Thoughts from the Arkansas Game

Sometimes the final score of a game doesn’t indicate what happened. 34-22 in Arlington last weekend is certainly the case here.

If you didn’t watch the game you would have thought Arkansas put up a pretty good fight. The reality is Arkansas didn’t put up much of a fight at all. Especially after their first two offensive possessions. Sure, they got a couple of big plays to keep the game close but it was more about A&M shooting themselves in the foot more than anything else on those two scores.

Arkansas scored 10 direct points off turnovers and had a touchdown late in the game when the game was well in hand. That touchdown came off an Aggie turnover. The Aggie defense allowed zero touchdowns on Arkansas possessions that weren’t the result of an Aggie offense turnover.

In addition to those Arkansas points off turnovers, Texas A&M missed two field goals. That’s a potential 22-point swing. Arkansas went for 2 on that late touchdown and didn’t make it which is why it’s 22 and not 23.

Let’s say we take 16 points away from Arkansas and add 6 to the Aggies. That’s a 40-6 beatdown. We weren’t far from that score happening. There are another 7 potential points the Aggies missed out on but I’m not even counting those. It reasonably could have been 47-6.

A&M played a game with a decent amount of errors on offense and missed two field goals. Even with that, they walked away with a convincing 34-22 win. That’s pretty impressive when you can shoot yourself in the foot a few times and keep walking like nothing happened.

Let’s get to the game and I’m starting with the defense.

Defense:

For anyone calling D.J. Durkin by the name of D.J. Urkin, you can stop that for now. The defense stubbed their toe against Miami but his body of work so far as a defensive coordinator has been really solid to date. I don’t know if it keeps up but the Aggie defense has had more good games than bad games in his 17 games as Aggie Defensive Coordinator.

Right now, I would put Ole Miss, Florida, and Miami as outliers in his time in Aggieland. What the defense has done over the last three weeks has been dominant. They didn’t allow a touchdown in 11 straight quarters and the touchdown they did finally give up was off a turnover late in the game due to a defensive back brain fart.

I understand the opponents didn’t have the most dominant offenses but that’s the first game Arkansas essentially didn’t score a touchdown all season and Auburn scored two touchdowns on Georgia’s defense last weekend. The Aggies kept Auburn out of the end zone and basically did the same to Arkansas.

I don’t know how you can say that’s not damn impressive.

Defensive Line:

If you didn’t watch every snap of the Arkansas game you have no real clue how dominant the defensive line was. Sure, you can see the 7 sacks and 15 tackles for losses but if you didn’t watch every snap you don’t realize just how dominant it was.

These weren’t individual sacks as much as they were “swarm sacks”. What I mean by that is the ENTIRE defensive line was collapsing the pocket on pretty much every play. K.J. Jefferson is an outstanding runner which we’ve seen in the past.

However, on this day, he had nowhere to run because there was nowhere to run. All he could do was pull the ball down and wait to see which defender would take him down. Often it was more than one person taking him down. He couldn’t get away because the pocket had just collapsed and there were no lanes for him to run out of pressure. He just had to pull the ball and wait to be tackled.

That’s VERY rare in the game of modern football with a guy like Jefferson. Usually, an offensive line like Arkansas will keep the pocket as spread as possible so if Jefferson needs to take off there’s some kind of lane. There were no lanes on Saturday. Especially after the second possession.

The Aggie defensive line simply pushed or found their way into the Arkansas backfield while limiting space for Jefferson to get loose. The Arkansas offensive line is a little suspect but they couldn’t do anything against this Aggie defensive line. They just got dominated from the second possession on.

It was really impressive.

Individually, Walter Nolen and McKinnley Jackson were the most impressive. Those guys just collapsed the interior by brute force or contorting themselves past the interior of the Arkansas offensive line. I think these two guys are the best defensive tackles in college football. They’re certainly playing like it.

Shemar Turner also flashed at times.

The rest of the defensive line was impressive but these three guys are the core of this unit and allow the rest of the defense to make plays when they’re not making plays themselves.

The most impressive thing about the performance of these guys is the Arkansas coach said in his post-game press conference they prepared all week for the pressure. They KNEW it was coming but couldn’t do anything about it. That’s when you know you’re dominating.

Linebackers:

I bet Edge Cooper, Chris Russel, Jr., and Taurean York are just giggling at each other watching film right now. It looks like all these guys are doing is filling what gaps the defensive line creates. These guys are racking up tackles because all they have to do is fill the little gaps the defensive line creates.

They’re doing an outstanding job of it but it’s MUCH easier to fill a smaller gap than a larger gap.

I think this is the biggest difference in the defense right now. I don’t know who finally figured it but screw gap integrity. Let the defensive line just fire off the ball creating havoc and the linebackers just wait to see what gaps are created and then fill them with violent force before they get any bigger.

Our linebackers are pretty talented but it’s SO much easier to play linebacker when you don’t have to worry about big gaps or blockers teeing off on you.

I’m not taking anything away from our linebackers as they just need to keep doing what they’re doing. Keep supporting the defensive line and have fun making plays thanks to the guys in front of you.

Our linebackers are essentially the number 1 and 2 batters hitting in front of Barry Bonds in his prime steroids years. They saw pitches to hit and our guys are gonna have plays to make so just have fun benefitting by the dominating play of those around you.

Secondary:

Thanks to all the pressure by the lineman and linebackers the secondary didn’t have much to do this game. Arkansas only completed 9 of 17 passes. Jefferson was 6 for 9 on the first two possessions. That’s a 66% completion rate so that’s pretty good.

All of those passes were in the first quarter. That’s right. The majority of Jefferson’s pass attempts came in the first quarter.

Jefferson only attempted 8 passes the rest of the game for 3 completions. That’s a 38% completion rate. That’s not good. One of those was the botched coverage on the touchdown throw so he really should have been 2 for 8 which is a 25% completion rate. That’s terrible for 3 quarters of football in which you’re trailing.

Our front pressure shortened the time and field that our secondary had to defend which helped immensely.

If I have one concern coming out of this game it’s our ability to defend the deep ball with decent receivers. Specifically, Josh DeBerry. He’s been burned a couple of times now in the Miami and Arkansas games. If I’m an opposing offensive coordinator I’m trying to figure out a way to isolate him on a deep ball.

You need time to throw the ball but I would say the deep ball against #28 seems to be the Achilles Heel of this defense.

I hope I’m wrong but it’s the biggest concern I have about this defense right now. Assuming our defensive line keeps wreaking havoc we should be fine but if we start struggling to apply pressure I do believe there are components of this secondary that are vulnerable.

We’ll find out on Saturday because if there’s one man who can identify and take advantage of weaknesses it’s Nick Saban.

Offense:

Quarterback:

I’ll start with Max Johnson. There’s no bigger fan of Max Johnson than me. I’ve been banging his drum for two seasons. He’s a damn fine quarterback.

However, I don’t think he played that great of a game on Saturday. He was 17 of 28 for 210 yards so that’s not terrible but it’s just a 60% completion. Jahdae Walker had a few drops which certainly would have helped Max but Max kind of tailed off after the first two possessions.

He threw a BEAUTIFUL touchdown pass to Evan Stewart and was carving up the Arkansas defense. He completed his first 7 passes and it should have been 8 for a second score but Jahdae Walker stuttered on his route for some strange reason and missed the ball.

Similar to K.J. Jefferson, Max was 7 for 9 to start the game. After that, he was 10 for 21.

He went from a 78% passer on his first two drives to a not-even 50% passer the rest of the game.

I can’t explain why he tailed off but there was certainly a difference between Max on his first two possessions and Max the rest of the game.

Running wise Max is a damn fine scrambler. He’s way more athletic than you would think. He had some beautiful scrambles to get yards but he needs to avoid contact and hold onto the ball. Hopefully, Saturday was a big learning event for avoiding contact and holding onto the ball.

Max’s biggest failure in this game was pulling the ball from Le’Veon Moss on three occasions. I don’t know the play design but three times in the game Max put the ball in Moss’ belly and pulled it. Moss had a hole to run through and Max got tackled by backside pressure.

Even Jimbo was visibly upset about why Max kept the ball on a couple of those plays he should have let Moss take it.

I’m still behind Max Johnson. It’s impressive that we can still be so strong on offense when Max has kind of a Jekyll and Hyde day.

If he eliminates his mental and physical errors we’re going to roll opponents even more from an offensive standpoint.

Running Back:

A big issue I’ve had with Jimbo the last two years is his use of running backs. He seemed to have had a set rotation rather than adjust in the game to who was the most productive.

Not sure what happened on Saturday but Jimbo appeared to ride Le’Veon Moss in the running game which I’m okay with. He was producing more than any other back so he got the most carries. That makes sense.

Moss carried 17 times for 108 yards which is a 6.3-yard-per-carry average. That’s damn good.

Amari Daniels carried 10 times for 37 yards and Rueben Owens only saw 2 carries for 7 yards. That’s a 3.6 and 3.5 yards per carry average respectively.

Moss has kind of separated himself from Daniels and Owens as far as production goes. Owens is the most talented but he’s still a true freshman learning his way. Daniels is the most explosive but can’t do much if a hole isn’t there.

Moss seems to be the most aware of knowing what’s going to happen in front of him and exploiting it. Good to see Jimbo recognize it and give him the majority of the carries.

Offensive Line:

I thought the offensive line did fine for the most part. They gave Max time to throw and we rushed for 204 yards on 39 carries averaging 5.2 yards a carry.

I can’t complain about that.

If I have one concern about this group they cannot exert their dominance early in the game. I’m all about wearing a defense down over four quarters but it would be nice to see this offensive line come out and blow defenders off the ball early in the game.

Moss had runs of 15 and 30 yards on our final possession which were the longest runs of the day for Moss. It would be nice to see runs like that in the first half.

I do believe this line seems to be improving each game which is a great sign. They’re doing much better handling pressure and wearing down the defensive line late in games.

Playing ahead score-wise thanks to a dominant defense has helped that.

Just paints me a bit concerned if this team has to play from behind because this unit takes a while to exert some dominance on the defense.

Wide Receiver:

Because of the defensive effort, we weren’t forced to pass and Jimbo smartly played to protect the lead for the most part.

Ainias led the receivers with 4 catches for 71 yards. That’s a nice day but it’s certainly not dominant.

Evan Stewart had two BEAUTIFUL catches on his touchdown and play on the sideline. Both were just picture-perfect. He missed a good portion of the game for some reason but the fact he came out in the 4th quarter was a good sign. We’re going to need him for Alabama.

Jahdae Walker filled in for Stewart and had a TERRIBLE game. He stuttered on a route that had he kept going he would have walked in for the second touchdown of the game. He missed a couple of other balls where he was somewhat defended but very makeable plays.

Walker has looked good at times in his first four games but he didn’t do anything against Arkansas. He could have made a couple of big plays with one being for a score and the other a big first down. He did neither. Hopefully, it was a blip and he keeps developing.

Moose didn’t seem to see the field much as we ran a lot of tight ends and fullbacks this game.

Tight-end wise they weren’t dominant but Jake and Max each had a couple of nice catches to extend drives. They looked good blocking at times as well.

This unit still looks like it’s trying to find its identity. The talent is there but with the way the defense is playing I get limiting the desire for big plays and just keep moving the ball downfield in small chunks.

As long as Ainias keeps producing while Max and Evan hook up for beautiful touchdown passes I’m good where things are for now.

Special Teams:

What a day for Ainias. He had two beautiful punt returns taking one to the house. He had more all-purpose yards than Arkansas had offense. A nice statement game for him after ending his season in the same game last year.

Constantinou had a good day booting two punts over 50 yards inside the 20-yard line. I’m not complaining about that after the Auburn game.

Randy Bond seems to have an issue with any field goal over 45 yards. He missed his two attempts at 49 and 48. I don’t think he’s completed a field goal over 45 yards this season. He’s got to figure that out as there will likely come a game where we need 3 or 6 points from those distances. This is the SEC after all.

I still worry about this unit because we had an offside on a punt return and had a breakdown on a couple of kickoffs. Why we don’t just boot the ball through the end zone every kickoff I have no idea. We struggle to defend kickoffs and have been burned in the South Carolina game last year and the Miami game this year with kickoff returns for touchdowns.

With our defense just let the offense start at their own 25 and not give the other team’s special teams a chance to gain better field position or even score.

Kick the damn ball in the endzone and be done with it.

Let’s Talk About Bama, Baby:

I get it. You’re over the Arkansas game and focused solely on the Bama game.

On paper, I think things favor the Aggies. Bama can’t block and the Aggie defensive line can destroy offensive lines. One has to think those trends continue on Saturday.

My biggest problem is we’re still going up against Nick Saban and he’s not ready to give up the SEC West to anyone. Certainly not Jimbo Fisher.

I think this is going to be a pretty low-scoring game. I think both Saban and Jimbo are going to coach very conservatively hoping the other team makes a mistake. Rather than be a turnover offensively or a botched defensive assignment for a big play, I think Saban and Jimbo are going to hope the other team makes a fatal mistake.

They certainly don’t want to be the team making the fatal mistake.

For me, this game is going to come down to the Aggie defense against Jalen Milroe. If Milroe gets lanes to run or the Aggies let a Bama receiver get deep Bama will win the game. Milroe is one of the best running quarterbacks in football and you have to keep him contained.

Along with that, I think Bama is going to see if they can isolate one of their talented receivers on Josh DeBerry and burn him deep.

For the Aggies offensively, I think we’re going to see if we can establish the run so we can leverage some play action. Because of the nature of the game, I don’t think the Aggies try to get greedy early on believing their defense will limit the Bama offense.

Throw some quick punches and see what you can land before trying to land something big. I feel confident our offense will move the ball and score some points but I have no clue how many.

What I can’t figure out right now is if this is 2020 Jimbo or 2021 Jimbo that spit the bit in games that mattered and were winnable. This wouldn’t be a shocking win by any stretch to those who have watched these two teams this season and not relying on past performance.

Can Jimbo make a statement it’s not like it used to be? I don’t know.

What I’m REALLY hoping is this 2023 defensive line is the equivalent of the 2020 offensive line and running game. The 2020 running game would impart its will against the opponent. There’s no reason the 2023 defensive line can’t do the same against opponents because it has the talent and has shown it knows how to do it.

I just don’t know if we can establish defensive pressure when it matters most. I still have concerns about Jimbo and his coaching in a game like this.

With that, I’m going with Bama in a VERY close game. Tide 23 and the Aggies 20.

Just win, Jimbo.

Thoughts from the Auburn Game

Before I get to anything else on the Auburn game let’s be clear that’s not a good Auburn team. They’re a step up from New Mexico and Louisiana Monroe but they’re a step down from Miami and might be the worst SEC team we play this season.

They went through three quarterbacks without one getting hurt so that tells you the state of their offense. They were trying to find some kind of spark because they didn’t have a quarterback who could move the ball.

Regardless of Auburn’s lack of talent, this was still a good win for the Aggies. Still lots of questions but the Aggies handled the Tigers from start to finish with no real scares. Even when Auburn returned the fumble for a touchdown it wasn’t a real scare. The Aggies were still up by 10 and Auburn’s offense hadn’t done anything all day.

My biggest concern for the day was having to take a timeout on the second play. THE SECOND PLAY OF THE GAME WE’RE TAKING A DAMN TIMEOUT.

How does that even happen? That’s the mark of an ill-prepared team. We’ve seen this way too many times in Jimbo’s Aggie tenure where this team comes out flat, confused, or just not ready to play. It’s a massive concern that keeps happening. This was a game we should have been prepared for. We shouldn’t have been overwhelmed by this Auburn team at Kyle Field.

To make matters worse we get a false start coming out of the timeout. I don’t get it. What gets discussed during the timeout?

It should be crystal clear what personnel group will be going out there, what play will be run, and what the snap count/cadence will be.

Taking a timeout followed by a false start on the second play of the game is an ill-prepared team and that starts with coaching. There’s no defending or excusing that. That’s on Jimbo and it’s a HUGE concern in my book.

