage of the Aggies being overaggressive on defense.

Especially, the tendency for our defensive ends to not properly seal the edge or be too aggressive on backside pursuit of the ball.

I think Texas scores 17-20 points in this game.  Not a problem, as the Aggies should certainly score more.

I’m not too terribly worried about the cutbacks on the ground that destroyed us last year. Not saying Texas won’t break off some runs on cutbacks, but they flat-out gashed us last season on simple cutbacks by their running backs.

We’re better at defending those cutbacks this year than we were last year.

As for our offensive line, I defended rotating guys after the Missouri game when Reed-Adams got hurt, but I’m over that. I felt it was good to have everyone cross-trained and gain experience for the betterment of the offensive line.

For whatever reason, we went with the same offensive line group against South Carolina that we ended with in Missouri.

It was Fatheree, Bisontis, Zuhn, Nabou, and Crownover to start against Missouri.  That’s going from left tackle to right tackle. I can’t remember precisely when Reed-Adams came in against South Carolina, but he sat out the first three or four series.

That grouping of Fatheree, Bisontis, Zuhn, Nabou, and Crownover showed up against Samford, and we weren’t super clean as Reed got some pressure he shouldn’t have.

From this point going forward, I want to see Zuhn, Bisontis, Nabou, Reed-Adams, and Crownover. Barring an injury and a close game, I want those five guys in those five positions.

That’s clearly our best combination of offensive linemen. I want to see that grouping of offensive linemen the rest of the way.  

No need to tinker otherwise.

As for Arch Manning, I don’t think he’s a bad quarterback.

His challenges are no different than any other quarterback. When he doesn’t have time to throw, he struggles.

I’m not saying he should win the Heisman, but he’s not as bad as people make him out to be.

The media is a funny thing.  They’ll build someone up. Then they’ll take a big dump on that player when that player doesn’t live up to the hype they themselves created.

Arch isn’t going to make plays out of nothing, but if he has time, he can run Sark’s offense.

The Aggies have to make sure he doesn’t have time.

No different than any other quarterback.

Sark’s Schedule Sadness:

One thing that gives me a great deal of hope is Steve Sarkisian complaining about having to play an SEC game the week before this one, while A&M played a weak opponent in Samford.

I hope what Sark is really worried about is Mike Elko having extra time to draw up and install more of his exotic blitzes.

Sounds like a coach already making excuses. Hopefully, Sark knows he’s got a big challenge, and the schedule is making that challenge worse.

I don’t care.

Here’s the deal, Sark. The SEC has been set up like this forever. The SEC starts conference games before other conferences.

You came over from the Big 12, where non-conference games were all front-loaded.

You were playing Sam Houston for your fourth game while we were playing Auburn this season. It ain’t our fault, and it ain’t no conspiracy.

It’s due to your conference move.

Stop complaining to the media and tell your Athletic Director to schedule like everyone else.

Or maybe focus on coaching your team instead of making excuses in advance.

Speaking of Schedules:

I’m also tired of people saying the Aggies haven’t played anyone.  I’ll freely admit the teams we played have been disappointments, but we started the season with three teams in the Top 10 and two more in the Top 15.

We beat Notre Dame on the road. We emptied Tiger Stadium. We helped get Billy Napier and Hugh Freeze fired.

Maybe we get caught with our pants down in Austin, the SEC Championship, or the CFP.

Our schedule looked as tough as anyone in the country to start the season.  It’s not our fault we’ve exceeded expectations while others have fallen off.

All we can do is win the next two games and prove we’re one of the four best teams in the country going into the playoffs.

We do that, and nobody can say a damn thing about our schedule.

Special Teams Scares:

One thing that scares me about this game and every game from here on out is our special teams.

Short of KC Concepcion’s God given talent, I don’t have a lot of faith in our special teams right now.

Sure, the fake punt against Missouri was awesome, but there’s nothing else that gives me great confidence about our special teams.

I have a bad feeling it’s going to be our special teams that costs us our first loss of the season.

I’m not sure it’s in Austin, but it sure feels like if there’s a loss for the 2025 season, it’ll be because of special teams.

With all of that, I think this is somewhat of a coin flip game.  If the Aggies protect the ball, then they win. If not, Texas wins.

It’ll come down to one of the basic tenets of football.

Protecting the football.

You read all of that to get that fundamental analysis.  

Sometimes it really is that simple.

BTHO tu

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