college-football

30 Minutes of Failure

On Friday night at DKR, the Aggies came out of halftime with a 10-3 lead and received the ball.

When the final seconds ticked off the clock, the Aggies lost 27-17.

Sure, the Aggies will still make the College Football Playoff and maybe even host a playoff game, but the list of what the Aggies let slip away in 30 minutes is quite extensive.

Let’s take a look:

  1. A chance to beat your rival in their stadium – Failed
  2. A chance to make the SEC Championship Game – Failed
  3. A chance to make the first conference championship game since 1998 – Failed
  4. A chance to clinch a CFP bye – Failed
  5. A chance to quiet all the doubters over the quality of your wins – Failed
  6. A chance to make sure your rival had no claim for the CFP – Failed
  7. A chance to change the narrative the Aggie Football team can’t close out the regular season – Failed
  8. A chance to show things are different in the Elko Era – Failed
  9. A chance to send Marcel Reed to New York for the Heisman – Failed

For the second year in a row, Steve Sarkisian pulled down Mike Elko’s pants.

To make it even worse, Elko had the halftime lead and the better team.

It didn’t matter as the Longhorns outscored the Aggies 24-7 in the second half.

The Aggies fell flat on their ass.  There’s no other way to state it.  It’s not the collapse we’ve seen over the entire month of November in previous seasons, but it was a collapse in which so much disappeared when it was up to the Aggies to seize it.

The Aggies looked lost and lacking confidence.

A perfect regular season evaporated in 30 minutes.

It’s not the same old Aggie joke because we’re 11-1 and headed to the CFP, but it was a MASSIVE disappointment by Elko and his charges.

Sure, there’s an opportunity to erase this memory and make it moot, but the Aggies dug themselves a big hole because they couldn’t close out a rival in 30 minutes.

Elko has talked about finishing the entire season. That didn’t happen.

Let’s talk about the game.

The Offense:

The Aggies had 337 yards of offense, so statistically, it doesn’t look bad.

However, there was minimal rhythm to get those yards.

I don’t know if it was a Collin Klein issue, a Marcel Reed issue, or somewhere in between, but those two couldn’t get in sync all night.

The yards didn’t come easy. Marcel sat in the pocket for much of the night, uncertain of where he should go with the ball. I would have hoped that, in the 12th game against a team that had been carved up in previous weeks, Klein and Reed would have had some effective plays.

It felt like much of what we’ve seen from Klein before, where he’s just picking plays, hoping something will work.

It was especially true in the second half, when the offense just sputtered. The only exception was the touchdown drive that was set up by a Concepcion punt return and bailed out by a Texas face mask.

Other than that, our offense struggled badly in the second half.

On the first possession of the second half, we gained only 2 yards. We burned 49 seconds to get two yards in three plays before punting.

The DUMBEST play of the game was on the second possession of the second half.

On the second possession of the second half, we had 3rd-and-2. We decide to go deep to Concepcion. We did have Concepcion in man coverage with no safety help, so there’s some sense to why we ran that play.

I don’t know if Klein called that or if Reed audibled into it, but it was a STUPID decision. I don’t care if Concepcion was in man coverage with no safety help.

We had a 4-point lead and needed to build some momentum. We didn’t need to take a massive shot downfield. We needed to get the first down and keep the chains moving.

I go back to wondering if Elko gives Klein guidance on the series.  He should have told Klein in that moment to focus on the first down. We didn’t need to take a massive shot there.

We failed to get the first down and punted. Texas then scored on the next possession to take the lead thanks to busted coverage.

At that point, the game was close to being over.

To make matters worse, we also botched our next offensive series badly.

We got stuffed on 3rd-and-1. We decided to go for it on 4th and 1, which I agreed with, but we made a substitution with 11 seconds on the play clock. That allowed Texas to make a substitution, which, of course, they slow-played because they have a right to.

If you’re subbing on offense with less than 15 minutes on the play clock, the defense is going to take their sweet time subbing in their plays. They have that right, and the refs are not going to rush them.

There was no way for the Aggies to snap the ball with time on the play clock. So the Aggies had to take a timeout. Just terrible clock management

To me, that shows a head coach and an offensive coordinator who aren’t on the same page. Either Elko wasn’t clear in going for it, or Klein couldn’t decide on a play.

Either way, it’s a bad look.

To make matters worse, we false-started on the way out of the timeout. That made it 4th-and-6, so we had to punt. We burned a timeout due solely to poor coaching and gained nothing from it.

If that third-and-two decision on the previous series didn’t kill all momentum, that late substitution, followed by the timeout and false start, all but sealed it.

The Longhorns scored on the next possession to go up 20-10.  

Game. Over.

While I’m piling on coaching decisions, let’s talk about the next offensive possession.

We had three plays for three yards each, so we had a fourth-and-one on our 38-yard line.

Reed goes under center like the Aggies are going to run a play, but it becomes clear pretty quickly that we’re just trying to draw Texas offsides. They don’t bite, and we’re forced to take a delay of the game.

We move back to our 33 to punt the ball.  

We had the wind at our back, and Tyler White nailed a 55-yard punt, so it didn’t hurt us.

It just reeked more of a head coach and offensive coordinator who had no faith they could move the ball on offense or stop the ball on defense.

They were trying gimmicks to get Texas to make a mistake. I didn’t like it because it showed a lack of confidence in the offense to come back.

Overall, I felt like Klein couldn’t decide what he wanted to do in the second half.

We had the two three-and-outs on the first two possessions, but on the third, it seemed Klein wanted to establish the run. We had three straight runs for positive yards, even getting a first down, but then EJ Smith got stuffed on the third and one.

We botched the fourth-and-one substitution, then had a false start. So we punted, and Texas went up 20-10.

At that point, we couldn’t try to establish the run because we were playing catch-up.

It just seemed like Klein had no real plan for what the Texas defense was doing.  He couldn’t decide whether to be conservative or aggressive.

Meanwhile, the defense was just getting torched, so that started to dictate what the offense had to do.

Beyond Klein’s confused offensive plan for this game, a few other things of note for the offense.

I railed on him last year, but EJ Smith looks like a completely different player. I think he’s our best running back right now and probably should have gotten more carries, especially with Owens seeming to struggle with the turf.

I don’t know if it would have made a difference with our defensive struggles, but I have to give EJ Smith credit.  He’s been highly effective in limited action since Moss went down.