Some things need changing and Jimbo isn’t changing them.

The other concern with Jimbo is a bit nitpicky but his being on the field during the fumble return. He claims he thought the play was dead. How the hell did he think that? It was a clear fumble in the field of play and there were no whistles blown. Nobody on the field thought the play was dead.

Why did he think that? What does he see when he coaches a game? How can he screw that up? Did he just stop following the ball?

I don’t get how he thought the play was dead when nobody on the field thought that. How can he be the only one in that instance?

It kind of makes me wonder if he truly sees the game as it’s being played or if he’s still watching theoretical football in his mind disconnected from what’s happening on the field.

I don’t think he should get fined and it’s sort of funny but it makes me wonder what he sees in the game if he thought that play was dead. Nobody else near the field thought the play was dead but him.

Let’s talk about the rest of the football game.

Offense:

This offense didn’t look great for most of the game. Conner Weigman got hurt before the end of the half but he was struggling. He was 8 for 14 and 70 yards before leaving. That’s not terrible but he never looked super comfortable as some of his misses weren’t close.

We were moving the ball with Weigman but stalled out thanks to our inability to establish the run, penalties, and inability to connect on third-down passes. 3 of Conner’s incompletions came on 3rd downs resulting in a field goal attempt and two punts.

Our inability to establish the run in the first half was by far the most concerning thing in the game beyond the apparent lack of preparedness. Outside of Le’Veon Moss’ 34-yard run we only had 29 yards rushing in the first half on 10 other rushes. 2.9 yards isn’t a terrible yard per carry but the problem was 5 of those rushes were for 1 yard or less.

On 11 rushing attempts in the first half not quite half resulted in a zero or one-yard gain. That’s feast or famine and something that has to be improved if we’re going to do well in the SEC.

It’s nice that we can break off good runs here and there but I’d rather establish the line of scrimmage where 50% of your rushing attempts aren’t stalemated by the defense.

Our running backs rushed for 202 yards on 27 carries. That’s certainly not a bad day on the ground with 7.5 yards per carry. However, 2 of those carries were for 114 yards so the remainder of the 25 carries netted 88 yards. That’s 3.5 yards a carry which isn’t terrible but much of came in the second half where we had a margin of error to try and wear down the defense.

I’m being nitpicky here but the inability to establish the run game early is a big concern to me. Maybe I’m too old school but I still believe the ability to establish the line of scrimmage early in the game is a big factor in how much success you’ll have. Especially against equal opponents.

You can’t fully rely on the run game but the ability to establish it puts pressure on a defense. This Aggie offensive line has to get better at establishing the run game much sooner than the second half.

As for the rest of the offense, it was honestly mediocre as well except for 2 big pass plays by Max Johnson. His touchdown to his brother Jake was a great play made possible by his rolling out and keeping the play alive. His touchdown pass to Evan Stewart was one of the most beautiful balls I’ve ever seen at Kyle. Not quite as good as Reggie McNeal to Greg Porter against OU in 2002 but it was up there.

On the day Conner and Max combined for 193 yards completing 15 of 25 passes. That’s not terrible but it’s certainly not dominant. You’d certainly like to have seen more against a team like Auburn at Kyle.

We won comfortably but we did not win convincingly.

Count me in the camp that still has concerns about this offensive line. It’s certainly improved over last year but I don’t think it’s playing near the level that it should be. Still too much confusion via penalties, blown assignments, and just not being dominant.

As for Conner, it looks like we dodged a bullet with him. I saw him hobble to the locker room and it didn’t look good. I suppose it was a decent sign he wasn’t being assisted in any way but it was clear he was hurt and not coming back.

He looked a little like Bisontis did against Louisiana Monroe and Bisontis was out there playing against Auburn the next week. I didn’t think that was possible. I can’t judge injuries from my seat.

Jimbo said the X-rays were negative which is great. I think we’ll likely lose him for a couple of games but we should have him back after the bye week at worst.

I think this is Max’s team against Arkansas but suppose Conner could be back out there.

I have faith in both quarterbacks individually but until I see more from this offensive line I have questions on how much offense we’ll be able to produce against SEC teams that are better than Auburn.

Defense:

For the second week in a row, the Aggie defense gave up zero touchdowns. I don’t care who you’ve played that’s damn impressive to go 8 quarters of football in an offensive era and not give up a touchdown.

In addition, we limited Auburn to 3 first downs on 15 3rd down attempts. That’s also the second week in a row we’ve shut down the opposing offense on 3rd downs.

I’m not sure what to make of this defense because they’ve dominated their opponent in the last two games. It just hasn’t been against an offense that I think is very good and a real test.

To their credit, Jimbo and Durkin decided to apply pressure this game and they did a really impressive job.

According to the stat sheet the Aggies had seven sacks and an additional quarterback hurry.

They should have had two fumble recoveries returned for touchdowns. However, the refs hosed them on a BS replay overturn that was not conclusive if you have half a brain. In addition, Bryce Anderson swatted another lateral pass he should have picked up and ran back for a touchdown. Bryce brain-farted there.

Two scoop and scores would have only added to the domination on Saturday.

The Aggie defense brought pressure in a big way on Saturday. To me, it looked like Durkin decided to do away with gap integrity and just let the defensive line try to dominate the offensive line with the linebackers filling the gaps that were created.

It worked based on the results. The defensive line got a great push into the backfield and the linebackers did an OUTSTANDING job of filling the gaps as soon as they saw them. They weren’t playing on their heels waiting to see what developed and instead went into attack mode when they saw a gap develop.

You can question the ability of the Auburn quarterbacks all you want but the reality is they had no time to pass and the Aggie defensive line and linebackers were disruptive all game long. All of that pressure caused Auburn to hold quite a bit. When SEC refs are regularly calling holding in a game you know you’re dominating the line of scrimmage.

Passing wise Auburn was only 9 for 23 passing for 56 yards. That’s a roughly 40% completion rate for 56 yards. They just weren’t able to pass on us so give credit where credit is due. The defensive players and staff flat-out shut down Auburn’s passing game.

All because of pressure at the line of scrimmage.

I do have a concern with the amount of yards they gave up on the ground. Auburn’s top two running backs rushed for 112 yards on 17 carries. That’s 6.5 yards a carry.

Luckily Auburn was losing the whole game so they couldn’t try and establish the run. Auburn was playing from behind so they had to attempt some passes that weren’t working.

It looks like this defense can only shut down one aspect of an offense each game. As long as you choose correctly it’s fine but it’s a slight concern.

Another slight concern is the Auburn quarterbacks missed some open receivers but to the defense’s credit the Auburn quarterbacks missed them because they had no time to throw.

With all of that being said, I can’t dog on this defense. What they’ve done the last two weeks is impressive. I just hope it can carry over to better opponents.

I’m going to carry trauma from the Miami game until I see this defense do it against a better opponent. Speaking of Miami, if you look at the Aggie’s schedule and the quarterbacks they’ll face this year I don’t think it’s a stretch to say Tyler Van Dyke will be the best passer they face all year.

We’re gonna have some tests with Joe Milton, Spencer Rattler, and Jaxson Dart but we could look back on the Miami game and realize we got picked apart by an outstanding passer. At least I hope we can say that when it’s all said and done.

Just a positive thought for the defense…

Special Teams:

I usually gloss over special teams but there are two things I want to point out in this game.

Nik Constantinou had a horrible game. His first three punts were under 40 yards and he wasn’t trying to pin them inside the 20. They also had no real height. They were just three ugly punts under 40 yards. He had plenty of room to boom a 50-yarder but for whatever reason he kicked three ugly balls.

His fourth punt went 48 yards to the Auburn 22 and then his final punt was 46 yards to the Auburn 10-yard line. His final punt was fine but he could have put more leg into the first four but he didn’t for some reason.

Hopefully, it was just a bad day for him because we should be able to put a punter out there who can boom 50-yard punts.

The other thing I want to point out is a missed opportunity by Jimbo. Coming off the Bryce Anderson lateral bat down we backed Auburn up to their 5-yard line thanks to a penalty by Auburn. It’s 4th and 27 at the Auburn 5-yard line so the punter isn’t as deep as he normally is in his end zone.

PUT TEN MEN ON THE LINE AND SEE IF YOU CAN BLOCK IT!!!!! THAT’S OPPORTUNITY!!!!!

You tell Ainias to fair catch it as we’re trying a jailbreak at the line of scrimmage. Instead, Jimbo just sets up a regular old punt return where Ainias returns it for 10 yards. A smart aggressive coach goes for it in that moment. There’s no reason not to.

Jimbo probably just wanted to get the ball back to his offense to see if they could score. Ironically enough that was the series Auburn picked up the fumble for a touchdown where Jimbo failed to make the tackle. Bad decisions all around by Jimbo for a quick span of the game.

I swear Jimbo sees Special Teams as an annoying event that has to take place to get offenses the ball. Since he’d rather do away with it he doesn’t see a real point in practicing or scheming each week.

Great coaches use special teams as an opportunity. Jimbo sees special teams as a gnat he just swats at.

Looking Forward:

I still believe every game left on this schedule is winnable. The talent on this Aggie team is there even with Conner being out however long he’s going to be out. Max Johnson is a more than capable backup quarterback and can win every game he starts.

Realistically though I think we go 5-3 simply because Jimbo hasn’t changed that much. He’s the same old head coach he’s been for 6 seasons in Aggieland. If his boys can out-athlete the other team he’s going to win.

He’s certainly not going to do it with scheme and coaching decisions. He’s going to get outcoached in at least 3 games on the schedule. I hope he proves me wrong but there are just a few things in the Auburn game to give me doubt that Jimbo is a different coach in 2023 compared to the previous 5 seasons.

He’s still the same stubborn coach who doesn’t know how to adjust in games and doesn’t have his team prepared from the start.

As for Arkansas, I think we win this weekend. I think we can bottle up K.J. Jefferson just enough to keep them from running up and down the field on us. I think offensively we’ll look a lot like we did against Auburn where we struggle to finish drives but we’ll score a couple of touchdowns and kick enough field goals.

I feel like both teams will score less than 50 points and probably less than 40 points. It’s going to be equal parts inept offenses and decent defenses with the Aggies having the better athletes to win.

Give me the Aggies winning 20-16.

Just win, Jimbo.

Thoughts from the ULM Game

What a difference a week makes. This time last week you thought Aggie Football was doomed forever. A week later you’re eyeing that maroon Kool-Aid wanting to take a sip or already taken some.

I’ve got news for you – nothing has changed. Other than the opponent which makes all the difference. This is still the same Jimbo Fisher lead team we’ve seen for the last two years.

Over the summer, in my Season Prediction, I mentioned it would be best to wait until after the Tennessee game to get a real feel for what kind of team we have. I still believe that even though it’s so easy to get caught up in the week-to-week emotions.

We’re about to hit a four-game stretch that’s going to give us all indications of what kind of team this 2023 Aggie team is. Auburn, Arkansas, Alabama, and Tennessee are finally going to give this team a true test. Interestingly enough, I think they’re in order of difficulty based on what I’ve seen of each team through 3 games and where they’re being played.

Miami exposed this team’s weaknesses so we’ll see if the Aggies can fix them in time for SEC play.

I do believe the Aggies may win all 4 of these games. However, I think the most likely outcome is we split them based on what I saw on Saturday at Kyle Field.

Offense:

Far and away the most positive takeaway from Saturday’s game was the passing accuracy of Conner Weigman. Holy cow. That kid was slinging the ball.

He was making REALLY quick reads and letting the ball fly with amazing accuracy. He wasn’t just sitting in the pocket waiting for guys to get open. He was quickly deciding what guys would be open and making great passes.

I know it was the Louisiana Monroe secondary which isn’t the same as an SEC secondary but it was great to see him not only processing the offense so quickly but throwing absolute strikes to his receivers.

He was 25 of 29 passing for 337 yards. That’s 86% accuracy. I don’t care who you’re playing. That’s as good as it gets.

If I have one concern about Weigman it’s I think he waits too long to throw the deep ball or he doesn’t have the arm to get it out there. Often he’s throwing it where his receiver has to slow down to catch the ball on deep routes.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather the quarterback throw it where the receiver can adjust to get it rather than throw it too far where the receiver never has a chance. It’s a minor complaint based on everything else but it’s the one thing I’ve noticed.

As for the rest of the offense, there were some bright spots and some concerns.

Evan Stewart did not suit up for some reason and Noah Thomas came out early. Even without those guys, the receivers did fine. Ainias reminded us what he’s capable of and Jahdae Walker stepped up in a big way with Stewart and Thomas out. I like Walker a lot. I think he would have been a big starter on any Aggie team in Jimbo’s first five years. Kind of crazy that he’s second string this season since we finally have talent at receiver. Moose didn’t get a ton of looks but he was productive with the looks he got.

I thought Jake Johnson and even Max Wright looked good catching the ball. Conner spread the ball out between his receiving weapons which was great to see.

At running back I thought Rueben Owens made some strides running with more confidence. He’s the most talented back from an all-around standpoint. He’s shown some hesitation in the first couple of games but as this game went on he seemed to be more comfortable. He’s a guy we need to settle in and lead this backfield even if he’s a true freshman.

My biggest concern on offense remains the offensive line. They weren’t tested and seemed to do fine but it took them a while to establish the run on what should be an inferior defense.

For whatever reason this line is playing musical chairs. Bryce Foster didn’t play so Mark Nabou played center. He had been splitting time at left guard and it looked like he was going to take the left guard spot. I don’t know why Foster was out but it’s not good for an offensive line to keep moving parts around.

In addition to Foster being out Chase Bisontis went out about halfway through the second quarter. He’s our starting right tackle. I saw him go out and it didn’t look good. It was clear he couldn’t go another play. He pulled himself out by going to the ground requiring the trainers to come out. He was able to walk off under his weight but he was moving slowly. They took him to the locker room before the end of the half and I believe he came out in street clothes for the second half.

Jimbo has said he’s fine. I’m not buying that. You don’t pull yourself out of a game by going to the ground and then coming out in street clothes for the second half. I get the opponent but nothing about that says he’s totally fine. He came out in the Miami game so he’s got something lingering considering he’s not finished two straight games now.

I don’t know what’s going on with Duece Fatheree but he didn’t take a snap in this game. He played a little in the Miami game but he’s been our starting right tackle for a season and a half. I know he’s been dealing with an injury himself but it’s a little concerning that when Bisontis goes out Fatheree isn’t taking any snaps.

We’re headed into SEC play and I think there are legitimate questions as to who our starting center and right tackle are. Injuries or not you don’t want to be wondering who’s going to be starting for 2/5ths of your offensive line.

I believe that’s where we are.

Beyond the personnel, there are questions about how well this unit can handle pressure on the edge from a legitimate defense. If I’m a defensive coach and I’ve watched film of A&M’s last games against Power 5 opponents I’m applying pressure from both edges to see what the Aggies can do.

Until I routinely see this unit stop pressure from an opposing defense I’m going to have concerns. Secondaries will cover our receivers tighter. Even if Conner is making quick decisions it’s going to be tougher to complete passes with increased pressure and tighter coverage.

I didn’t see enough on Saturday to make me feel confident much has changed from what’s been this offense’s weakness since last year and against Miami.

Defense:

Not sure what to make of the defensive effort on Saturday. Statistically, it was damn good. Louisiana Monroe had 222 total offensive yards and no touchdowns.

The Aggie defense allowed ZERO passing yards in the second half. That’s crazy. It’s impossible to do better than that for a half of football from a pass-defense standpoint.

Louisiana Monroe is a running team and only attempted 17 passes the entire game completing 6. They weren’t trying to pass being down by a large margin. They stayed committed to the run. We won’t see that from another team this season.

From my vantage, the secondary wasn’t tested at all. It’s hard to point to the stats and say our pass defense dominated them. They had a couple of completions in the first half where I saw the same secondary from the week before in Miami.

From a pressure standpoint, we tried a few twists on the line but that was about it. I get because of Lousiana Monroe being a running team it’s hard to attempt some unique blitzes and pressure packages we haven’t tried before.

I just don’t think we can take anything away from this defensive effort and say we corrected the issues we saw in Miami. In a couple of instances, they’re still there.

In a strange twist, I do think this defense will be better at defending the run while struggling against the pass. It’s the exact opposite of last year.

We really need to wait to see what we do against Auburn and Arkansas to see if we corrected the Miami issues. Don’t be shocked at all if both Auburn and Arkansas move the ball through the air as I don’t think the issues have been corrected. It’s hard to correct issues when you’re not tested.

Looking Forward:

I’m assuming no one from an opposing coaching staff is reading this blog so I can say this – Until proven otherwise the way to beat this Aggie team is to pressure the edges with your defense limiting Weigman’s time to throw.

Offensively, Aggie opponents would do well with a lot of intermediate passing routes along with the occasional deep ball. Obviously, you need to mix in some running with draws and play actions to keep the defense honest. I’d also stress the edges with quick sweeps and even misdirection a time or two.

I think this Aggie defense wants to get by on raw talent alone. If you make them defend the whole field as quickly as possible you can move the ball on them.

I hope I’m wrong as I’d love nothing more than to start 4-0 in the SEC.

I just don’t see that happening from what I saw on Saturday.

Just Win, Jimbo.

Jimbo On The Road Es No Bueno

I’m assuming Jimbo is a fan of Willie Nelson. I don’t know how you can exist in Texas and not be a Willie Nelson fan.

Assuming he is, I will wager there’s one song of Willie’s that’s not on Jimbo’s playlist – “On the Road Again.” Based on the results of his tenure in Aggieland, Jimbo hates being on the road again.

The life Jimbo loves is NOT playing road games with his friends.

In fact, Jimbo is on a 7 game road losing streak that dates back to 2021. Ironically enough, this streak was started by a D.J. Durkin lead Ole Miss defense that got the better of Jimbo’s Aggie offense in Oxford, Mississippi.

For Jimbo’s last road victory, you have to go back to October 16, 2021, when the Aggies beat the Missouri Tigers in Columbia.

Here are Jimbo’s remaining road games in 2023 to hopefully end this awful streak:

@ Tennessee
@ Ole Miss
@ LSU

Um, those aren’t the teams I want to be facing on the road if I’m Jimbo Fisher. Those are going to be tough games. The Tennessee game is on October 14th so the best-case scenario has Jimbo going TWO FULL YEARS between road victories. That’s a massive longshot right now though.

Beyond the current losing streak, there’s a greater concern with Jimbo playing on the road in his time as the Aggie head coach. To put it quite frankly – He sucks coaching road games in the maroon and white.

His overall Road Record is 8-14. That’s a 36% winning percentage. He’s basically won every third game on the road. Even if he somehow wins the remaining road games in 2023 he’d be 30% in his last 10 road games. That’s terrible.

Winning those three games would be a REMARKABLE achievement but he’s still in a massive hole from a road-winning standpoint in Aggieland. He just hasn’t won on the road since he got to College Station.

Want more concerning data about Jimbo as a road head coach? His Non-2020 Road Record is 4-13. FOUR AND THIRTEEN IN ROAD GAMES NOT IN 2020!!!! That’s a 24% winning percentage so he’s just winning one out of every four games on the road except for 2020. That season DEFINITELY looks like a massive anomaly right now.

Want EVEN MORE concerning data about Jimbo as a road head coach? Take a look at his 8 road wins and the regular season record for each school.

Road Wins:

2018 South Carolina (7-5)
2019 Ole Miss (4-8)
2020 Miss St (3-7)
2020 South Carolina (2-8)
2020 Auburn (6-4)
2020 Tennessee (3-7)
2021 Colorado (4-8)
2021 Missouri (6-6)

Look at the list again.

Notice anything interesting? That’s right, only TWO of those EIGHT teams have a winning record and even then they’re both just one game above .500. Not an 8-4 team or better in Jimbo’s eight road wins as the Aggie head coach. 22 tries.

Jimbo hasn’t beaten a single team that a normal person would define as a good team in the year he beat them. He’s simply beaten crappy teams on the road. That should be expected for ANY coach much less a man with a 10-year, $95 million contract.

There is certainly no road upset in his 5+ years as Aggie Head Coach. He could have had one last year in Tuscaloosa had he given the ball to Devon Achane but you’ve heard that from me enough. Jimbo outsmarted himself that day.

He has yet to beat an 8-4 team or better on the road in his Aggieland tenure. Read that again and let it soak in. That’s a pitiful showing in 22 attempts. 22 attempts and he hasn’t beaten an 8-4 team in their house.

I know the SEC is tough but that’s pretty damn bad. That’s simply a man who has no clue how to handle road games.

Tennessee and LSU are almost certain losses this year. I felt that way before the Miami game and feel it even more after that game.

If Lane Kiffin finds out this information Ole Miss will be an even tougher game. I do feel Ole Miss is beatable this year but Lane likes to take it up a notch against Jimbo. He doesn’t need any more reason to want to beat Jimbo.

Jimbo is going to have to either buck a serious road game trend or be perfect at Kyle and JerryWorld to go 8-4 in 2023. Even then that’ll be a massive disappointment yet again.

I’d be curious if anyone at A&M has discussed this with Jimbo. This is VERY concerning since the schedule requires us to go on the road and play games against good teams in the SEC.

How in the hell are we ever going to win the SEC West if we can’t beat 8-4 teams or better in their house? We can’t and we won’t. It’s that simple.

I’m sure Jimbo thinks it’s just some weird data and there’s nothing he needs to do to address it. It’s the ref’s fault, the painted turf, a faked snap cadence, the pH of the water in road stadiums, bed bugs, or whatever else he likes to blame. It sure as hell couldn’t be the fault of the head coach who’s had 22 opportunities.

Unlike Willie I have to imagine deep down inside Jimbo would rather not get on the road again.

Maybe we all need a little of what Willie keeps on his tour bus so the pain of Jimbo’s ineptitude isn’t so sharp…

Shut Up and Win, Jimbo.

Thoughts On The Miami Game

R.C. Slocum once famously said that half the teams in college football lose every week. That comment infuriated me at the time but now in Year 6 of Jimbo Fisher I realize how prophetic R.C. was.

The Aggies are just going to lose important games here and there. Stop thinking things are going to change.

Silly me. Here I was thinking yet again that things would FINALLY change with Aggie Football. In Week 2 of Jimbo Fisher’s sixth season, we all got a dose of reality. Some of the names associated with Jimbo’s time in Aggieland may change but the results are going to continue.

I mean, half the teams in college football lose every week. Sometimes it’s going to be the Aggies.

As for the game itself, I don’t know where to start.

I’ll start with the fact if you told me the Aggies would score 33 points while limiting Miami to under 100 yards rushing with no rushing touchdowns I would have been certain the Aggies won. I wouldn’t have even questioned it.

That’s what happened and somehow the Aggies lost.

I’m not going to do my usual breakdown of groups on both sides of the ball because the issue on Saturday afternoon was coaching. Sure, there were certainly miscues by players at times but by and large coaching lost the game on Saturday.

HC Jimbo didn’t do anything different than OC Jimbo. Jimbo didn’t see what Miami was doing and made enough adjustments on both sides of the ball. We’ve seen this same movie several times now. It just has a different title and names from time to time.

Miami did two things on Saturday that Jimbo and his staff refused to address during the game:
1) Apply pressure off the edges on defense.
2) Attack the Aggie defense through the air.

Miami’s Defensive Pressure:

Miami did an obvious job of watching film from last year and even last week. The Aggies are susceptible to pressure from the edge. It was the Achilles Heel last season and even against New Mexico, we struggled to pick up pressure via the blitz.

The Miami staff likely realized they have much better athletes than New Mexico and they could apply pressure. They were right. Time and time again Miami brought pressure from the edge where Conner could never get comfortable.

I thought Conner played a decent enough game but he was barely a 60% passer. He could have been a much more effective passer if the coaching staff had addressed the pressure off the edges.

Most importantly, the backside pressure that Miami applied all night long. There were several times we let a Miami defender run untouched from the left side of our line. We weren’t even chipping him with our running back. The running back was flaring out into the flat as a safety valve but Conner never hit him.

I don’t know why Conner never hit the running back right out of the backfield to see if they could slow down that backside pressure. It seemed obvious when that pressure was coming and that defender was allowed to run free. We never took advantage of the space they were leaving even though it seemed obvious they were coming. We hit that back flaring out a couple of times for decent gains and that pressure likely goes away. At least slow it down some.

I was also hoping Conner would have stared that pressure down giving him a juke to buy more time. He never did that. I think Conner can juke a blitzer and buy more time but for some reason, he never tried it.
Instead, all he did was let that pressure dictate how quickly he got rid of the ball. That edge pressure never let our offense settle in and make the plays we wanted. We simply passed the ball sooner than we wanted to.

At least that’s what it looked like. Way too many Miami defenders running untouched and unaccounted for in the backfield.

Some of why Conner went from an 80% passer to a 60% passer in one week is because of the Miami athletes but a big part of it was Miami’s scheme. The Miami defense simply did what other defenses did against us last year. Make the Aggie quarterback throw before they want to.

Jimbo and Petrino have to address this pressure off the edges and cause teams to stop doing it. That happens through scheme and coaching.

Lack of Aggie Defensive Pressure:

Conversely, because A&M under D.J. Durkin rarely blitzes or applies pressure the Miami coaching staff smartly realized they could attack downfield because Van Dyke would have more time.

The ironic thing about all of this is Miami is a running team at heart. Durkin got ripped last season for not stopping the run. The Aggie team did a REMARKABLE job of stopping the run against Miami.
It was clear the Aggie defense was committed to not letting Miami run the ball. They succeeded in doing that.

The problem is Miami adapted by attacking the Aggie defense through the air. Jimbo and Durkin never adapted to that threat.

The Aggies had two sacks but had exactly ZERO quarterback hurries. Not a single one. At least according to the stat sheet on the A&M website.

Van Dyke attempted 30 passes and wasn’t hurried on a single one.

Durkin was so focused on stopping the run he had NOTHING in his arsenal to apply pressure or confuse the Miami offense to make mistakes in the passing game. A lot of that is on Durkin but at some point, Jimbo needs to ask on the headset if Durkin has any unique blitzes he can call.

Don’t forget Durkin works for Jimbo and Jimbo needs to be held accountable for what happens on defense as well. Jimbo has a set of eyes and can question the in-game planning.

All the Aggie defense did was send their four down linemen upfield while the linebackers waited to see where the ball was going. I feel like we sent a linebacker a time or two but we sure as hell didn’t disguise anything with our secondary at the line of scrimmage to make it look like we might blitz.

We just had our four down linemen and two linebackers in position all game long while the secondary stood back waiting to see what happened. We did nothing to confuse or pressure the Miami passing attack.

We have a TON of defensive line talent and I thought Cooper and York were fine at linebacker on Saturday. However, you have to scheme against good teams to give them looks they’re not prepared for. I didn’t see any of that on Saturday.

I simply saw a defense that thought they could be very basic and out talent the opponent. It didn’t work. Miami has enough talent to overcome a basic defensive plan.

Coaching Mattered:

Miami did the exact opposite of Jimbo and his staff by scheming and adjusting during the game. Cristobal got the best of Jimbo.

I know that’s not a lot of analysis on the game but if you watched the game it was the Same Old Jimbo that’s stubborn as hell at in-game adjustments. I don’t know if he can’t see it or just isn’t prepared for it.

I’ll give Jimbo and his staff credit the original game plan worked. We moved the ball for a quarter and a half and shut down the Miami run. The problem is Miami realized that and adjusted.

It’s like Jimbo walks into a game with a set plan and if it’s not working or stops working then he’ll be damned because he’s going to force it to work. Yet time and time again it doesn’t.

Saturday was no different. There are now at least 10 games in the last three seasons where Jimbo could have made a few adjustments to win a game but he didn’t. He just comes in with a plan and keeps repeating it hoping it’ll work rather than adjust it.

Meanwhile, the coaching staff on the other side of the field is making adjustments to their plan of attack.
It’s getting really old.

Looking Forward:

I had this Aggie team at 9-3 in 2023. I think that’s a little ambitious at this point. There are probably three to four more losses based on what we saw on Saturday. That will put us at 7-5 or 8-4. It’ll be better than last year but it’ll still be a VERY frustrating season.

The good news is the SEC and especially the SEC West looks down this season. The Aggies have the talent to run the table. I’m not kidding. This team has enough talent and there’s not a team the Aggies can’t beat.

I said earlier this year that until we were done with Tennessee we won’t truly know what we have for the 2023 season. I still feel that way but what I saw on Saturday doesn’t make me feel any better.

Jimbo and his crew will decide how many games the Aggies win for the rest of the year.

This is still a VERY talented team. Talent isn’t the issue at all. It’s all coaching and it starts with the man with the title of Head Coach.

It’s up to you, Jimbo. Aggie fans will just be here sitting on our hands hoping you can figure out something that’s different than the last two seasons and what we saw on Saturday.

A few names have changed on your staff but the product on the field hasn’t changed much.
It’s getting old, buddy.

Just Win, Jimbo.

Thoughts From the New Mexico Game

Overall:

I’m beginning with the most obvious thing from Saturday night – For the first time in a long time, it seemed like an Aggie football team was prepared for their first opponent of the season.

I know it’s just New Mexico who’s not that great but this Aggie team came out with a plan and executed it to damn near perfection. It was refreshing to see.

In addition to the overall execution, it seemed Jimbo may have changed as a coach. The most telling of this was at the end of the first half when he was calling preserved timeouts to get the ball back with less than a minute to go in the game.

I feel like “OC Jimbo” would have let New Mexico run out the clock and get to halftime. “HC Jimbo” was wanting the ball back for another possession already up 35-7. Those timeouts resulted in a blocked field goal but that was a smart use of timeouts. It gave us an extra field goal attempt in a game situation. You can’t simulate that in practice.

The kick got blocked so we obviously needed the practice.

The worst part of the game was the opening possession of the second half. The Aggies got the ball to start the second half and immediately got a substitution penalty before they ever took a snap. How the hell does that happen coming out of halftime? The Aggie offense then had a 3 and out resulting in a punt. I saw flashes of 2022 Aggie Football all over again.

They got the ship righted and scored 17 points in the second half so that drive seemed like just a blip. I was worried for a moment. Decades of Aggie Football will cause trauma to a person.

It’s only one game against New Mexico but I felt Jimbo managed this game as a true head coach. Of course, it’s easy to manage when your units are having their way for the most part. However, Jimbo seemed to be a true head coach and not just an offensive coordinator moonlighting as a head coach as well.

Offense:

Play Calling:

The main thing I remember about great Bobby Petrino’s offenses is his ability to not complicate things and attack obvious opportunities. That’s exactly what he did on Saturday night. New Mexico was essentially daring the Aggies to pass by loading up the box and committing to the run. They weren’t giving their defensive backs any help so Bobby decided to just go at them. No need to complicate it.

If they’re going to give you something then take it.

If I have one complaint about the playcalling on Saturday night it’s that I didn’t see any creative play designs. They weren’t needed so I do agree with why call them if they’re not needed.

As we face tougher teams I hope we have unique playcalls that haven’t been seen before to surprise a defense.

One game at a time…

Quarterback:

Not much to say about Conner Weigman other than he looked OUTSTANDING. I was SHOCKED to learn he only threw for 236 yards. It felt like he was constantly lighting up the New Mexico defense. That’s a testament to our defense for the field position our offense started with.

He was 18 for 23 passing which is almost 80%. I know it’s New Mexico but he was accurate as hell.

His best pass by far was his final touchdown pass to Evan Stewart. He hit Stewart in perfect stride running away from his defender in the end zone. It wasn’t an easy pass but Conner put it right on the money. That’s the photo above so you can see the perfect placement.