As for the offensive line, I was way up in the upper deck so that I couldn’t make out numbers for sure, but it looked like we were still rotating guys. I don’t think that’s helping develop a rhythm for our offense. We need to stick with our best five guys and roll with them.

In the end, our defense was the biggest culprit in our loss, but I can’t help but feel that a different, more confident offensive attack would have helped.

I know Reed threw some bad interceptions on our last two possessions, but I don’t think they really mattered. They definitely hurt any comeback, but Reed and Klein were so off in this game that they were never going to get dialed in to score enough points to come back.

I wanted to come into the game pressing the gas with Craver and Concepcion (“The Toys”), but Klein really didn’t have any plans for big plays for them.

They wound up with 10 catches on 15 targets for 101 yards. So they averaged 10 yards a catch, with neither having a catch over 20 yards.  So they were pretty effective on every catch.

I get that you can’t run the entire offense through those two guys, but I sure would have made a bigger effort to get them more looks.

They’re far and away the most prominent difference makers we have on offense. Lean on those guys.

In a game like this, you make a concerted effort to get your playmakers the ball.

I know a lot of people want to establish the run, but with our offensive line and running backs against the Texas defense, that was going to be tough sledding. Sometimes, you can’t just establish the run.

So make a concerted effort to get the ball to your playmakers. If they’re being double-covered, I bet a tight end will be open to chew up a few yards. Or take off on a scramble.

It just seemed like a foolish game plan considering the Texas defense and no Le’Veon Moss.

The Defense:

As frustrating as it was watching the offense sputter, watching the defense get gashed in the second half was devastating.

Elko’s calling card for most of his career has been second-half adjustments to his defense and shutting down an offense.

That didn’t happen on Friday night.

The Longhorns scored on four of six possessions in the second half. To make matters worse, it was three touchdowns and one field goal—24 points on four possessions.

Even if we hold them to 10 points in the second half, we win. We couldn’t even do that.

Elko’s defense looked absolutely lost for much of the second half.

We couldn’t get any pressure on Arch, and when we did, he just scrambled up the middle where there was no defender.

It seemed like we went to a basic zone with a four-man rush.  Texas just picked it apart through the air or exploited it on the ground.

I didn’t see many exotic blitzes in this game, unlike in prior games. Seems like we were more focused on defending the pass than applying pressure. Especially in the second half.

Defenders couldn’t anticipate plays losing gap integrity or getting caught up by blocks not even intended for them.

Texas rolled up 295 yards of offense in the second half.  That’s compared to their 102 yards in the first half.

25% of their yards came in the first half and 75% in the second half.

The defense just fell apart in the second half.

There were brain farts and missed assignments all over the place.

I can’t explain it. It wasn’t just a few busted plays here and there. It was one busted play or missed assignment after another. There was no scheme to counter the Longhorns’ approach.

Cashius Howell was a non-factor. He may have cost himself a fair amount of money on Friday night.

For most of the second half, the defensive line and linebackers seemed to be out of sync. And all it takes is one guy to blow his assignment or get taken out of position for the offense to chew up yards.

Our safety play was atrocious, leaving receivers completely uncovered.

Because Kirby Smart has the blueprint to stop the Texas offense, I personally think Sark exposed something about this defense.  

Coming into the season and especially after the Notre Dame game, I felt this was not a defense filled with elite talent.  There are some NFL draft picks, but there are not a ton of upperclassmen who will play on Sundays.

Sark exploiting this defense confirms that to me.  It’s not a defense totally devoid of talent, but there are holes that can be attacked.

That’s not a massive knock on this unit, as what they’ve done this season has been admirable. They shut down a bunch of offenses with good coaching and heart.

However, when they faced an offense with strong talent and coaching, their overall lack of talent was exposed.

In my mind, Texas reminded us of our concerns after the Notre Dame game.  

Elko had no answer for his defense getting exploited—just like last year against Sark.

I’m not sounding a massive alarm because it’s still a pretty good defense, but this is not an elite defense.

But against an offense with talent, this defense will struggle.  That Texas offense seems to be coming around.  Especially at home where they’ve scored lots of points.

I’ll do a piece next week after our playoff spot is known and we know our path to the national championship, but we need to face reality: this defense has issues for the playoffs.

Still Have a Chance to Change the Narrative:

The 2025 Aggies season has been a massive success.  I’m not complaining at all about being 11-1 and a lock for the CFP.

However, Mike Elko had a unique opportunity in front of him. He needed 30 minutes to finish, like he’s been preaching since last season.

That’s not totally out the window, but it’s not unfair to wonder how far along we really are.

Fortunately, Mike Elko still has the opportunity to change the narrative about where Aggie Football is.  I think he needs to win at least two games and reach the Semi-Finals.

Sure, I want the Aggies to win it all, but at a minimum, I want to be one of the last four teams standing in college football.

I want the memory of the second half of the Texas game to be wiped clean. I think it’ll take two wins to do that.

If not, there will be lingering questions about whether things have really changed in Aggieland.  

Or did we get a fortunate schedule?

To do that, Elko will have to roll the dice.  He’s going to need Klein to dial up the offense and get creative and aggressive with his defense.

Trying to establish the run while using a conservative defense won’t work.

Collin Klein is going to have to get back to playing creatively, which seems to have gone away since the LSU game.

It’s almost like Klein came up with a batch of new plays in the off-season and ran out of them in the LSU game.

We’re gonna need a creative Klein and an aggressive Elko to advance a couple of rounds in the playoffs and change the narrative that Aggie Football can’t close things out late in the season.

Quick Thoughts on Next Season:

I know we still have the CFP, but the high school signing day is this week, and the Transfer Portal opens soon.

This is the new era of college football. Your reward for being good is that you have to do twice the work, focusing on the current year and the following year.

Right now, my big fear is that this season is just Elko’s “blip” year, like we saw with every coach since Fran—2004 with Fran, 2010 with Sherman, 2012 with Sumlin, and 2020 with Jimbo.

It turns out we got a very favorable schedule this year, and next year’s is MUCH more challenging.

I’m not saying this is a blip year, but I have concerns after the South Carolina and Texas games.

Let’s look at our last four halves of football:

30-3 – South Carolina
28-0 – Aggies
10-3 – Aggies
24-7 – Texas

I know that’s a small sample set, but it does give me pause, depending on what happens in the CFP.