You can critique some of his throws as he probably should have let them go a little sooner but by and large, he threw passes only his receivers could catch and defenders couldn’t defend. Once again, I know it’s New Mexico but it’s always good to see a quarterback not only make smart decisions but execute on those decisions. Conner saw the obvious plays early and executed them quickly.

From a running standpoint, he had a nice scramble but it seems the plan for Weigman is to use his arm over his legs. I’m good with that.

I know a lot of Aggies want to compare him to Johnny but I think he’s more of a Patrick Mahomes-type quarterback. He has elite decision-making and accuracy with above-average scrambling ability. If we get the second coming of Patrick Mahomes in college I’m not going to complain about it one bit.

He’s likely not going to put up gaudy numbers like some quarterbacks but he’s making smart decisions leading his offense to points. That’s WAY more important than gaudy numbers.

Zero complaints about number 15 on Saturday night.

Running Backs:

The running backs split carries about as equally as you can on Saturday night. New Mexico was focused on not letting the Aggies get loose on the ground containing the Aggie running game for the most part.

The Aggies still managed to gain 102 yards on 20 carries with their three running backs which is 5 yards a carry. That’s not a bad yards per carry at all.

Individually they all look different. Amari Daniels looks like the most explosive back by far. His issue is that he doesn’t seem to have much patience to watch holes develop. If there’s a hole he’s going to get a chunk of yards but if there’s not a hole he’s getting stopped.

Laveon Moss looks like he’s lost a little weight but is definitely the physical back of the three. He converted a nice 3rd and 1 at the 2-yard line for a touchdown. He looks like the short yardage back. His problem is he seems to get banged up quite a bit. He limped off the field a couple of times and even went to the locker room once. He seemed to be fine though as he kept going back out.

Rueben Owens got 7 carries for 26 yards which isn’t spectacular but he is a true freshman playing in his first college game. He’s got the most talent but just needs to get some experience.

It’ll be interesting to see how things develop. It seems like Petrino is willing to use all three until a hot hand emerges.

Receivers:

The night at receiver belonged to Evan Stewart and Noah Thomas. We all know about Stewart’s talent and Thomas came on strong last year.

They both had a night scoring 5 touchdowns between them. Much like Weigman it’s a little shocking to learn Stewart only had 115 yards receiving and Thomas 74 yards. It seemed like they had 300 yards between them.

As mentioned earlier New Mexico dared the Aggies to beat them one-on-one and that’s exactly what Wiegman and his pass catchers did. These guys are dialed into one another when it comes to throwing and catching.

Ainias had a couple of nice catches as did Moose late in the game.

The surprise of the night was Jahdae Walker. I heard he had a good camp but he made a couple of nice catches to show he can carry practice over to a game. He looks like he’s going to add some solid depth to our receiving group.

All of these guys are going to get used differently week to week depending on what the defense does. When it’s man you’re likely going to see Stewart and Thomas shine. When it’s zone coverage I think we’ll see a lot of Ainias, Moose, and the tight ends.

Just let the defense decide how they should be attacked.

Offensive Line:

THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS GROUP WAS NO FALSE STARTS AND NO HOLDING PENALTIES.

These guys looked like an actual unit on Saturday night. They weren’t dominant by any stretch as the running game couldn’t quite get going and Weigman had pressure from time to time. That was mainly due to numbers but there were a couple of snafus so they weren’t perfect.

However, for the most part, they played like an actual unit which was a far cry from last year when they were flat out lost at times.

They’ll have a big test against Miami this weekend but this was a good first step for this unit.

Defense:

Overall:

This unit wasn’t completely dominant as they gave up 255 yards but they looked impressive for most of the night save for a few passes and one run. They seemed to play better as the night wore on.

A lot of guys got significant playing time so looks like we might have legit depth across the whole defense. Hope I didn’t say that too early…

I did see us in a 3-man front a few times. It’s obvious Durkin doesn’t read Aggie message boards. Or maybe he does…

All in all, it was a good night.

If I have one complaint it’s the lack of pressure resulting in sacks but the New Mexico quarterback wasn’t holding the ball very long. He didn’t seem comfortable and was letting the ball fly. Their starting quarterback was a 60% passer for 115 yards. He was just letting the ball fly as soon as he could so not a lot of sack opportunities.

Defensive Line:

This group played a TON of guys on Saturday night just like you would have guessed.

Walter Nolen looks like he’s ready to take that next step. McKinley Jackson looked solid.

Everyone who played had moments where they looked great. It’s hard to single out everyone’s play because so many guys played and looked great together. You want to see these guys playing as one on every snap and that’s basically what they did.

The most impressive play of the night was when Shermar Stewart ran down New Mexico’s running back for a 7-yard loss. He unfortunately grabbed the running back’s facemask but his display of speed for a man his size was unreal. If he misses his facemask it’s a total highlight reel play.

We know what this group is capable of. On Saturday they showed they have a ton of depth and talent and it’s going to be hard on offensive units going up against this group.

They’ll get tested in a big way on Saturday as Miami is going to want to impose their will. We’ll find out real quick if they’re up for the challenge.

Linebackers:

Ladies and gentlemen, the Fightin’ Texas Aggies may have a rotation of linebackers for the first time in I can’t remember when.

Edge Cooper, Taurean York, JD Davis, and Chris Russell all got snaps at linebacker. Cooper looked like his 2021 self making a lot of plays. Davis seemed to be around the ball quite a bit.

A little hard to fully judge this group on Saturday night due to the opponent but it looks like we do have depth and talent at the linebacker position for the first time in a long time. Damn. That feels good to say.

I’m interested to see if two guys separate themselves from the rest of the group. I think Cooper is on his way but curious if Davis or York start getting the majority of the snaps next to Cooper.

We’ll also find out more about these guys in Miami. They’re going to have to step up and stop the run. They can’t blow assignments or Miami will gash us on the ground.

Secondary:

I’m repeating myself but I’m not sure what else to say about this group. These guys showed up spending most of the night in the right places.

They too played a ton of people and they all looked really good.

The safety trio of Demani Richardson, Bryce Anderson, and Jardin Gilbert looked as expected. These guys are legit.

Tyreek Chappell was solid as usual.

For me, the surprise of the night was Josh DeBerry. We’ve been wondering who was going to take the other corner across from Chappell. If Saturday night was any indicator that question has been answered by Josh DeBerry.

He’s a fifth-year senior from Boston College but he was all over the place on Saturday night. He leads the team with 7 solo tackles, a sack, an interception, a pass breakup, AND a quarterback hurry.

It’s just one game but it was a hell of a performance.

True freshman Dalton Brooks even flashed on a couple of plays.

Like the rest of the defensive unit, I feel good about this group based on what happened on Saturday night.

Special Teams:

You saw it. We botched a field goal attempt and nailed the other attempt. Our punter only punted twice. Not much to talk about with field goals and punting.

Ainias looks like he’s still fearless on punts which isn’t a bad thing.

We covered kicks and punts well.

Looking Ahead to Miami:

I watched a good portion of “The Battle of Miamis” on Friday night.

The U didn’t do anything special and just leaned on the Ohio Miami. Their quarterback, Van Pelt, looked decent but he didn’t look spectacular by any stretch. He looked like he did last year. He’s a decent enough quarterback but I don’t think he’s going to light the world on fire.

I think we’re going to see a similar Miami from last year with a little more talent. They going to try and establish the line of scrimmage and keep our offense off the field.

Defensively they’re going to see if they can expose our offensive line by shutting down the running game and applying pressure to Weigman. I have no idea if they can.

If this is a close game then I think Miami wins it simply because that’s the kind of game they want. I think HC Jimbo is going to want to apply pressure from a scoring standpoint early and often looking to make a statement. I don’t think HC Jimbo will want to grind this one out as it’ll work in Miami’s favor.

If we can grab an early lead I think the Aggies cruise to a victory.

If it’s a slugfest I think Jimbo’s second game struggles in Aggieland continue with a loss.

Either way, I can’t wait until Saturday at 2:30 so we can learn more about HC Jimbo.

College football is back, y’all.

2023 Aggie Season Prediction

Overall Thoughts:

Before I get into discussing each game I want to hit on a few points of how I feel about this team going into the 2023 season:

– There is enough front-line talent to compete in and potentially win every game. I feel good about all of our starters except the offensive tackles. They could be okay but those positions are my greatest concern going into 2023. I think we should be just fine everywhere else.

If you didn’t see or read my Aggie position group thoughts you can read them here – https://rcwouldhavegonefor2.com/2023/08/03/2023-aggie-position-preview/

– Jimbo has to coach differently. In his first five seasons, he’s been afraid to put the pedal down on offense and stress the opposing defense. In his first three seasons, I thought it was because he wanted to rely on his defense which I understood. However, the last two seasons have proven it’s just his style. It’s a new era in football and he must let his offense mash the gas from time to time.

– In addition to a new style of offense, Jimbo needs to see the whole game. There were at least three times last year where a timeout was called without thinking of the next play. They were all reactionary timeouts to what had just happened. He had no plan beyond the timeout. As the head coach Jimbo needs to be thinking about the next few plays even before the play in front of him has happened. Great coaches anticipate what can happen after a play occurs. I want to see more assertiveness in decision-making instead of waiting until the play clock has wound down. Have a plan for what you think you need to do before it happens. You can always adjust but if you’re good at anticipating you’re that much further ahead than the other team.

– We still play in the SEC West and even though it appears down this season it’s still the toughest division in college football. Throw in road trips to Miami and Tennessee and this is a challenging schedule. There’s no way we’re winning every game this season. There will be hiccups but just a question of how many.

– We’re going to have injuries. It’s just a matter of how many. I hope we have no more than five starters miss five games each. I think that’s reasonable. We have less than that and we’ll be good. More than that and it’s going to have a real effect on the team.

– Only 12 games matter in the grand scheme. All of what you’re about to read is a guess. It’s no different than anyone else that’s guessing right now as well. I’ve been extremely wrong the last two seasons as we’ve done MUCH worse than I anticipated. The win or loss on the field is the only thing that matters. I’m still waiting on Jimbo to get over that hump and into Atlanta the first weekend of December but I’m not sure we’re there yet.

– I’m ready for September 2nd to get here.

New Mexico:

This game is all about one person – Conner Weigman. I’m operating under the assumption Conner will be our starting quarterback. If not, this game will be about Max Johnson.

This is not a scrimmage and it’s not a practice. It’s a full-blown dress rehearsal and the starting quarterback better be ready to annihilate the defense. Maybe not annihilate but our offense should have our way against New Mexico at the hands of Conner or Max.

What I don’t want to see is a repeat of Haynes King against Kent State and Sam Houston State. In 2021 we lead Kent State 10-3 going into the half. Last year against Sam Houston we lead 17-0 at the half.

I want to see a starting quarterback chomping at the bit to hand it to someone who’s not actually on his team. I want to see at least 28 points at halftime. Ideally, I’d like to see 35.

Despite what some fans think there’s no sandbagging or limiting plays in these first games against lesser opponents. There are simply players prepared to execute and players that aren’t. I want to see a quarterback prepared to execute their offense to their full ability along with everyone else. If not, we’re in trouble.

No struggles in the first half “working out the kinks.” Come out and play dominating football from the start.

Beyond the quarterback, I’d love to see us easily establish the running game and limit points on defense. I want to see 35-3 at half and 59-10 when it’s all said and done.

I’m dead serious I want to see a dominating blowout from start to finish. Give me a team that looks confident and prepared at kick-off.

The last thing I want is to go in at half with less than a three-touchdown lead. We need to set the tone for the 2023 season early and often.

Chance of winning – 100%.

Aggies: 1-0

Miami:

Did you know Jimbo is 1-4 in Game 2 during his time in Aggieland? His only Week 2 victory was that stinker in Colorado in 2021. That loss to Appalachian State last year was a much bigger indicator than we realized. 2020 has been the only anomaly when we had to play Bama in Week 2 and then totally turned it around after that game.

Even without knowing that stat I think this game is going to be a MASSIVE barometer for how the season is going to play out. We’re going to know pretty quickly what the 2023 Aggie Football team is going to look like. How we win or lose will be telling for the rest of the season.

We’re going on the road against a tough but beatable Miami team.

I think this game is a coin flip the Aggies win but I really want this to be Conner Weigman’s first true statement game. I want this to be Johnny Manziel in his second game against SMU in 2012. I want this to be Lamar Jackson in his second game against Syracuse in 2016. Bobby Petrino was Lamar Jackson’s coach that year. Both guys went on to win the Heisman after dazzling in their second game.

That’s what I want to happen but know that it’s a long shot.

I think what happens is similar to last year. The Aggie defense limits the Hurricane offense and the Aggie offense does enough to win this game.

I think we win.

Chance of winning – 50%.

Aggies: 2-0

Louisiana Monroe:

Jimbo has yet to lose a Game 3 as the Aggie head coach and I don’t see this game as being any different.

Chance of winning – 100%.

Aggies: 3-0

Auburn:

I’m not sure what to make of Auburn just yet. They were pretty dreadful last season even if all we could do was punt on our first 10 offensive possessions against them.

Hugh Freeze is a damn solid coach but I’m pretty confident Jimbo’s squad is much further along in 2023. I do like getting Auburn early in the season as I think they’ll get tougher as the season wears on.

Since joining the SEC in 2023 this has been a weird series. The road team has usually won this game but that hasn’t been the case the last two seasons and I think that trend holds.

I’m taking the Aggies here.

Chance of winning – 60%.

Aggies: 4-0

Arkansas:

What a series this has been. Other than 2021 when Arkansas had their best season in a decade the Aggies have won this game. It hasn’t been easy but somehow the Aggies have gotten the breaks and gone 11-1 against Arkansas since joining the SEC.

Arkansas returns their starting quarterback and running back from last season but they lost both coordinators.

This won’t be an easy win by any stretch but I’m taking the Aggies here due to the loss of coordinators for the Hogs.

Chance of winning – 60%

Aggies: 5-0

Alabama:

I have no clue what to make of this Alabama team. They also lost both of their coordinators but that’s never been an issue for Nick Saban.

The biggest question for this Alabama team is who’s going to play quarterback. Coming out of spring practice they went and got Tyler Buchner who was looking like Notre Dame’s backup quarterback this season. That’s not a good sign when you’re getting a backup quarterback after spring practice. Buchner is familiar with Tommy Rees who is the new Bama OC so that’s the reason they got him.

Because of the question mark at quarterback and because Bama lost TWO games in 2022 everyone believes the Bama dynasty is done. Bama lost both games on the road against rivals thanks to a game-ending field goal and overtime two-point conversion.

They lost two games by a combined 4 points and have a question at starting quarterback so the dynasty is over in a lot of people’s eyes.

I do think there are more questions of the 2023 Bama team than any team in the recent Saban era but they’re still Bama and coached by Nick Saban. I can’t write them off.

My heart says the Aggies pull this off but I need to see that Miami game first and how Bama looks in their first five games. My head says take Bama at the current moment.

Chance of winning – 35%.

Aggies: 5-1

Tennessee:

In the second half of last season, I thought the Tennessee Volunteers might be poised for a pretty decent drop-off in 2023. I thought Hendon Hooker and Jalin Hyatt were the secret sauce.

Then Tennessee dominated Clemson in the Orange Bowl with no Hendon Hooker or Jalin Hyatt. I get Clemson isn’t the national championship-caliber team they’ve been in the past. However, they’ve still got PLENTY of talent relative to most teams in college football and they couldn’t do anything against Tennessee in that game.

I think Josh Heupel is going to plug in Joe Milton at quarterback and keep rolling. Not saying the Aggies can’t win this game but it sure feels like a certain loss. Especially on the road.

There’s a good chance Tennessee is the best team in the SEC in 2023. What a year to draw them.