I know it’s a little obvious, but Elko must keep stacking talent through high school signings and the Transfer Portal.

We’re going to lose pretty much all of our offensive line. I don’t know if we have enough offensive linemen on campus. We certainly don’t have the experience.  It’s going to be key to find some offensive linemen transfers. That has to be done starting now.

We need improved safety as well. You can never have enough talented defensive linemen, so let’s add some of those guys, too.

There are holes on this team, and I hope Elko has spent this week focusing on roster building since we don’t have an official opponent.

I obviously don’t want Elko fired and don’t want to sound super negative about what happened in Austin last Friday. That game showed me this program isn’t quite where we want it to be.

That’s okay because it’s only Elko’s second season. I don’t want a sense of complacency.  There’s still a lot to build to get to the level of other programs.

Lane Kiffin Circus:

Speaking of other programs, LSU got a lot better over the weekend.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone, but Lane Kiffin completely botched his departure from Ole Miss on his way to LSU. He foolishly thought he could take the LSU job and continue to coach Ole Miss. LSU and Ole Miss ARE DIRECT RIVALS IN THE SEC!!!

THEY PLAY EACH OTHER EVERY SEASON!!!!

There is no way in the world Ole Miss could let Kiffin coach their team after taking the LSU job. I can’t even process how Kiffin thought this was possible.

This isn’t good for Texas A&M. Kiffin is a complete moron when it comes to public perception, but the dude can coach football.

I can’t see him failing at LSU. LSU has too many resources, and he’s too good a coach. Short of a personal failure, he’s going to have a lot of success at LSU.

I want him to fail, but I just can’t see that happening when you remove all the emotion from the fact that he’s a big idiot from a human standpoint.

I firmly believe that LSU is the best program in the country at winning national championships.  Their access to Louisiana talent and their status as the only major program in the state are advantages no other school in this country has.

LSU has another gear when it comes to winning football games. I mean, they’ll let a booster embezzle funds from a children’s hospital and never bat an eye.  That’s a real commitment to winning.

Les Miles and Ed Orgeron won titles there.  They’re idiots as head coaches. They really are. They won because they were able to stack talent.

Kiffin can coach, and now he’s going to stack talent.

So now we have an established Texas program on our schedule every year, and we will also have a strong LSU program. Welcome to the SEC.

There is no time to be complacent.

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Can the Aggies Beat the Horns?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Go for a more ground attack than an air attack.

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

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

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

Texas Game:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  1. The Toys
  2. Tight Ends
  3. Turnovers

The Toys:

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

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

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

The Tight Ends:

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

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

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

No need to get greedy.

Especially near the end zone.

Turnovers:

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

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

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

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

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

Might as well add a fourth T – Tackling.

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

Don’t let Texas get additional yards after contact.

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

I know, it’s obvious.

Random Thoughts:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No need to tinker otherwise.

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

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

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

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

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

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

No different than any other quarterback.

Sark’s Schedule Sadness:

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

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

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

I don’t care.

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

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

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

It’s due to your conference move.

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

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

Speaking of Schedules:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Special Teams Scares:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Protecting the football.

You read all of that to get that fundamental analysis.  

Sometimes it really is that simple.

BTHO tu

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Thoughts on the Missouri Game

Ho Hum Dominating Win:

It’s kind of crazy how quickly we’ve become spoiled with this season. Most Aggies I’ve talked to loved the win. However, they found it a little boring because it took the offense a bit to get going, and Missouri never challenged us.

We just went 9-0 with a road win over a ranked opponent, and we want more.

I understand it, but it’s just amazing how quickly a fan’s perspective can change based on how the season is going.

Obviously, the fake punt fired everyone up, but for the most part, that game felt like we were playing with our food.

And we were. Even though Missouri ripped off a 40-yard run on their first play, and it took us until our third possession to score, it never felt like the Aggies were going to lose.

We walked in the better team and just punched and danced around a bit. Then we landed some punches that actually mattered.

When we did, it was pretty clear we’d win the fight and just had to let things play out over four quarters.

We’ve been a second-half team pretty much all season. When we got the fumble return late in the second quarter and then scored to go up 14-0 at halftime, it seemed like the game was over.

And it was.

It was clear Mike Elko knew he had the better team walking into the game. He and his staff had a game plan that wasn’t flashy, but was likely to get a win.

No need to get cute. Just get the win.

When it was all said and done, the Aggies had a 21-point win in a road game against a ranked opponent in the SEC.

If that’s enough to get the blood flowing, then you’ve quickly become spoiled as an Aggie Football fan.

10-Win Season:

With this win and Samford left on the schedule, the Aggies all but clinched a 10-win regular season.

Hopefully, it’s more, but it’s been since 2012 that the Aggies have won 10 regular-season games.

I think the Aggies win 12 regular-season games, but let’s not underestimate already locking up 10 regular-season wins.

It’s a massive accomplishment.

I’d wager that if you’d told Aggie fans before the season they could lock up a 10-2 regular season record in 2025, 97% of Aggie fans would have signed up for it. That would have been an extremely successful season before the first snap.

Yet here we are after nine games, and that’s the absolute floor for what could happen.

Pretty damn amazing.

Spoiled indeed.

Clinched the College Football Playoff:

The other thing we did beyond clinching a 10-game regular season was clinching a spot in the College Football Playoff.

I suppose there’s a chance we don’t make the College Football Playoff if we lose to South Carolina and Texas, but I don’t see that happening.

To be clear, I don’t see us losing to both of those schools, but even if we do, I think we’re still in the CFP at 10-2.

The ACC and Big 12 are looking like they’ll get one team in. I think the Big 10 is going to struggle to get more than three teams in.

We’re definitely in with a win over South Carolina, but I think we’d make it at 10-2.

Big step for the Aggie football program.

Collin Klein:

I have to keep giving massive props to Collin Klein.

I still can’t believe he’s the same offensive coordinator from last season. I know that having a seasoned offensive line, with the addition of Concepcion and Craver, is a big reason for the difference. However, he’s still owed massive compliments for using those tools properly.

His game plan for this game was a little “vanilla,” but it was highly effective.

That was a pretty good defense the Aggies faced, and they wound up with 406 yards of total offense.

I pulled Dalton Brooks’ 48 rushing yards, since that was more special teams than offense.

That’s an impressive number for the Aggie offense against the Missouri defense.

What makes it even more impressive is that we never took any big shots on offense.