Chance of winning – 10%

Aggies: 5-2

Bye Week:

The Bye couldn’t come at a better time for us. It’ll be right after two of the toughest games on the schedule. I like to think we’ll be competitive in every game up until this point. If that’s the case I think we’ll use the Bye to regain our composure and set us up well for the final five games.

These final 5 game predictions are based solely on a belief that an A&M team has shown up every week and competed in the previous 7 games. If the wheels are wobbling or even off then the predictions for the final five games are total trash.

We’re going to find out everything we need to know about the 2023 Aggie season in the first seven games.

South Carolina:

Thanks to a kickoff returned for a touchdown and two early offensive turnovers the Gamecocks finally got to hold that coveted Bonham Trophy the Aggies have held every year since this “fierce” rivalry started in 2014.

Shane Beamer has some real momentum in South Carolina right now and has Spencer Rattler coming back for another season. I don’t think it’ll be enough as the Aggies want that Bonham Trophy back.

The Aggies be coming off another bye week like last season against South Carolina but I don’t think they’ll make the same mistakes they made in Columbia so the Aggies take this one.

Chance of winning – 60%.

Aggies: 6-2

Ole Miss:

Thanks to Jimbo’s blindness and stubbornness, Lane Kiffin has pulled down Jimbo’s pants the last two seasons.

I like to think that trend stops this season as Ole Miss completely collapsed down the stretch last season. I think that trend continues in 2023 and Ole Miss has a pretty tough season from a record standpoint.

Ole Miss has a lot of talent at quarterback but I question the rest of their team. They still have decent talent but not on the level of A&M assuming we’re mostly healthy. If we’re healthy we should win this game.

I secretly hope this is the year that Jimbo and Durkin enact their revenge on Kiffin’s smart-ass comments by blowing the doors off Ole Miss at their home. I want Kiffin embarrassed in front of his home crowd.

My guess is it’ll be another tough-fought game the Aggies barely eke out. Either way, a win over Ole Miss is a win over Ole Miss and I’ll take it.

Chance of winning – 60%.

Aggies: 7-2

Mississippi State:

We get Mississippi State at Kyle which is a huge help. We don’t do well in Starkville.

I feel bad for Mississippi State as they have to replace Mike Leach so this feels like a transition year for them. I think that will be reflected in their record.

It won’t be easy but I think this is a win for the Aggies. Just too many question marks for Mississippi State in 2023.

Chance of winning – 70%

Aggies: 8-2

Abilene Christian:

The final home game of 2023 will be against Abilene Christian. I can’t tell you how excited I will be when the SEC goes to a 9 game schedule and this meaningless game in November is gone.

My only question for this game is what the weather will be like and how many folks show up.

Chance of winning – 100%.

Aggies 9-2

LSU:

I look at LSU like I look at Alabama to a degree. They get the benefit of the doubt due to roster talent and history. That’s a good enough reason because it’s held.

The problem I have with LSU is that I don’t think their roster is as deep as it’s been in seasons past. They still have really good talent at key starting spots but I don’t think they’re as talented and as deep as in past seasons.

I also don’t think Jayden Daniels is a game-changing quarterback against talented teams. He’s extremely talented so I think he’ll beat a lot of equal or less teams but I don’t think he’s an elite quarterback that can elevate his game against top defenses. At least not his passing game.

If LSU doesn’t win in overtime against Alabama they’re an 8-4 team and the clear 4th best team in the SEC in 2022. Because of that, I can’t quite figure out what to think of LSU going into 2023.

I think the Aggies stand a really good chance to win this game with their defense. However, going into Death Valley on a Saturday night has proven to be tough for the Aggies.

There’s just too much football to be played before this game to know the outcome right now.

I think this is a coinflip game the Tigers win simply because it’s in Baton Rouge.

Chances of winning – 50%.

Aggies: 9-3

Summary:

Until I see improvement on the field I can’t help but predict better than 9-3. I’ve been burned by Jimbo for the last two seasons. Plus, the SEC West with road trips to Miami and Tennessee is a tall order for a team coming off 5-7.

I feel like this is a 10-2 to 8-4 team.

The talent is there to win the SEC West but I don’t know if the head coaching is there. I need Jimbo to prove it on the field first.

Just Win, Jimbo

2023 Aggie Position Preview

Offense:

Coordinator:

I’m lukewarm on the Bobby Petrino hire. I think it’s a solid hire. I don’t think it’s the magical elixir that solves all of the Aggies offensive woes from last season.

Having someone with Petrino’s experience and ability to focus on the offense will be an improvement over 2022. I have zero doubt our offense will be better in 2023. I just don’t know how much better since Petrino and the offensive talent will have to mesh together.

Petrino won’t be the sole reason the Aggies all of a sudden break out if they do.

I know it’s popular to tout offensive geniuses by the media but the reality is there are very few. There is not one offensive coordinator in college football that consistently puts out a dominating offense. Lincoln Riley is probably the closest but I think he’s more a product of quarterback talent and playing in conferences with little to no defense. He’s never had to grind an offense in a conference with defense.

Can you name the offensive coordinators for Georgia’s back-to-back titles? Steve Sarkisian was Bama’s OC in 2020. Joe Brady was the hottest name in sports in 2019 but turns out maybe it was the collection of talent and not just his influence.

Do you even know who Tony Elliott and Jeff Scott are? They were the Co-OCs for the 2018 and 2016 Clemson national champions. Brian Daboll was the OC for Bama in 2017. Lane Kiffin did it for Bama in 2015. Some guy named Tom Herman did it for Ohio State in 2014.

Hopefully, you get my drift a new offensive coordinator is just a single component of a championship football team. There is no schematic advantage as some like to pretend. At the end of the day the best offensive coordinators get the most out of their talent by running a system everyone understands.

I do believe Petrino will advance this offense and let the talent do what it can do. I just don’t think Petrino has some key that will unlock this offense to something better than everyone else’s in college football.

Quarterback:

Jimbo has been playing coy this summer saying there’s a quarterback battle coming into summer camp. I hope he’s wrong.

I’m Max Johnson’s #1 fan but this better be Conner Weigman’s team from the jump. He offers the most upside with his mobility and arm.

Weigman still has a MASSIVE leap to make to live up to his billing but I see no reason why he can’t do it. Nobody knew who Johnny Manziel, Jameis Winston, Joe Burrow, or even Max Duggan was coming into their breakout year.

Conner isn’t getting a ton of press coming into the 2023 season which I’m okay with. Guys tend to come from nowhere with breakout seasons rather than live up to some artificial hype by the media and fans.

If Conner struggles or gets hurt I feel we’re in good hands with Max as the backup but I’m hopeful Conner breaks out like he has the talent to do.

Wide Receiver:

We have the most starting receiver talent since the 2012 season. Evan Stewart can be one of the leading receivers in college football. Moose Muhammed has a knack for big catches and we know what a healthy Ainias Smith can do. Add Noah Thomas to the mix and there’s enough talent to finally be productive at the receiver position.

We haven’t had a productive receiver since Jimbo took over in 2018. We’ve had some receivers flash in moments and over a few games but we haven’t had someone and especially a full unit truly produce for a full season.

Hopefully, Jimbo’s sixth year is the year we have some receivers produce every game all season long. The starting talent is certainly there.

We have some talented youth but I’d rather not find out if they can produce. Let’s hope the starters stay healthy and live up to their talent.

Tight Ends:

Like the receiving talent, Donovan Green and Jake Matthews should be big contributors to this offense. Green especially looked good at times last year. I think these two guys can stress a defense by giving the defense a lot more to defend from a passing standpoint.

Max Wright is back for his 12th season it feels like. He’s not going to be super productive as a receiver but he’s proven to be a worthy blocker and sneaky pass catcher when defenses aren’t paying attention.

I hope this unit doesn’t cover a good portion of receiving yards like under Jimbo in the past five years. It’s time for our actual receivers to catch a lot more than our tight ends.

I do believe this unit will be a massive asset in the passing game allowing the entire passing game to finally flourish.

Running Back:

I’m a little nervous about the running back position simply because none of these guys have any experience. We have talent and depth with Moss, Daniels, and Owens so I’m hopeful a couple of these guys can turn into a nice tandem.

I do think their success is going to be more of a product of the offensive line than their own doing. If they have holes to run through they’ll be productive.

They’re not going to create yards on their own as Devon Achane did. That’s not a knock but more what Achane brought to the table. He was special.

Oh, if Jimbo had given the ball to Achane on the last play against Alabama we would have beaten them in back-to-back years. Just a little reminder…

Offensive Line:

This unit right here will be the biggest key to the Aggies success in 2023.

If healthy we have one of the best interiors in college football. Kam Dewberry, Bryce Foster, and Layden Robinson can be as good as any interior in college football. I won’t go so far as to say they’re hands down the best in college football but they’re up there. These guys have the talent and experience to be great.

Tackle is where we have the biggest question marks and will be the biggest key. Appalachian State exposed our two tackles last year. They showed if you just bull rushed the outside shoulder of our two tackles you could usually have your way with them.

Deuce Fatheree took a massive step back in 2022 but I’m hoping he can regain his 2021 form and improve on it.

I feel bad for Trey Zuhn last year as he was playing with a dislocated kneecap. How in the world we had a starting left tackle with a dislocated kneecap is beyond me but apparently, that happened.

Reports from spring practice is that true freshman Chase Bisontis is challenging for a starting spot. No offense to Zuhn or Fatheree but I hope it’s true. Let’s get some competition and find the best pair of offensive tackles we can.

I have no problem with a true freshman playing offensive tackle. I don’t think Bisontis will be on the level of Luke Joeckel or Jake Matthews as a true freshman but I’m not against it if he’s willing to compete and earn the spot.

We just need to find two offensive tackles that are assets and not liabilities. I don’t care which two it is and on which side of the line. We do that and this offense is going to take a massive leap.

Defense:

Coordinator:

I’m one of the few Aggies that isn’t completely down on D.J. Durkin. I certainly experienced frustrations with him in 2022 but I saw a lot more good than I saw bad. If Petrino and the offensive line step up then this defense is going to have a much bigger margin of error.

It’s MUCH easier to defend a lead than play defense against an offense just trying to wear you down.

I might be proven wrong but I think Durkin and this defense take a massive step in 2023 for a host of reasons. These mainly include a second year in his system, experienced youth, and a more productive offense.

I’m not saying this will be the best defense in college football but I think this can be a Top 10 defense and good enough to win the SEC West when it’s all said and done.

Defensive Line:

This unit right here is why I think this can be a Top 10 defense. It’s still a little young but the talent and depth are as good as any team in the country.

McKinley Jackson and Walter Nolen will anchor the middle. Both of these guys have first-round NFL talent. They can be unblockable at times destroying an offensive line. Behind them are Isaiah Raikes, Albert Regis, and Gabriel Brownlow-Dindy. They’ll all rotate to some degree which is a massive luxury in the SEC.

At defensive end, it’ll likely be Shemar Turner and Fadil Diggs starting but the depth is even more impressive with Shemar Stewart, LT Overton, Enai White, and Malick Sylla providing depth. LT Overton should have been in high school last year. Instead, he was holding his own against SEC opponents. I’m excited about him simply because of how young he is and what he did last season.

You also have true freshman DJ Hicks who’s going to find playing time. It’s uncertain if he’ll be at end or in the middle but he’s going to see snaps.

On most defenses, Hicks would likely be a day-one starter but with this defensive line, he’s going to have time to acclimate. That tells you the amount of depth and talent this unit has.

If I have one concern about this unit is the lack of a true pass rusher. I’m not going to complain too much as I think with the right scheme we’ll be able to apply pressure from different areas.

This unit has been the heart and soul of Jimbo’s teams and this year will be no different. I think it will be the best unit he’s had in six years of Aggieland. That’s quite the statement as there have been some solid defensive lines in the last five years

If the Aggies win the SEC West it will be because of this unit.

Linebackers:

I’m interested to see what Durkin does at linebacker mainly because he’s coaching this unit now. It’s all his.

We’ve been running a 4-2-5 for a while now so we’re only using two linebackers which makes sense because offenses are more spread out.

Coming into the season Chris Russell and Edge Cooper look like the obvious starters. I think Cooper is an obvious starter if he’s healthy simply because of his talent and experience. Russell is long on experience since he’s a senior but I think he’s going to get pushed by Taurean York and Jurriente Davis. York is a 3-star freshman out of Temple but he’s 6’0″/230 so he has size. He was the three-time district defensive MVP. He seems like a defensive football player and football instincts matter at linebacker more than any other position.

Jurriente Davis is a transfer from Jackson St. He goes 6’1″/235 so he also has size. I know Jackson St. isn’t the level of competition as the SEC but he was productive at Jackson St. At worst he provides some nice depth where we need it.

Backing up Cooper will be Martrell Harris who looked good at times last year and true freshman Daymion Sanford. Many think Sanford was the best linebacker in Texas high school last year.

We’re still short on SEC experience with this unit but I feel like there’s some depth and talent to not be a massive hole like we’ve seen in years past.

Secondary:

This unit is a slight question mark simply because the floor is lower than last year but the ceiling is higher.

The return of Demani Richardson is a MASSIVE boost. This doesn’t happen without NIL so thank goodness for that. He’ll be the anchor of this unit just like he’s been for the last couple of years. I don’t know if he’ll ever make it at the next level but he’s been an EXTREMELY productive member of our secondary. His knack for turnovers and scores are key reasons we beat Bama in 2021 along with Arkansas and LSU last year. Hopefully, he can keep on rolling.

Jardin Gilbert looks to fill the free safety spot which I’m okay with as he’s played well in his two years at A&M. Jacoby Mathews will be in the mix as well for both safety spots as he would have likely started if Demani didn’t come back.

Assuming those three guys stay healthy we’re going to be just fine at the safety spots.

Bryce Anderson looks to fill Antonio Johnson’s spot at Nickel which seems like a massive hole but I’m big on Bryce Anderson. The dude is an absolute athlete and played well last season. Jarred Kerr will back him up who played great in limited time last year. Great talent and depth here.

Strange to say but I think we’ll fill the hole of Antonio Johnson just fine.

At corner, it looks like Tyreek Chappell and Tony Grimes will start. Chappell has been a really good corner in his two years at A&M. Others may have more raw talent but Chappell can play football in the SEC. Give me production over talent any day.

Grimes is a transfer from UNC. He was the top-rated corner when he came out of high school and chose UNC over A&M at the time. He did pretty well at UNC but hadn’t quite flashed his true talent potential. Hopefully, he can make that leap in Aggieland as he has NFL talent.

Backing them up will be Sam McCall and Josh DeBerry who are also both transfers. McCall comes from Florida State where he didn’t see a ton of playing time but has plenty of talent. DeBerry is a senior from Boston College who started in the secondary for two years. He’s got plenty of experience. They add some great depth and flexibility to this unit as they both can play safety as well.

We’ve got some talented freshmen in Dalton Brooks and Bravion Rogers but I hope they’re not rushed into action this season.

If this unit stays healthy and lives up to its talent it can be one of the best secondaries in college football.

Couple that with our defensive line and a serviceable linebacker group and that’s why this could be a Top 10 defense in college football.

Special Teams:

Special Teams has never been anything special under Jimbo other than the raw talent of the individuals. We had some swing moments with special teams in 2022 when Mississippi State blocked a field goal attempt and returned it for a touchdown. Then South Carolina opened the game with a kick-off return for a touchdown we never recovered from.

Maybe with his new role as “CEO Coach,” he’ll spend some time making sure special teams are sharp and even having a few wrinkles. I doubt it, but it’s more possible than someone whose main focus was calling offensive plays.

Nik Constantinou returns to punt the ball. He’s been a solid punter for a couple of seasons now.

Randy Bond comes back to kick field goals after taking over when Caden Davis buried his foot before the ball against Appalachian State. Yes, I’m still frustrated by that botched attempt. Bond was solid enough last season.

I’m assuming Ainias will return punts which I’m totally fine with. If not him it’ll be Moose.