There was no need to because of what our defense was doing to their offense. Just keep throwing measured punches, and at some point, there will be some big punches that land.

Two particular punches that landed were the 48-yard touchdown reception by Concepcion and the 57-yard touchdown run by Rueben Owens.

While it looked like we were vanilla on offense, we really weren’t.

Klein called a great game, being really balanced between runs and passes, and most importantly, making the Missouri defense defend the entire width of the field with receiver screens and short crossing routes.

We had nine different players targeted for passes, so Missouri couldn’t focus on just a few guys to defend.

There was no need to run Marcel Reed, as all he needed to do was hand the ball off and hit passes.

Speaking of Reed, he was 20 of 29, which is just shy of 70%. It felt like he was a little less accurate than that, but he was really effective through the air.

I thought Klein did a nice job, with the needed wrinkles, to stress a good Missouri defense.

One more thing about the offense – massive credit to E.J. Smith. I was very critical of him last year, but, like Klein, he looks like a totally different runner this season. He’s been a great complement to Owens while Moss has been out.

Speaking of Moss, we’re dominating defenses without him. Going to be nice when we get him back.

Offensive Line:

This is not being critical of the offensive line, but more trying to figure out what’s going on.

We’ve been doing some random rotations this season, which I haven’t fully understood. It’s starting to make a little more sense.

I’m generally one who believes you find your five best guys and roll.

However, I haven’t seen a massive decline with any specific set of guys. I think it’s been all about getting some rest and experience while providing some flexibility.

It obviously provided some insurance on Saturday when Reed-Adams went out.

Trey Zuhn slid down to center with Fatheree taking his spot and Nabou moving out to the right guard spot.

It sounds like Reed-Adams could have come back in, but there wasn’t a need to with the offensive line doing fine—no need to risk Reed-Adams getting injured any further.

In theory, I like the lineup of Fatheree, Bistontis, Zuhn, Reed-Adams, and Crownover. I don’t know if it’s the most effective, but I think it’s the most talented.

We’re 9-0 and moving the ball while protecting Reed. I’ll leave this up to the coaches and trust their judgment.

The Toys:

While they weren’t the only difference in the game, Concepcion and Craver are still proving to be the biggest difference makers for this offense as a whole.

Their numbers are down from earlier in the season, but it’s clear the opposing defense is targeting them.

Even being targeted, they’re still a threat to take any play to the house.

We saw it with Concepcion’s touchdown catch, but Craver also had a 23-yard reception.

These guys stress the defense just by being on the field. You let one of these guys slip, and it’s a quick score.

Craver could have had a touchdown on a screen pass, but the offensive line was slow to get out in front of him. It was the same play we ran to Concepcion, but we didn’t quite have the timing right. Craver slowed down to let his guys escort him, but the lineman couldn’t get there, and Craver was corralled before he could get sprung.

Curious if we made any adjustments, which is what sprung Concepcion on the same play.

These two guys are just amazing, and that’s why the Aggies will make a run in the postseason.

Opponent’s Offense Defending the Aggie Defense:

While the Aggie defense wasn’t perfect on Saturday as they gave up 219 rushing yards to Missouri’s running backs, this Aggie defense continues to apply massive pressure.

Some of this is due to our offensive ability, which allows us to take more chances on defense, but much of it is due to Mike Elko.

Mike Elko is a master of creating and implementing blitzes.

The Missouri coach alluded to some specifics after the game. Summarizing what he said, it’s complicated to figure out where the pressure is coming from. You think you know what’s coming, but then it’s a different blitz than you’ve seen before.

What you’ve seen on film is not what you’re seeing in your game.

Elko is running unique blitzes every week. Elko is basically an offensive coordinator creating unique plays for his defense every week.

You’re seeing the results of the pressure, but there’s something else its having an effect on it.

Offenses are now having to choose to spend more time on blitz detection or working on their offensive game plan during the week of practice.

Opposing offenses are basically forced to become their own defensive units, trying to figure out where the defensive pressure will come from. The Aggie defense isn’t just loading up the box and bringing the house.

The Aggie defense is a master of disguising where the pressure is coming from.

That’s forcing offenses to decide whether to spend more time on blitz detection or on their weekly game plan.

It would be nice if the Aggie defense could do a better job against the run, but it’s hard to argue with what’s working.

Mike Elko is making the opposing offensive unit play some level of defense against his pressure-packed attack.

Once again, just adding more stress to the opposing team.

Albert Regis:

Special shout-out to Albert Regis. I saw he got his 100th tackle as an Aggie defender.

This dude is getting a little more attention this season, but he’s been a key part of this defense for the last three years.

I know Taurean York gets a lot of attention as being the heart and soul of the defense, but Albert Regis deserves just as much.

I’m not sure how much of an NFL career Regis is going to have, but the dude’s heart and motor have been dialed to maximum in his time in an Aggie uniform.

Dude is going to be a lot to replace next season, so let’s continue to enjoy him for the rest of the season.

Atlanta Conundrum:

I’ve heard some Aggies wonder if it’s in the Aggies’ best interest to go to Atlanta for the SEC Championship game.

I don’t see any negatives.

For the Aggies to get to Atlanta, they’re going to have to go 12-0. I’ve messed with the various scenarios, and if the Aggies lose to South Carolina or Texas, they likely won’t make Atlanta.

Bama, Georgia, Ole Miss, and likely even Texas would go to Atlanta if they all have one SEC loss, along with the Aggies.

There are three scenarios where the Aggies would go to Atlanta with one loss. Two involve Texas or Georgia being the other one-loss team.

We would need Bama to lose to OU and Auburn, and then Ole Miss to lose one of Florida or Mississippi State, to make those two scenarios happen.

Then we would play the winner of Georgia and Texas after losing to Texas.

There’s one other scenario where we play OU, as we’d be the only one-loss team, and OU would be the highest-ranked two-loss team.

That scenario is improbable.

So it’s unlikely the Aggies will make Atlanta with one loss.

I say win out the regular season to go to Atlanta.

Just go 12-0.

I do think that if the Aggies go 12-0 and get to Atlanta, they’ll get a first-round bye.

The CFP has changed, with the highest-ranked teams getting byes and conference championships no longer mattering for byes.

So a 12-1 Aggie team with an SEC Championship loss likely gets a first-round bye.

I also think that if the Aggies go 11-1, they’ll host a first-round playoff game if they miss Atlanta. They won’t get a bye, but they’d likely host a playoff game.

So, pick the one you want:
1) 12-0 with a trip to Atlanta and a CFP bye.
2) 11-1 with no Atlanta, but a first-round CFP game at Kyle.

Give me 12-0 with a chance to win the SEC Championship game all day long.

As cool as being at Kyle for a CFP game would be, I’d rather have one less CFP game, even if it means an extra game in Atlanta.

Let’s just BTHO South Carolina and keep the momentum rolling.

We’ll let the chips fall where they may.

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What’s Left for the Aggies?

So it’s been over a week since the Aggies beat LSU.

I took some time off from blogging to think more about that win.

Some of it was due to Battered Aggie Syndrome, and some was due to cautious optimism.

I loved every minute of the second half of that LSU game. My problem is that’s precisely what happened last season. We were down at half and stormed back in the second half to beat LSU.

Then, we lost to South Carolina, Auburn, Texas, and USC in the bowl game. In the South Carolina and Texas games, we were pushed around badly.

I’ve spent the last week wondering if we’re about to see the same thing in front of us. Or is this year different from all the November collapses from previous seasons?

I do think it’s different.

This team is different from last year’s and previous teams, dating back to 2020.

We’ve got a seasoned quarterback who seems to be improving each week.  We’ve got a very seasoned offensive line that is doing a good job protecting that quarterback and creating running lanes for a talented group of running backs.

We’re even missing our best running back and still cranking out yards.

We’ve got two dynamic difference makers at receiver.

We’ve got a defense that has hiccups from time to time but can flat out bring pressure and, more often than not, shut down an offense.

Especially if they get them to third and six or longer.

I think the defense is only getting better as the young guys gain more experience.

I do think this team is different than every Aggie team we’ve seen since the 2020 season.

With one more win against our three SEC opponents, we will have punched our ticket to the College Football Playoff.

At worst, our record will be 10-2, which is good enough for the playoffs.

We still control our destiny to go to Atlanta for the SEC Championship game. We even have a slight margin of error: We could lose a game and still make Atlanta. That will all depend on how things shake out for the other SEC teams, who have one loss or less right now.

I’ll get to that later.

We’re sitting real pretty right now.

So now I’m just gonna ramble a little bit.

LSU Game Takeaways:

I have two big takeaways from that LSU game:

  1. The Aggies still have not played a perfect game this season.
  2. That was a REALLY poorly coached LSU team.

The first one excites me, and the second one concerns me.

The Aggies shot themselves in the foot in the first half. Marcel Reed had a really bad interception in the end zone and an unfortunate interception on a tipped ball.

Dezz Ricks committed a really stupid penalty after a third-down stop, which resulted in LSU scoring a touchdown when they should have punted.

We also had another blocked punt near our end zone, which luckily resulted in a safety for LSU instead of a touchdown.

Despite all of that, the Aggies were only down by four at halftime.

Then the Aggies straightened it out and dominated a poorly coached LSU team.

Most people don’t realize this, but the Aggies only attempted three passes in the second half. They decided to confuse the LSU defense with all kinds of looks and run the ball down their throats.

The Aggies used the running game and help from special teams returns to outscore LSU 35-0 in the second half. LSU got a late garbage touchdown, but the Aggies essentially put a 35-0 beatdown on LSU in the second half.

LSU didn’t know what to do. They were lost and clueless. Their defense was running themselves out of plays. Their offense couldn’t respond to being down because the A&M defense unleashed pressure everywhere.

The Aggies had seven total sacks on the night. Garrett Nussmeier couldn’t get comfortable, and the LSU offensive line couldn’t figure out where the pressure was coming from, thanks to the Aggies’ defense disguising who was coming.

It was total domination on both sides of the ball in the second half.

And yet it still wasn’t close to a perfect game.

As much as I am concerned that A&M beat a massively overrated team, I hope this Aggie team will get better.

We’ll find out over the next three and hopefully four SEC games.

Coaching:

I was very critical of Elko and Klein coming into this season.

Specifically, I believed Elko wasn’t involved in the actual game.  I felt Elko was just watching the game with his headset on, yelling at referees, and nothing more.

I felt Klein lacked creativity in his play designs. They were basically some semblance of the same plays over and over again, making it easy for the defense to defend.

Boy, what a difference a year has made.

We heard in the off-season that Elko would be more involved with calling the defense.  That’s been obvious, as our defensive third-down conversion is one of the best in the country.  That’s been an Elko calling card for his defensive coordinator career.

Other than the Notre Dame and Arkansas games, we’ve seen our defense clamp down in the second half, another hallmark of an Elko-led defense.

Effective halftime adjustments.

I have no clue why he was so hands-off on the defense last season. He seems to be fine handling the head coaching duties and helping call defensive plays this season.

I hope he continues to do it, as it seems to have made a massive difference on defense this season.

As for the offense and Collin Klein, I know he got two new toys in Concepcion and Craver. I also know he has a more seasoned line and quarterback.

However, his play design has been COMPLETELY different this season compared to last season. Maybe it’s because he felt he lacked the talent last season and was forced to be conservative.

This offense is night and day from last season. I can’t believe it’s the same coordinator from last season.

The pre-snap motion is more complex this season, and most importantly, the use of jet sweeps is confusing defenses on how to defend us at the line of scrimmage.

Defenses can’t just focus on between the tackles when defending the run. They have to worry about guys in motion getting the ball and getting outside.

I know we tried it with Bussey a few times last year, and it rarely worked, but it’s highly effective this year. Maybe it’s just the talent of Concepcion and Craver running the ball.

The routes we’re running are very complementary and getting guys open.

Again, maybe it’s just having the talent to do these things effectively, but I have to credit Klein for running an explosive offense.

While our defense has been sporadic, our offense has been the most consistent unit so far this season, especially since the Florida game.

I also have to credit Elko for letting Klein mash the gas with his offense. Many defensive head coaches would tell their offensive coordinator to be a little more conservative, but it’s clear Elko is letting Klein try to score as much as possible.

I think it also allows Elko to be a little more aggressive in his defensive play calling when we’ve got a lead.

Elko said something really interesting about the Arkansas game. Arkansas never had the ball in the second half, when they could have tied or taken the lead.

They were always playing two scores down. I think that’s why Elko kept the pressure up, hoping for that knockout punch rather than moving to a more conservative defense.