No clue who will return kicks. Maybe it’ll be a combination of a running back and receiver since we have a little depth there.

I don’t expect a lot from our special teams. I just don’t want them to potentially cost us games like they did in 2022.

Summary:

Top to bottom at the starting positions I feel good about what we have other than our offensive tackle position. It’s potentially there but it’s the biggest question coming into the season. We solidify those two spots along with staying mostly healthy and we can win any game on the schedule.

We can afford a handful of guys missing a handful of games but not much more.

We won’t win every game but the front-line talent is there to compete in every game. That’s all you can ask for the SEC West.

Winning will come down to coaching which includes planning, preparation, and execution. It’ll also involve no longer blaming the players for lack of execution.

At some point when you’re in charge of players who aren’t executing what you’re telling them, you might want to look in the mirror. I’m hoping there’s at least one mirror in the head coach’s office when things go wrong in 2023.

Hopefully, Jimbo starts looking in the mirror for the whole team’s performance instead of his playsheet for the next offensive play.

Just Win, Jimbo.

How Bad Was D.J. Durkin in 2022?

I’ve heard and read a lot of complaints related to D.J. Durkin and the 2022 Aggie Defense. My overall thoughts of Durkin’s defense in 2022 were it wasn’t as bad as most people made it out to be. I thought the 2022 Aggie Defense played much better than the 5-7 record showed. I felt the anemic offense was a MUCH bigger issue and the defense got unwarranted blame because the offense was just so putrid.

I went back and looked at each game looking at high-level stats to see if I could put some level of objectivity to grading the 2022 Aggie Defense. You can find those here.

Beyond those raw stats above I went back and looked at details from each game via the box scores. Mainly I was looking at scoring rhythms and what stuff lead to scores along with a few stats of specific players.

This is in no way a scientific analysis but more looking at the whole body of work by the Aggie defense in 2022. I felt there were some obvious imperfections but as a whole it was a decent enough defense to win more games than the 5-7 record showed.

Before I get to reviewing the 2022 Aggie Defense I need to point out we were spoiled for 4 years with Mike Elko at the helm. Mike Elko is a defensive genius. That dude can run circles around any other defensive coordinator in college football. Some are close to being as good as Elko but not many.
There was no way the 2022 Aggie Defense was going to be as good as what we’d seen in Jimbo’s first 4 seasons. It was going to drop off but the question was how much.

I knew that going into 2022 so maybe that’s a factor in my analysis. Mike Elko isn’t walking back through that door. At least not as Defensive Coordinator…

Let’s get to the games…

Sam Houston State:

Not much to say here due to the competition and weather. The defense got to play one-half of football against an inferior opponent. It did fine holding Sam Houston to below 200 total yards, getting 2 turnovers, and shutting them out. Not much more you can ask for.

Appalachian State:

Ugh. Yes, this has to be discussed. I can’t put into words the disappointment of this loss.

This is the game where I think the defense gets a HORRIBLE rap. You hate to see the defense give up 181 rushing yards to an opponent of this level. Because of the anemic Aggie offense that day Appalachian State smartly decided to see if they could keep the ball away from the Aggie offense. It made perfect sense as the game wore on. Just hold onto the ball so the Aggie offense won’t have more chances to get going.

App State wasn’t ripping off big runs or plays. They were churning out 3-4 yards a carry burning clock. When it was all said and done App. State ran 82 plays compared to the Aggies’ 38 plays. That’s right, App. State ran over twice as many offensive plays as the Aggies.

From a time of possession standpoint, App State held the ball for 41:29 while the Aggies only held it for 18:31. The Aggie offense only converted 8 first downs and gained less than 200 yards of offense.
Jimbo’s vaunted Aggie offense put Durkin’s defense in a massive hole.

I don’t see how anyone can put any level of blame on the Aggie defense for this game.

While the defense could have stopped App. State on key 4th downs the Aggie defense should have never been put in the position where late 4th down conversions were so meaningful.

This loss is TOTALLY on Jimbo and his offensive blindness.

Miami:

This is a weird game to analyze because the Miami team wound up being so bad.

The Aggie defense gave up almost 400 yards to the Miami offense but kept them out of the endzone while the Aggie offense broke in a new starting quarterback.

The defense did plenty for the Aggies to win and the Aggie offense did just enough.

No issues here for me.

Arkansas:

Arkansas had a little over 400 yards of total offense. The Aggie offense would only muster 343 yards of offense.

This one is weird to analyze because if it wasn’t for the fumble return for a touchdown the Aggies lose this game and the defense looks horrible. That was a massive 14-point swing right before the half.

By far the worst part of this game was the 4th quarter touchdown given up to Arkansas and then letting Arkansas get in range for a chance to win the game with a field goal.

I do think the Aggie defense outplayed the Aggie offense in this game. While I’m disappointed in some things they did I’m not going to rail on them for a horrible performance.

They played well enough to win while the Aggie offense struggled to get and keep any momentum.

This is by far the luckiest win of the Jimbo era getting the key breaks in a game to go our way.

Mississippi State:

This is such a tough game to analyze from a defensive standpoint. Mike Leach pulled Jimbo’s pants down from the get-go and the entire Aggie team never had a chance of winning this game. Jimbo will tell you we were just a few plays away from winning this game but that’s pure denial on Jimbo’s part.

Mike Leach and his staff knew exactly what to expect from this Aggie team and exploited it.

Jimbo’s vaunted offense did nothing in the first half while Mississippi State scored a couple touchdowns in the 2nd quarter. We went into the half down 14-0.

We opened the second half with a long drive that resulted in an Aggie field goal. The score is 14-3 so there’s a chance the Aggies can come back.

Mississippi State gets the ball back and the Aggie defense forces a turnover on Mississippi State’s second play of the half. The Aggie defense gives the ball to the offense at the Mississippi State 32-yard line. VERY favorable field position for Jimbo and his offense to make a statement we’re back in this game.

What does the offense do? Fails to get a first down resulting in a 44-yard field goal attempt. A little deflating but at least we have a chance at some points to make it a one-score game.

What happens next? Mississippi State blocks the field goal and returns it for a touchdown. Instead of it being 14-6 it’s now 21-3 in Starkville. Game. Over.

The Aggie defense would give up 473 yards but the Aggies turned the ball over 4 times that game. That’s not exactly helping the defense. The final score was 42-24 but 14 of those points came off a blocked kick and a Haynes King interception return.

By far the worst moment for the defense that day was the Aggies scored a touchdown halfway through the 4th quarter to make it a 28-17 game. 11 points isn’t impossible with half a quarter of football.
Unfortunately, the Aggie defense gave up a 75-yard touchdown on Mississippi State’s very next offensive play and any hope of a comeback was dead in the water. Dead.

I’m giving the defense an “Incomplete” in this game. The offense didn’t help turning the ball over 4 times including a Pick 6 along with the special teams getting a field goal blocked and returned for a touchdown.

However, when the team needed a stop the Aggie defense couldn’t come up with one so they’re not clean in this game.

It was just another nightmare in Starkville where Mike Leach pulled down Jimbo’s pants because the game plan for the Aggies was so obvious.

R.I.P. – Pirate.

Alabama:

What everyone thought might be the game of the year in college football thanks to Jimbo’s offseason press conferences wound up being a big dud as both teams started their backup quarterbacks. The Battle of the Backups if you will.

Alabama started true freshman Jalen Milroe. I don’t think Milroe had taken 10 snaps all season before this game.

Milroe came out of high school as an exceptional runner and athlete but had questions about his passing ability. Similar to Jalen Hurts.

It was no secret that Saban and his offensive staff weren’t going to let Milroe throw much. Anybody with half a brain knew that Nick Saban was going to grind out an ugly game against a very questionable Aggie offense.

That’s exactly what Alabama did where they rushed 51 times compared to 19 passes. They ground out 288 yards on the ground and their passing game was VERY effective completing 12 of 19 passes for 9.3 yards per completion and 3 touchdowns. Ironically they didn’t score any touchdowns running the ball.
This was a much tighter game than anyone expected thanks to one reason – the Aggie defense forced the Bama offense to turn the ball over 4 times. In doing so they held the Bama offense to under 400 total yards and only 3 touchdowns. That’s not super impressive considering they were playing a true freshman making his first start with very limited starts. However, it was a night game in Tuscaloosa so you take it all day long.

This was in no way a dominant effort by the Aggie defense but they did take advantage of that young quarterback with 4 turnovers. What they gave up in yards they took back with 4 turnovers.

There’s no doubt in my mind that if Bryce Young starts this game it’s a blowout win for Alabama. I’m not that naive. But I do have to give credit to the Aggie defense as their play that night gave the Aggies a chance to win on their final offensive possession.

I’ll go to my grave believing two things:

1) If A.J. Hinch doesn’t pull Zack Greinke when he did in Game 7 of the 2019 World Series the Astros win that game.
2) If Jimbo Fisher gives Devon Achane the ball on the final possession the Aggies beat Bama in back-to-back years.

As it was the Aggie defense did enough to win that game that evening and Jimbo Fisher squandered it by getting too cute on the final play. That loss wasn’t on Durkin and his crew. It was on the man who wears the main headset and calls the offensive plays.

South Carolina:

Another tough one to truly judge the Aggie defense. Coming off a bye week Jimbo spotted the Gamecocks 17 points thanks to an opening kick return for a touchdown and turnovers on our first two offensive possessions.

In the first five minutes of the game Jimbo’s special teams and offense spotted the opponent 17 points. Unreal. What a damn hole to dig out of.

This wound up being a pretty close game and the defense did PLENTY to win this game. They held the South Carolina offense to under 300 yards and even got two turnovers.

This game was all on Jimbo for not having special teams and offense prepared coming off a bye week. The fact this was a 6-point game despite spotting the opponent 17 points in the first 5 minutes is a testament to the defense.

This loss wasn’t even close to being on Durkin and the Aggie defense. Once again, it was 100% on Jimbo Fisher.

Ole Miss:

I believe this to be the game where people decided to turn on D.J. Durkin.

I get it. Ole Miss rolled up 390 yards on the ground. There’s ZERO defending that. We flat-out dared Ole Miss to run on us and that’s exactly what they did.

I’m not going to rehash this game but this is where I think Jimbo as the struggling OC has to take some blame for the struggles on defense as well. At some point, the head coach has to tell his defensive coordinator to stop the damn run. Get out of the 3-man front and stop the damn run.

I think Jimbo was so caught up in his fist full of plays and notes he wasn’t paying attention to what was happening on the field when Ole Miss had the ball. I’m not absolving Durkin but I’m curious what would have happened if Jimbo had given him more direction on shutting down the run.

It didn’t help the Aggie offense didn’t score in the 2nd and 3rd quarter but that wasn’t the biggest issue.
Letting Ole Miss roll up 390 yards of rushing at Kyle Field was the biggest issue that night. This defensive outcome is on Durkin and I get it.

Florida:

A week after the Ole Miss game a very bad Florida football team would roll into Kyle Field and thump the Aggies 41-24.

This is the infamous Flu Game where it seemed like half the team was out. Still, this should have been a winnable game for the Aggies.

It wasn’t. The Aggies went into the half leading 24-20. Things were looking okay as the Aggie offense was moving the ball and scoring. Anthony Richardson had a couple of frustrating touchdown runs but he’s an exceptional athlete so you knew you weren’t going to shut him out.

For whatever reason the entire Aggie team failed to show up in the second half. Florida outscored the Aggies 21-0 in the second half. 21 unanswered points at Kyle Field by an inferior team.

The Aggie defense gave up 492 total yards including 291 rushing yards.

In back-to-back games at Kyle Field the Aggie defense gave up 390 and 291 rushing yards. That’s embarrassing and that’s on Durkin. Teams shouldn’t be able to roll up 300 yards of rushing against any Aggie defense at Kyle.

Durkin and his defense didn’t show up this day.

Auburn:

For me, this is the most frustrating game of Jimbo’s time in Aggieland. Yes, more than App State. This was a VERY beatable Auburn team who had an interim coach and no quarterback. This was the 10th game of the year and Jimbo should have had the issues worked out by this game.

There was no doubt that Auburn was going to try and run on the Aggies. Auburn did a pretty decent job rolling up 270 yards on the ground but the Aggie defense didn’t allow a rushing touchdown.
They limited the Auburn passing game to 60 yards passing while getting two interceptions. The Aggie defense also recovered a fumble for a total of 3 turnovers for the game.

Meanwhile, Jimbo’s vaunted offense spent their first 10 possessions punting the ball. Read that again – in their first 10 offensive possessions they had to PUNT the ball. Not even a field goal attempt. That is completely anemic and that’s totally on Jimbo. I didn’t even know that was possible in this age of college football where the worst teams still put up points.

10 offensive possessions and 10 punts. Even R.C. Slocum knows that’s an embarrassing offensive effort.
The Aggie defense did everything they could to try and win this game. Jimbo’s offensive did nothing but sputter around the whole damn game.

This loss wasn’t on Durkin. Not even close.

UMass:

One of the most miserable games at Kyle Field in the stands and on the field.

The defense held the UMass offense to 168 total yards and no touchdowns.

They were fine in this game.

LSU:

In a classic Jimbo big win at Kyle Field, he finally pulled his head from his ass and ran some offensive plays the opposing defense wasn’t expecting. The Aggie offense FINALLY moved the ball and scored some points.

The Aggie defense wasn’t dominant that night as LSU still compiled 384 yards of total offense including 3 rushing touchdowns.

They did however come up with the biggest play of the game when Edge Cooper sacked Jayden Daniels who fumbled the ball and Demani Richardson scooped it up for a touchdown. LSU was getting a little momentum but that play squashed it.

The Aggie defense stepped up and swung all the momentum back to the Aggies who would walk away with a convincing win over the SEC West champ.

There’s no doubt I would have liked to have seen a more dominant defensive effort but they did plenty enough to win so I’m not going to dog them at all.

This LSU game is what the whole season should have looked like. We weren’t going undefeated in 2022 but it’s much easier to play defense when you have a competent offense that can score points and not turn the ball over.

Summary:

If Jimbo had pulled his head out of ass at the beginning of the season things would have been different from a defensive perception I believe.

D.J. Durkin is no Mike Elko but I think he got a bad reputation in 2022 due to the Ole Miss and Florida games. There’s no defending him in those games but I felt the Aggie defense did enough to win plenty of other games if Jimbo Fisher had just pulled his head from his ass running a competent offense.

That 5-5 record in those other 10 games could have EASILY been 8-2 as we had plenty of defense to beat App State, South Carolina, and Auburn.

While 8-4 would have still been a disappointing season it would have been MUCH better than 5-7. The Aggie defense did plenty to get to that 8-4 record. Jimbo failed the team and the fanbase. It wasn’t totally on D.J. Durkin.

This could have been a 10-2 team with a little more offensive production. Ole Miss was a very winnable game even with the defense giving up almost 400 yards of rushing. The Aggie offense went absent for almost 2 quarters of football so just a little more offense would have won that game. It’s shocking the Aggies only lost by 3 points.

The Florida flu game could have been different as well had half the team not been out but that game was just a perfect stamp on the 2022 Aggie football season.

10-2 was the absolute ceiling with this defense but 8-4 was easily attainable with how the defense played in most games.

I do expect better things from Durkin and the Aggie defense in 2023. It won’t be Mike Elko level which spoiled us for 4 years but it doesn’t mean it’ll be bad. Durkin is a decent enough coach and will have more mature talent so I think we’ll see a leap in performance.

When you take away the Ole Miss and Florida game from the 2022 slate the defense really doesn’t look that bad.

Durkin will have 12 games in 2023 to prove me right or wrong.

I just hope the hire of Bobby Petrino contributes to Jimbo pulling his head out of his ass to do some head coaching. That’s what we pay him $9.5 million a year to do.

Just Win, Jimbo

A famous Aggie once said this about an unfortunate situation – “If it’s inevitable, just relax and enjoy it.”