We’ll see what happens the rest of the way. I think Elko and Klein have adapted this season to definitely get us in the College Football Playoff. There’s also a good chance we’ll be in Atlanta on the first Saturday in December.

College Football Playoff Poll:

The first CFP poll comes out on Tuesday night, and there’s zero doubt the Aggies will be in the top four. I’m curious where they land, as they could even be in the top one or two.

I think Ohio State and Indiana will be number one and two, simply because they have been more consistent in their winning.

We can debate their competition all we want, but they’ve looked better winning than the Aggies in all of their games.

The Aggies have plenty of opportunity to polish their resume and overcome one of, if not both of, those teams.

Let’s keep winning and let our play speak for itself the rest of the way.  It’s too early to worry about what a collection of idiots thinks about specific rankings.

Winning will take care of itself.

How Likely is Atlanta?

I’m not gonna lie. I’m a little concerned about getting to Atlanta.

Sure, some of its BAS. However, much of it is because chaos is the usual rule of order for college football in November.

It’s tough to go undefeated, and you’re actually better off getting in a loss early on.

How far away does the Bama loss against FSU look right now? Ironically enough, how far away does LSU’s win over Clemson that first week look now?

Bama fans were contemplating firing their coach, and LSU was making plans for Miami in January.

Now, each team has flipped its view from that first week. LSU fired its coach, and Bama is looking at Miami in January.

Things can change in a hurry in college football.

Obviously, if we win out, we’ll be in Atlanta and probably get a bye week in the playoffs. At worst, we’ll be hosting a playoff game at Kyle as a very high seed.

If we lose a game, it will depend on who we lose it against.

Right now, Bama and the Aggies have no losses, while Ole Miss, Georgia, and Texas have one loss each.

Georgia and Texas are going to eliminate one of themselves in two weeks.

I think Ole Miss wins out.  Georgia wins out in the SEC if it gets by Texas. I don’t think Georgia loses to Mississippi State.  That’ll leave at least two teams with one loss.

I think Bama wins out, but OU and maybe even LSU could trip them up.  Either way, they have a margin for error like the Aggies.  

I’ve looked at the SEC Championship game tie-breaker rules, and I get tired head. It’s a six-step process that will likely come down to common opponents and records.

It will be an absolute mess if three or four teams have one loss.

It’s best if the Aggies win out and avoid trying to figure out who goes based on various opponents’ records and match-ups.

I do think the Aggies can win out, but two things concern me:

  1. The previously mentioned November chaos.
  2. The Aggies haven’t played a stinker of a game yet. They haven’t played a perfect game, but haven’t played a stinker, which is why they’re undefeated.

Maybe there’s no stinker game this season. The history of sports says there could be, which bothers me more than anything right now.

Mizzou doesn’t scare me as much with their starting QB out. South Carolina doesn’t scare me either, and I think having an early game at Kyle benefits us.

I have no clue what to think about Texas.  They’ve finally got their offense in gear over the last five quarters. I don’t know if that’s sustainable against a defense that can bring pressure.

We’ll learn a lot in two weeks when they go to Athens.

I want to look forward, but I just can’t.

Let’s get through Mizzou and South Carolina.

Then we can look at the map to Atlanta.

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Thoughts from the Arkansas Game

I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising that, even after leaving Jerry World, an Aggie versus Razorback game wouldn’t be very “exciting.”

It turns out wild games can happen in Fayetteville just like in Arlington. I never doubted an Aggie win on Saturday night, but we only knew for sure when Arkansas tried an onside kick with a few seconds left on the clock.

The series with the Razorbacks has been exciting since we joined the SEC.

I have two main sets of takeaways from that game.

Set 1:

  1. That Arkansas defense is really bad. I do think the Aggie offense is pretty good but man that Arkansas defense is bad.
  2. Taylen Green might be the best quarterback in the SEC. He’s what LeNorris Sellers is supposed to be. He’s certainly the best running quarterback in the SEC. Kid is good even if Arkansas’ record doesn’t show it.

Set 2:

Despite being 7-0, the Aggies still haven’t done two things.

  1. Played a perfect game.
  2. Played a stinker of a game.

I’m not sure what to make of the fact in seven games the Aggies have played seven imperfect games and found a way to win. It’s a remarkable accomplishment and says a lot about the players and staff.

Above all else, they’re winning and that’s what matters when it’s all said and done.

My hope is there’s still improvement and not regression. However, maybe this team is just one of those teams that can’t help but make mistakes yet still find a way to win.

I’m not complaining that we’re 7-0. I just would have liked a couple of games where it was clear from the start the other team stood no chance of winning.

It looked that way early on when the Aggies took a 21-6 lead scoring touchdowns on their first three possession while the Aggie defense kept the Arkansas offense out of the end zone on their first three possessions.

Since it was Arkansas, I should have known it would swing the other way. We’ve somehow always found a way to beat Arkansas since joining the SEC, but we’ve never made it easy.

Don’t know why I expected different on Saturday night.

Offense:

The offense on Saturday night was like a kid playing with their food. They seemed bored but knew what they had and could do.

They had no real issues against the Arkansas defense and pretty much imposed their will most of the game.

They had a few series where they struggled, but for the most part, the Aggies moved up and down the field on a bad Arkansas defense.

Look no more than the three fourth down conversions in the game. The Aggies only needed a yard on each of them but they had no real issues other than EJ Smith getting popped right at the line of scrimmage but he kept moving and got the conversion.

Other defenses might have stopped us but not this Arkansas defense.

Marcel Reed was really efficient for most of the game only missing a few balls. This was probably his best game passing yet.

Reuben Owens didn’t have a dominant effort but he was very productive. EJ Smith had a great night backing up Owens.

The receiving corps all got involved thanks to the Arkie defense focusing on Craver and Concepcion. They especially seemed to focus on Craver.

Speaking of Craver, he’s starting to remind me of a Devon Achane type player. He’s so small and effortless you don’t realize how easily he picks up yards. We all know Craver is fast but the dude runs through contact much better than you would think for his size. He doesn’t go down easily and keeps fighting for yards.

He’s become the focus of defenses. I’d love to find a way to get him the ball more even if it’s at the line of scrimmage or shorter routes. I love Concepcion, but Craver is the biggest weapon on this offense.

He’s a true threat for a big play anytime he touches the ball.

Concepcion is the ultimate possession receiver. The dude runs fantastic routes and sets up his defender really well. His touchdown catch was a perfect example of that. His defender didn’t know which way he was going to break coming off the line. After Concepcion set him up and made his move, he was wide open and Reed hit him.

We won on Saturday night because of a total offensive effort but these two guys remain the reason this offense looks so much different than last year.

Shout out to Bethel-Roman who had two great catches including a touchdown on perfectly thrown balls by Reed.

I thought the offensive line continued to look really good. Not dominant by any stretch but they’re doing just fine. Reed continues to have a great idea of where pressure is coming from and moving away from it.

Reed and the offensive line are working really well together to keep the defense from getting sacks.

I thought Klein called a really good game. He had enough wrinkles and knew how to straight up attack the Arkie defense. It helped he had the better players on his side of the ball, but he deserves credit for taking advantage of it in a smart way.

My only beef with him is he’s gone real conservative at the end of the first half in some games this season.

He did it again on Saturday night.

I don’t know if that’s an Elko directive, but we’ve had a few series right before the end of the first half where it looks like the only goal is to burn clock and punt.

They’re hoping the defense gives them a first down but they’re not running any plays that have a real chance of catching the defense by surprise.

An easy three and out for the defense.

That three and out led to an Arkansas touchdown right before the half changing the momentum of the game.

Still, it’s hard to complain about an offense that put up 45 points and should have had seven more if not for a ticky tack holding call.

Keep doing what you’re doing.

Defense:

Arkansas came out on their first series of the game just moving down the field on the Aggie defense. Once they got near the goal line, the Aggie defense bowed up and held Arkansas to a field goal.

They kept Arkansas from converting a fourth down at midfield on the second series and then another field goal on the third series.

Things were looking good but then the wheels fell off the Aggie defense.

Arkansas would score two touchdowns on consecutive drives right before the end of the half to make it 21-20.

In the second half, the Aggie defense gave up three touchdowns in five possessions to the Arkansas offense.

The Aggie defense reverted back to its form from the first three games. They were in the wrong position and struggled to get ball carriers down on first contact.

In defense of the Aggies, that’s a pretty good Arkie offense and we all know Petrino can dial up plays.

Still, the Aggie defense is better than that.

At least I hope.

The biggest problem in my mind was the amount of pressure the Aggies were bringing. I get why they were doing it because of how our offense was playing. It looked like Elko was looking for the knock out punch but it never landed.

It came close a couple of times but Arkansas would rip off a big run or pass to gain back the yards they lost.

Live by the blitz, die by the blitz.

Our decision to attack on defense left our second level completely exposed. Once Arkansas got the ball beyond the line of scrimmage either by running or passing, there were very few Aggie defenders so Arkansas was ripping off big gains.

Look no further than 4th and 5 from the Arkansas 12 yard line with less than three minutes left in the game. The Aggies brought pressure from their left side but they didn’t keep an edge on their right side. Green was able to slip around that edge and had nothing but open field in front of him.

With a running quarterback like Green, you can never let him have the edge or he’ll burn you. Especially in that situation. A fourth down stop there ends the game.

We got aggressive and got burned.

That’s some on the players, but that’s a lot on coaching for not drilling into to the edge player opposite the pressure side to stay home and don’t get sucked inside.

Once a guy like Green has cleared the edge, he’s going to burn you with his feet.

We did a great job applying pressure all night as we had 34 pressures and four sacks on a very mobile quarterback. Green never got fully comfortable in the pocket.

But still, the burns were really bad.

I don’t really fault the game plan in trying to land the knockout punch, but at the same time, there has to be criticism when the other team scores 42 points including five touchdowns.

Seemed pretty clear Elko was looking for a big turnover or stop but credit to Arkansas for not fully succumbing to the Aggie pressure.

Not one defensive player stood out to me on Saturday as everyone had issues at one point or another. Howell failed to seal the edge a couple times and the linebackers were often out of position.

The secondary did okay but they seemed pretty confused in their coverage at times.

Hopefully, both the staff and players learned from this effort. I’m not sure we’ll see another offense like Arkansas unless we face Alabama in the SEC Championship game.

If we do face another dynamic offense, I hope we either dial the pressure back a bit or execute it flawlessly.

We can’t do what we did in Fayetteville from a defensive standpoint and expect to win again.

Looking Forward:

It’s obvious the Aggies can win out. Every team left on this schedule is very beatable based on what we’ve seen from the teams this season.

That doesn’t mean the Aggies will. Big difference between “they can do it” and “they will do it.”

It’s not my Battered Aggie Syndrome either. It’s the simple fact playing in the SEC is a grind. Especially, on the road. Even more at night.

We’ve got night games in Baton Rouge and Austin.

I do think the Aggies are going to have to be perfect to get to Atlanta. I don’t think Alabama or Georgia lose another game the rest of the way.

They’re both playing really good ball. Especially Alabama. They’re hands down the best team in the SEC right now. Likely the country. That Florida State loss is a LONG time ago.

I think Alabama will remain undefeated and walk into the SEC Championship game.

If the Aggies lose a game, I’m not sure how the tiebreaker with Georgia would work.

I don’t want to find out. Just win out and make it a moot point on figuring out who has whatever tiebreaker according to the seven page SEC tie breaker document.

We lose two games and there’s no Atlanta.

Before thinking that far, we have to do something we’ve never done since joining the SEC – win in Baton Rouge.

Based on how the two teams are playing, I think it’s entirely possible the Aggies get that milestone on Saturday night. I’m not saying they will, but there’s a reason we’re a slight favorite even Baton Rouge. We’re playing better football right now even if it’s imperfect.

As for the rest of the schedule; I’d like to think the floor is 10-2.

If you had told me before the season started we would go 10-2, I would have been ecstatic.

However, after being where we are and the current state of the Aggies and the remaining teams, it would be a massive disappointment.

If we somehow go the dreaded 8-4 losing the final four SEC games, we need to disband the football program all together.

I’m dead serious. Quit wasting money on a football program that’s CLEARLY destined for mediocracy. Send the money we usually waste on Aggie Football to Special Olympics. Those athletes would be more deserving.

I don’t think 8-4 happens, but this is Aggie Football we’re talking about.

We can temper expectations all we want, but the reality is there’s not an Aggie fan anywhere that’s not filled with hope right now.

And I don’t mean some hope. I mean lots of hope. We’re sitting here like General Sherman looking at a map to Atlanta.