I don’t know a better way to describe Aggie Football between now and October 14^th of this year. Like it or not we’re in a terrible situation with Aggie Football.

Let me summarize a few of the issues:

Bobby Petrino is our offensive coordinator.
We were 5-7 in 2022.
We have no recruiting momentum.
Jimbo has never been just a head coach.
Jimbo still has that big contract and no real results.
We have roughly 10 open scholarships after national signing day and the first portal window being closed.

I can keep listing issues but you get the idea.

Now there are certainly some positives as we have some young talent in certain areas.

We also have some big holes at a few key starting positions and depth. The key positions for starters are linebacker and left tackle. We have depth concerns at linebacker, offensive line, and receiver.

While I think this is a good team this team isn’t nearly as loaded as most people think. It’s a far cry from the likes of Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio State who are the flagbearers in college football for roster talent. I think A&M may be in the second tier of current programs from a talent standpoint which would be a solid Top 10 team.

If the coaching doesn’t improve from last year this roster could be in the fourth tier which means you’re just hoping to get 6 wins and a bowl game invite.

Make no mistake the current roster is a far cry from what Alabama and Georgia have been over the past few years. We certainly have some key talent but we’re not loaded with talent across the board and top to bottom.

We certainly could catch lightning in a bottle and win the SEC West in 2023 as LSU did in 2022. However, this roster isn’t going 15-0 in 2023. Considering we play Alabama and Tennessee in back-to-back weeks I think winning the SEC West is a massive challenge in 2023.

I say all this to help you not worry or get too caught up in Aggie Football until October 14, 2023. Until we’re done with Tennessee we won’t have any idea where this team is headed. Any speculation before that is just a wild-ass guess and a complete waste of effort to even worry about.

Sure, it can be fun to kill some time thinking about Aggie Football. It’s not fun to get worked up only to be let down. If Aggie Football has taught us anything it’s that.

Results on the field matter more than anything else. People can pump up or dump on this program over the next 9 months and it won’t mean anything. Nobody has any real idea where Aggie Football is headed.

If I was forced to wager, I’d say this is a 7-5 to 10-2 football program over the next 3 years. If that happens Jimbo Fisher will be replaced after the 2025 football season. I hope I’m wrong as I want nothing but success for Aggie Football.

As of right now, I don’t think Jimbo Fisher is whom we hoped he was during his first three seasons.

I think we’ll look back at the 2022 football season as a colossal failure that was too much for Jimbo to overcome.

So for the next 9 months just relax and enjoy it.

Here are some musings if you’re interested.

The Petrino Hire:

Perceptually I hate this hire. I don’t think Bobby Petrino is the scourge of the earth that people make him out to be. Sure, I’m not going to defend a guy who cheated on his wife but that’s between him and his family more than anyone else. Besides, there’s been another prominent coach in Aggieland’s past who’s still adored today and is rumored to have cheated on his wife.

People act like Bobby Petrino is human scum. Once again, not defending a man who cheated on his wife but people act like Bobby Petrino is some heinous person. He may be an asshole but I don’t think he has super questionable character other than the affair for which I’d say he was justly punished. People just like to blow things out of proportion.

As far as I know, Bobby Petrino hasn’t been involved in or associated with covering up actual criminal acts. The worst thing he did was hire the person he was having the affair with which violated state hiring laws. That’s why he got fired. He put his employer in a difficult situation by bringing his affair onto his direct payroll.

I don’t know which is dumber – cheating on your spouse or hiring your mistress as your direct report while skirting hiring laws. They’re both stupid but it did bring us the sweet picture of Bobby P with his bruised face in a neck brace. Who in the hell thought that was a good idea to meet the media that way? He should have gone into hiding for a couple of weeks. Letting that picture exist was the dumbest decision.

I hate the hire perceptually not because of his supposed questionable character but more because Bobby Petrino hasn’t been college football relevant since 2017. His 2018 Louisville team was a complete disaster and he’s been hanging out at Missouri State after not coaching in 2019. To make matters worse he left the head coaching job at Missouri State to become the offensive coordinator of UNLV for a month.

Head Coach at Missouri State to Offensive Coordinator at UNLV. Neither of those are football powerhouses but that’s where Bobby P has been hanging out.

The best offensive coordinator the Aggies could hire hasn’t been college football relevant in five seasons. Perceptually this sucks.

Football-wise I don’t mind it for two simple reasons:

Bobby Petrino at one point had one of the best offensive minds in college football. Seriously. I’ve seen Bobby Petrino’s offenses run defenses ragged. This guy has as much ability in calling plays as anyone in college football if he’s truly motivated. This is a chance for him to put his name back on the college football map. If he’s motivated for redemption in Aggieland it’s going to be good.
If Petrino fails then Jimbo Fisher fails with him. Jimbo won’t get a do-over to hire another offensive coordinator like Kevin Sumlin got when he mistakenly hired Jake Spavital. If Petrino fails then Jimbo fails with him. We’ll have our answer to the Jimbo era in Aggieland sooner than later.

I think I’m more excited about number 2 than number 1. I have no idea how motivated Petrino is. That was Jimbo’s job to figure out during the interview process. If Jimbo failed in his assessment of Petrino then Jimbo will fail right along with him.

Jimbo can’t throw Petrino under the bus and buy himself more time. He tied his future in Aggieland to Petrino. I don’t want to wait any longer than we have on the short- or long-term outlook for Jimbo Fisher in Aggieland.

We’re going to know in 3 seasons or fewer thanks to the Bobby Petrino hire.

I know there’s some excitement building for Bobby Petrino running our offense. I get that. It’s the time of year when you put on your maroon-colored glasses and swig the maroon Kool-Aid. It’s a ritual.

Remember how everyone sold the Steve Addazio hire? How did the offensive line turn out in 2022?

I have similar concerns with Bobby Petrino at this point. The ability was there at one point but it hasn’t been there in the last five years. Maybe he just needs the right talent and motivation.

It’s anyone’s guess at this point. You can make the case either way.

Flat Footed 2022 Season:

I hate to bring up bad memories but before you get too excited through your maroon-colored glassed and Kool-Aid, let’s look back at the 2022 season. Jimbo certainly got handed a bad hand when it came to injuries but some of these games can’t be blamed solely on injuries. A lot had to do with coaching.

In one of Jimbo’s early press conferences, he said he has a saying for his players – “Your actions speak so loud I can’t hear what you’re saying.” That’s a great statement, Jimbo.

Your 2022 season stunk so bad I can’t hear a damn thing you’re saying anymore. You lost the right to lecture anyone on what good football looks like. You can certainly earn it back but for now, you need to shut up because your actions don’t match your words.

Let’s take a look at the key games in 2022:

Appalachian State – We lost AT Kyle Field to a team we paid money to beat. That’s right. We didn’t pay to play them. We paid to beat them. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way. The offense was stuck in a complete rut the whole game. Our offensive mastermind of a head coach was clueless about how to score more than 17 points on an inferior opponent.

Miami – This looked like a much better win at the time as we eeked out a win at home thanks to a really strong defensive effort while our offense struggled to score 17 points. Miami would go on to a 5-7 record losing to Middle Tennessee the following week. The Blue Raiders put up 45 points on the Miami defense one week later. The signs were there.

Arkansas – Similar to Miami it was a thrilling win at the time. Thanks to the defense, a boneheaded mistake by the Arkansas quarterback, and the infamous Oink Doink the Aggies got the breaks and the win. Arkansas would stumble to a 6-6 season including losses by Liberty and Missouri. This wasn’t the win we thought it was. It damn near was a loss.

Mississippi State – Mike Leach (R.I.P.) completely exposed the Aggie football team in a way only Mike Leach can and has done numerous times before. Max Johnson got hurt and Jimbo said we were just a few plays away from winning despite a 42-24 score. We weren’t even competitive in the 4^th quarter. I think Jimbo and I have a different definition of what “a few” means. Meanwhile, other coaches watched this film and found the Aggies’ vulnerability. This was never close to a win.

Alabama – Texas A&M faced an Alabama team without the defending Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback. Alabama started a quarterback with zero experience and questionable ability to pass. Despite that, Alabama ran for half a mile on the Aggies. Thanks to 4 turnovers by the Aggie defense and a gritty effort by Haynes King the Aggies had one final play at the two-yard line to win the game. Our offensive genius of a head coach ran a pass play that Bama had seen multiple times and knew how to defend. Debate pass interference all you want but Jimbo didn’t have a trick play or wherewithal to give the ball to Achane who was his only real playmaker. I’ll go to my grave believing number 6 for the Aggies would have found paydirt and shocked Bama at home. Jimbo has no one to blame but himself.

South Carolina – Coming off a bye week the Aggie team found itself down 17-0 in the first five minutes of the game. That’s right coming off a bye week the Aggies spotted the Gamecocks 17 points in five minutes of football. That’s 100% on coaching for not having the team prepared. Despite that, the Aggie defense would hold the Gamecocks to 13 more points but it wasn’t enough for the Aggie offense to overcome. We win this game if we don’t gift them 17 points 5 minutes in.

Ole Miss – In Connor Weigman’s first start the Aggies would go into halftime up 14-10 and get the ball to start the second half. The Aggies would get shut out while Ole Miss ran all over the Aggie defense to the tune of 390 yards. Jimbo’s head was buried so deep in his play sheet he couldn’t tell Durkin to sell out to stop the run. Kiffin just kept handing the ball off or his quarterback would find space. This game was completely winnable if Jimbo could have pulled his head from his play sheet.

Florida – The flu game. In Jimbo’s defense, there were a lot of guys out of this game due to illness. In not his defense this was a pretty bad Florida football team. Florida had one real weapon in Anthony Johnson and the Aggies failed to shut him down. The Aggie defense also gave up 200 rushing yards to Florida running backs. Just one week after Ole Miss ran down our throats. The Aggies were only down 20-14 at the half but got blown out 21-0 in the second half. Jimbo couldn’t figure out a way to be competitive with a bad Florida football team at Kyle. It’s a coin flip if this or App State was his worst loss at Kyle.

Auburn – This may be Jimbo’s worst loss as an Aggie coach. Yes, worse than App State or Florida. Against a REALLY bad Auburn team with an interim coach, Jimbo spent his first TEN offensive possessions punting the football. That’s right, Jimbo’s vaunted offense punted its first ten possessions against a suspect Auburn defense. Not even a field goal attempt. Just 10 straight punts on 10 offensive possessions. We lost this game 13-10. If we kick two field goals on those first 10 offensive possessions we probably win this game. Jimbo called the plays and couldn’t muster anything more than a punt on the offense’s first 10 possessions of the game. This was the 10^th game of the season and we couldn’t move the damn ball against a suspect Auburn team. I really can’t put into words what an inept showing this was by a supposed offensive mastermind. Shameful is the only word that comes to mind.

We beat LSU to close out the season which only makes you wonder what happened in the previous 11 games. Sure, for one game Jimbo called a game to damn near perfection. He finally gave Achane the damn ball as he ran 38 teams while Weigman and Moose Muhammed had a couple of amazing throws and catch.

After the game, Jimbo crowed how his offense can work and that a team that runs tempo has never won a national title. Do what, Jimbo? You just salvaged a horrible season with a nice win but calm down a little. Don’t go lecturing people on how to national titles when your current record is 5-7.

Your 2022 season in which you controlled the offense the entire time was HORRIBLE. Why in the hell are you talking about how to win a national championship? Why don’t you get your team bowl-eligible before you start schooling people on how national championships are won?

His comments truly sounded like someone clueless and grasping at straws thanks to a few good positives.

Don’t get me wrong the LSU game was a wonderful win and a way to end the season. The problem is 11 other games say that game was just a wonderful blip and nothing more.

Jimbo needs to string together some quality wins before believing he’s somehow turned the corner on being a championship-caliber coach. That coach existed a decade ago. Not saying he can’t get back there but that’s not the current coach roaming the Aggie sideline.

The sooner he realizes he’s currently Kevin Sumlin more than Jimbo Fisher from a decade ago the better off everyone will be.

2021 Ole Miss and LSU Predicted This:

Coming into this season the 2021 Ole Miss and LSU games perplexed me. They were games we should have won but we failed to do enough in the second half to win the game.

There were obvious coaching decisions in both of those games that confused me. I couldn’t figure out if Jimbo didn’t see them or if he knew something I didn’t and was compensating for the limitations of certain players.

Most notably Zach Calzada.

In the Ole Miss game, he failed to see Devon Achane as the clear hot hand in the third quarter and went away from him in the fourth quarter. I get not riding him in the ground but Ole Miss had done nothing to show they could stop him in the fourth quarter.

In the LSU game on a crucial third and short that would have put the game away if we got a first down. He should have given the ball to Isiah Spiller. Instead, he called a roll out to the left on a sort of tight end screen.

It was an odd call considering Calzada’s challenges all season. I didn’t understand why he rolled him to his weak side expecting a positive result. I chalked it up to failed execution and that Jimbo knew a weakness we could exploit.

Looking back after the 2022 season I now realize it was just Jimbo being an offensive idiot that didn’t have a feel for the game. He was just calling plays not seeing what was happening on the field in front of him. Sure, some of it could have been player execution but a great coach sees challenges before they happen.

A great coach sees advantages as they’re developing in the game and exploits them. In both of those games, it’s now clear to me Jimbo was just sticking to plays he thought should work because he drew them up coming into the game. Sometimes you must scrap what you think should be able to work in favor of what’s working.

A better coach wins both of those games. Looking back after the 2022 season there’s no longer a question in my mind about what happened in those games.

Jimbo lost those games due to coaching decisions because he couldn’t see how the game was developing.

Plain and simple. Jimbo’s direct decisions and not player execution cost us those two games back in 2021. Those same problems manifested themselves in 2022. It was there in plain sight but we didn’t see it or refused to admit it.

Haynes King and Jahmir Johnson Also Predicted This:

I don’t mean to single out individual players but I feel it’s necessary to further diagnose Jimbo’s challenges.

At the end of the 2021 Aggie Football season every Aggie fan out there was convinced if Haynes King stayed healthy, we would have at least been 10-2 that season. Guess what? We were all wrong. If Haynes King had been healthy, we likely would have gone 6-6.

Here’s an interesting bit of trivia for you – The Aggies have only ever won one game against a Power 5 opponent that Haynes King started. That game? The 2021 Colorado game where he got hurt on the second series and Zach Calzada took over. Remove that game and the Aggies never won a Power 5 game that Haynes King started.

I’m not trying to hang Haynes out. The dude is a great Aggie and gritted out some games in 2022 that he didn’t have a reason to play.

The problem is Jimbo. For two seasons Jimbo was convinced Haynes was the guy. Even in his true freshman year, he was running second behind Kellen Mond and in front of Zach Calzada. I’ll admit the game film on Haynes was short so we as fans didn’t know but for whatever reason Jimbo always favored Haynes King over Zach Calzada and Max Johnson.

Had we not lost to App State I’m convinced we would not have seen Max Johnson under center against Miami. Even if the win over App State was ugly I’m convinced stubborn Jimbo would have trotted Haynes King out there against Miami.

The reason I think that? Max Johnson didn’t see a snap against App State when he should have started the second half and ABSOLUTELY should have started the only series the Aggies got in the 4^th quarter.

Stubborn ass Jimbo ran Haynes King out there when it was CRYSTAL clear the Aggie offense needed something else under center.

I don’t know what Max Johnson looked like in practice but I watched a lot of LSU game films that told me Max Johnson was infinitely better than what Haynes King had shown us in 2.5 games against an inferior opponent. Jimbo either didn’t see it or refused to admit it. Either way, it’s not a good thing.

Jimbo Fisher COMPLETELY whiffed on his assessment and coaching of Haynes King as the Aggie starting quarterback. I don’t blame Haynes as much as I blame Jimbo. He should have seen the issues with Haynes King before an App State loss at Kyle made them obvious.

Jahmir Johnson is a little different. Most Aggie fans don’t know who he is but he was a graduate transfer from Tennessee for the 2021 season. He was Tennessee’s starting left tackle in 2020 so he had SEC experience but in the limited film I saw of him he wasn’t great. He certainly didn’t do anything impressive against A&M when we played Tennessee in 2020.

That 2020 Tennessee team went 3-7 which is somewhat indicative of the talent on that team. As far as I know, he was never a candidate for even Honorable Mention All-SEC.

The 2021 Aggies needed a left tackle with the graduation of Dan Moore, Jr but I was never sure why Jahmir Johnson was the solution. His play on the field didn’t show it.

I never could understand why this guy kept getting the nod as a starter. His play certainly wasn’t showing it.

The most confusing thing to me was he was hurt in the Alabama game. You know, the game where upset the top-ranked team at Kyle Field. Jahmir Johnson didn’t play a single snap and Blake Trainor held his own against Bama’s talented defense.

I just assumed Blake Trainor was the new starting left tackle as he certainly looked better against Bama than Jahmir Johnson looked against anyone so far that season. The next week against Missouri Johnson was back out there and he started the rest of the season.

He never impressed me as our starting left tackle. He was routinely beaten and he never even showed flashes of dominating. He blew assignments which are bad for an experienced senior. Maybe Blake Trainor got hurt but I never understood why Jimbo kept running Jahmir Johnson out there at left tackle when Trainor seemed like the better option. At least you could try and develop Trainor.

Looking back at those two players I’m beginning to believe Jimbo has a massive issue distinguishing between practice and game ability. I get practice is important but there are a TON of players that are great in practice but not so great in games. Some guys elevate their play in games and play better than they practice.

You want the guys that elevate their play in games. Practice matters but throw out the practice film when you have game film to judge someone.

It’s why I no longer care about practice reports and spring games. I want to see guys perform against opponents who have schemed for them. That’s when you know if someone is a player or not. Practice certainly prepares you but some guys simply can’t elevate their play from practice to game situations.

To me, game film matters 100X more than practice film. Practice film can give you an idea of what a guy should be able to do but the game film is the true determinant that matters.

I have a serious question of if Jimbo can objectively grade game film based on his handling of Haynes King and Jahmir Johnson.

Jimbo’s Body of Work:

I used to be a Jimbo defender until last season. I would point to the fact he had a national championship under his belt and three conference championships. He also sounded like he knew a lot about how to win football games.

Well, that national championship was a decade ago and his last conference championship was 9 seasons ago.

In the last 8 football seasons, Jimbo is 64-33. That’s a .660 winning percentage. That’s not terrible but I would expect better at programs like Florida State and Texas A&M.

For reference, an 8-4 season is a .667 winning percentage. For the last 8 football seasons, Jimbo is an 8-4 coach. That’s not terrible but I certainly wouldn’t classify that body of work as great.

He had an outstanding season in 2020 when we went 9-1 winning the Orange Bowl and finishing 4^th in the polls. That was a diamond in the rough though as the rest of those 7 seasons have been pretty mediocre with a couple of stinkers thrown in.

If you factor in his last full decade as a head coach he’s 81-34. That’s a .704 winning percentage. A 9-3 season is a .750 winning percentage. So even if you factor in two seasons where he went 17-1 he’s not quite a 9-3 head coach over the last decade.

Based on his last decade of football I don’t think there’s any way you can classify Jimbo as a Tier 1 coach. He’s certainly not in the discussion belonging with Nick Saban and Kirby Smart who is the clear Tier 1 of college football coaches.

I’m not even sure right now I’d include him in the discussion of Tier 2 coaches including Ryan Day, Lincoln Riley, Brian Kelly, Kyle Whittingham, Dabo Swinney, and Jim Harbaugh. He lost that tier with his 2021 and 2022 seasons.

I do think he’s in Tier 3 of coaches with guys like James Franklin, Josh Heupel, and a host of others. He can certainly coach himself into Tier 2 in 2023 but as of right now, I believe Jimbo Fisher is a Tier 3 coach based on his past decade of college football.

I’ll leave you with one more sobering thought when it comes to where Jimbo Fisher currently stands as a football coach – It’s not unreasonable to argue Florida State is in a better spot than Texas A&M right now. That can easily be flipped in a season but if you’re being objective right now you can’t definitively say Texas A&M is a better football program than Florida State. Florida State might be on a better trajectory than Texas A&M.

Geez, Jimbo.

The Vaunted 2022 Recruiting Class:

Jimbo has always been seen as a pretty good recruiter. His classes at A&M have ranked between the Top 5 and Top 10 in his first three full years. In 2022 he pulled in arguably the greatest recruiting class ever. That’s an impressive feat.

I think there are a lot of reasons it was so good and not just NIL-related. I certainly think NIL was a factor but I think Jimbo and his staff also did an outstanding job. Couple that with a big win over Bama at home where kids started recruiting one another and the Aggies pulled off something pretty amazing.

A year later it doesn’t look so great. There are certainly some bright points from it but 7 guys are gone.

Sure, 4 of them couldn’t come back due to team suspensions and likely academic issues from the university. I have no facts there are academic issues but let’s be real – If they’re smoking from a vape pen in the locker room after an actual game do you think they’re keeping up with their studies? I’m going to guess they were dealing with more issues on coming back than football related.

Either way, it’s a bad look. You had 4 guys that didn’t have any discipline. How did they get through the cracks? This is stuff Sumlin used to do. He took questionable character guys all the time just because they had talent.

That class looked great on paper but a year later it’s more like the previous recruiting classes Jimbo had where it’s a Top 5 to Top 10 class. That’s great but Saban and Smart are battling it out for the top recruiting class EVERY year.

If Jimbo can’t get over the Top 5 hump we’re going to struggle because we just won’t have the needed depth to compete with Bama and Georgia. That’s where I want to be. Jimbo is getting paid to compete with Saban and Smart.

For one recruiting class, it looked like he could pull it off. 12 months later it sure looks questionable.

It looks worse at the moment.

No Recruiting Momentum:

For whatever reason, we seemed to have lost some recruiting momentum last summer. We picked it up in the Fall with a nice win over Miami but then it completely fell apart as the losses piled up.

We all know about the de-commitment of Anthony Hill. He was the best linebacker in the country and committed to A&M over the summer. As the losses piled up he de-committed and eventually signed with Texas. That’s a MASSIVE loss. I can’t tell you how big that loss was.

Some people say it wasn’t totally on Jimbo but I say one thing about that – BULLSHIT.

Jimbo is the head coach and everything runs through him. Anthony Hill was THE biggest recruit that was needed and he slipped away. Blame the position coach, recruiting coordinator, or whatever else but plain and simple a great head coach keeps that kid locked in.

The kid was committed to Texas A&M and he de-committed to sign with our in-state rival. That’s all on Jimbo. 100% of it is.

Somehow the play on the field and recruiting staff Jimbo had in place allowed doubt to creep into this kid’s mind.

That’s. On. Jimbo.

I will give Jimbo credit he and his staff did a nice job of scrambling at the end to salvage what was looking like a pretty failed recruiting class. They added a couple of quality receivers and Rueben Owens along with holding onto guys like David Hicks.

The only issue is it’s just a Top 15 class. It’s a smaller class but even if you judge it on per recruit average it might improve to a Top 10 class. It’s a pretty drastic reduction from his previous 4 classes.

It’s got some great individual pieces but it’s not going to add a ton of depth which is desperately needed.

The 2024 class is stuck in neutral.

There is minimal recruiting momentum. We’re not getting the quality of guys even visiting College Station anymore. Aggie recruiting sites will spin stuff to make it look like everything is okay but it’s not.

We’re back to the Sumlin days of recruiting where there are a few nuggets here and there but there’s a drastic difference between recruits visiting College Station compared to recruits actually committing and signing elsewhere.

Go look at the recruiting lists since the 2022 class. It’s a little above average. To compete in the SEC West you have to be pulling routine Top 5 classes. Every class is going to have attrition and guys that don’t pan out. That’s why you must stack them every year if you’re going to be elite.

You can’t rely on one or even two years to get over the hump to the elite.

Jimbo has lost some serious luster when it comes to recruiting. The lists don’t lie.

OU, LSU, and Texas are all recruiting better than us right now. Those are our three biggest recruiting rivals and they have a ton more momentum right now. They’re recruiting well while it seems Jimbo is sitting on his hands.

Jimbo had his foot on their throats and he let them up. This reminds me of R.C. Slocum when Bob Stoops arrived in Norman, Nick Saban in Baton Rouge, and Mack Brown in Houston. R.C. lost a ton of recruiting momentum to those three guys and he never recovered.

Fran, Sherman, and Sumlin could never get above those teams and we saw what happened.

Sure, Jimbo can make some staff changes and he certainly needs to but the only real way to improve recruiting is simple – Just win, Jimbo.

No Roster Urgency:

I respect loyalty but there’s a fine line between being loyal and bringing in competition. There has to be healthy competition to be great.

I think everyone knows we had a large number of transfers in the off-season. I don’t have a problem with the guys that transferred. Other than the 4 guys that likely couldn’t come back for academic reasons most of the guys that entered the portal weren’t part of the two deep.

The problem I have is Jimbo didn’t add enough people coming back. He added some nice defensive backs and a nice prospective receiver but we need linebackers and a left tackle.

I get those positions don’t grow on trees and every team wants them but there were a couple of linebackers that would have been great additions. We seemed to have had a good chance at the linebacker from Oklahoma State but he went to USCal. There were also another couple of linebackers we didn’t even seem to have a chance with.

Linebacker is a serious position of need and Jimbo did zero with it in the transfer portal. He could have tried to keep Ish Harris but he transferred to UH.

At tackle, there were a few guys out there but we didn’t sniff any of them. You’ll take Jahmir Johnson two years before but you can’t/won’t take anyone else when you need it?

We have roughly 10 open scholarships right now.

USE THEM AT POSITIONS OF NEED!!!! That’s linebacker and offensive line.

You have no recruiting momentum and need depth. What the hell are you waiting on, Jimbo?

I don’t get what he’s doing. Much like his offense in 2022, he’s not working on his current roster with any sense of urgency. There are some obvious holes and Jimbo is acting like everything is fine.

It’s not fine, Jimbo.

We’re coming off a 5-7 season and had roughly 20 guys transfer that added depth. We have no recruiting momentum. You need to add new guys or hold more of the ones you have.

It feels like he’s banking on a great 2023 season to get everything back on track. It’s entirely possible that happens but that seems like a big roll of the dice.

Jimbo seems to be clueless about the current state of his roster and his position for filling it.

Create some damn urgency.

Where’s the Draft Picks:

The ultimate decider for a program’s success is wins and losses. The next determinant is NFL draft picks. It’s a very objective measure. 32 teams that make more money when they win decide whom they want on their team.

Recruiting rankings certainly matter but NFL draft picks are a better determinant because I value NFL personnel much more than recruiting services. Plus, it also factors in how well a coaching staff can develop talent beyond just recruiting it.

How’s Jimbo doing?

Well, there’s been 17 Aggies selected in the NFL since the 2019 draft. That’s the first draft after Jimbo’s first full season.

Would you believe me if I told you only four of those guys are Jimbo’s guys and the rest are Sumlin’s?

Kenyon Green, DeMarvin Leal, Isiah Spiller, and Jace Sternberger are Jimbo’s guys. The rest of the 14 guys are Sumlin’s guys.

If you factor in the 2023 draft we’re likely to get Antonio Johnson, Devon Achane, and Jaylon Jones drafted. That will be 20 guys drafted in Jimbo’s first five full years. Only 7 will be his guys.

Sure, you expect the previous coach to have some guys in that group but Sumlin still has 2/3 of the draft picks in those five years.

I know some guys came back but that’s only because their draft grade wasn’t high enough. That’s not exactly a glowing endorsement for Jimbo’s development and/or utilization of those guys.

At the current moment, one could reasonably argue that Kevin Sumlin was a better recruiter and judge of talent.

That ain’t good, Jimbo.

October 14, 2023:

I’m not a licensed therapist so I can’t offer you any real therapy on how to handle the current state of Aggie Football.

For me, I’m going to try and temper my emotions until the evening of October 14, 2023. The Aggies will be coming off their 7^th game, 4^th straight SEC game, Bama/Tennessee back to back, and headed into our bye week.

I feel at that moment we’ll be able to sit back and make a true assessment of where things stand.

Anything up until that moment is pure speculation. Even the smartest college football analyst has no way to predict how the Aggies will be at that point. Anything you hear or read between now and that date is just a guess.

No need to get worked up over it. Just let the games play out however they do.

There’s absolutely a chance the Aggies are 7-0 at that point. I firmly believe that. I just don’t know if it’ll happen due to the most recent body of work for Jimbo.

We have the talent at starting positions to win our first seven games.

It’s a tall task but if the starters stay healthy and the coaching staff decides they want to be great this team can be great. I’d put it way more on coaching than the players. The talent is there.

It’s not very deep so we can’t handle a ton of injuries but it’s there. It’s entirely up to the coaching staff to utilize that thin level of talent against each week’s opponent.

If I had to wager money right now I’d say this team is 5-2 at that point. Miami, Auburn, and Arkansas will be tough but I believe we’ll win those games simply because our youth will have matured from last season.

I don’t think we have the coaching staff to beat Alabama and Tennessee this season. They’re both losing great quarterbacks but their bowl games are an indication they’ll load up and be fine. I know Bryce Young is leaving but Bama showed up for that game in a big way. I expect that trend to continue going into the 2023 season.

Everyone is writing off Nick Saban and Alabama because heaven forbid they lost two football games in 2022. All they did was load up with more talent and their coordinators found new homes. I’m sure Nick Saban is burned up watching Kirby win back-to-back national championships. I’m quite certain Nick Saban is operating with a sense of urgency, unlike Jimbo.

I thought Tennessee would take a step back in 2023 due to the loss of Hendon Hooker. If the Orange Bowl is an indication they’re not going to miss a beat with Joe Milton under center. Tennessee wiped the floor with a pretty solid Clemson team. Sure, it’s not the same Clemson with Deshaun Watson or Trevor Lawrence but that’s still a damn good football team. Tennessee annihilated them.

I expect Bama and Tennessee to be too much for the Aggies in 2023. If that happens we’re looking at a 9-3 or 8-4 season as I believe there will be another loss or two in there.

If that happens Jimbo will have reached a similar point we experienced under Fran, Sherman, and Sumlin. Whatever positive momentum he ever had is lost and it’s clear he’s not the coach we hoped he was. The detractors will have won because the body of work will say Jimbo is not the guy who won the national title in 2012. That guy is long gone.

I hope it doesn’t happen but if we lose to Bama and Tennessee it’ll be painfully clear in year 6 of Jimbo he still hasn’t gotten us there and likely won’t.

I know there are lots of examples to show Jimbo can come back from where he is right now. Brian Kelly at Notre Dame, Jim Harbaugh at Michigan, and most recently Sonny Dykes at TCU. My problem with those comparisons is they didn’t have to do it in the SEC West. It’s a different animal.

It’s possible but from where we are right now it doesn’t look likely. I don’t think Jimbo has it in him. I don’t. It’s a mighty big hill and I don’t think he’s capable of climbing.

I hope he proves me wrong and I’ll be there cheering the whole time if he does.

Until then, like that prominent Aggie said, “If it’s inevitable, just relax and enjoy it.”

So that’s what I’m going to do. Relax and enjoy those first seven Aggie football games because there’s nothing I can do about the results.

The starting talent is there if the coaching will carry it along.

Just win, Jimbo.

R.C. Would Have Gone For 2

Aggie Football and More

Thoughts from the Arkansas Game

Thoughts from the Auburn Game

Thoughts from the ULM Game

Jimbo On The Road Es No Bueno

Thoughts On The Miami Game

Thoughts From the New Mexico Game

2023 Aggie Season Prediction

2023 Aggie Position Preview

How Bad Was D.J. Durkin in 2022?

Just Win, Jimbo