We’ve been waiting for this.

As much as I want to talk more about what could happen over the next five games, I can’t.

Seven games has shown us that we’re a really good football team with some imperfections. We’re better than most of the teams in college football but we’re certainly not infallible.

Maybe we find that gear that puts us closer to perfection. Maybe we don’t.

There’s no way to tell other than one thing – let’s win in Baton Rouge on Saturday night and then worry about what comes after that.

BTHO LSU

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Thoughts from the Florida Game

This is another fairly quick write-up this week, mainly because there’s not much to complain about, which I’m not complaining about.

My biggest question about the game that won’t be answered is why Billy Napier left the track meet game in the first quarter. Florida had two beautiful drives, during which they scored touchdowns, making the game 14-14.

Texas A&M scored a touchdown on their third possession to go up 21-14, and then Florida took their fourth possession but suffered a three-and-out, having to punt.

It was that moment when the game’s style changed. Both sides seemed to want to slow it down for whatever reason. It went from a Big 12 shootout game to a traditional SEC game over who could win the line of scrimmage.

It seemed like Napier did it first, and Elko was happy to follow suit.

I don’t get why Napier did it. His only chance of beating A&M on the road was to get into a track meet game. He has the horses with Lagway and his receivers, which were shown on their two touchdown drives.

It seemed like Napier thought he could switch gears and grind out a victory like he did against Texas the prior week.

He was wrong because the Aggie defense continued to shine and basically shut down the Florida offense for the rest of the game.

The Florida offense had 150 yards on those two touchdown drives. They had 169 yards the rest of the game. When Napier decided to tap on the brakes of his offense, the Aggie defense just pushed back.

This is the third consecutive game in which the Aggie defense has stepped up and exerted its will against an SEC opponent. Florida scored 14 points in the first quarter and three points the rest of the game.

Meanwhile, thanks to that 21-14 lead and the Aggie defense stepping up, the Aggie offense slowed things down and looked to wear down the Florida offense. It mostly worked as the Aggies pulled away in the fourth quarter.

The big dagger was the 50-yard drive, during which the Aggies ran 12 plays with only one pass. The other 11 plays were runs, during which the Aggies chewed up eight minutes of clock and put the game away.

Florida wasn’t likely winning that game, but that 50-yard drive made any chance of a comeback obsolete.

I was very critical of Elko after last season’s late collapse, but I have to give the man credit—halfway through this season, this team looks completely different from last season. It really does.

This was by far the Aggies’ most complete game so far, but it was far from perfect. Marcel Reed threw a terrible interception in the second half, and the Aggie defense was driven on for two drives in the first quarter.

But at the end of the day, the Aggies beat a very talented Florida team. That wasn’t an easy win, but the Aggies made it look fairly easy.

I’m optimistic because the Aggies have yet to play a perfect game. They have yet to play a stinker of a game, but we’re winning while overcoming mistakes. That’s the sign of a good football team.

Here are some random things from the game.

Marcel Reed:

Marcel Reed is not getting enough credit for the quality of football he’s playing.

Sure, he’s a little erratic throwing the ball sometimes, but the dude is playing excellent football. He started off the game completing his first eight passes for 160 yards. That included an absolute money throw to Mario Craver that covered 60 yards in the air, if not more.

That throw set the tone for the game and let Florida know we were prepared to respond to anything they could do on the night.

Reed was a little erratic the rest of the game, going 8 for 18, including that interception, but he was pretty good at keeping the Aggies out of trouble.

The best part of Reed’s games is his pocket awareness. The offensive line gives Reed plenty of time to throw, but Reed’s ability to sense pressure to move and reset is outstanding.

Reed will have to continue to adapt, as it’s clear that teams will try to remove Concepcion and Craver from the picture. A little more on that later.

Defensive Third Downs:

During Mike Elko’s time as a defensive coordinator in Aggieland, he was really good at getting off the field on third downs.

We weren’t that great last season, and the first three games this season. Since the SEC play, Mike Elko’s calling card has been back. On Saturday night, the Gators went one for ten on third downs. Florida attempted to convert one fourth down and wasn’t successful.

SEC teams are 2 for 33 on third downs and 0 for 3 on fourth downs.

That is crazy. I don’t know if the Aggies can keep that up, especially on the road. Still, Elko and the defense are doing a tremendous job of anticipating what the opposing offense wants to do or setting them up for difficult conversion distances.

Daymion Sanford:

Sanford led the team in tackles and once again was all over the field making the plays.

I’m not sure it’s a coincidence that the defense has looked different with him starting and playing meaningful minutes.

The defense has definitely worked together to improve from the first three games, but he’s an obvious variable.

I know Scooby is healthy, and you hate to see guys lose their starting spot and playing time due to an injury. However, you can’t take Sanford off the field with the way he’s playing.

York has also been better in the last three games than in the first three games.

Maybe it’s just the competition, but there’s definitely something to Sanford bringing a different element to this defense.

Offensive Line:

The offensive line shuffling continued on Saturday night. I don’t know what’s happening, but Elko and Cushing are still trying to figure out who the best five guys are.

I think they believe it’s Fatheree and Crownover at tackle with Zuhn at center.

I say that because the center is getting the most rotation.

I’m good with trying it because Zuhn is likely an interior lineman at the next level. Crownover has definitely improved, and if we can get Fatheree anywhere near his freshman level of play, this will be a better offensive line.

They’re doing a decent job right now, but there’s room for improvement.

Penalties:

Technically, the Aggies had three penalties for 30 yards called on them Saturday night. In reality, they didn’t have any penalties called on them.

The first was a delay of game, during which the offense was clearly trying to get the Florida defense to jump offsides. The five-yard penalty meant nothing.

The second penalty was the excessive celebration penalty after the fumble recovery in the fourth quarter. That was the final dagger for Florida’s chance to win, so the game was over.

And the final penalty was on Florida’s final drive when they had zero chance of winning.

I don’t expect the Aggies to play penalty-free football every game, but it was great to see after what happened against Auburn and Mississippi State.

If the Aggies can play mostly penalty-free football, they’ll likely advance to Atlanta and the CFP.

The lack of penalties is far and away the most significant development from this game.

Punt penalty:

In the second quarter, Florida punted a ball that went 66 yards and wound up at the Aggie 18-yard line. On the play, Florida was called for a facemask.

A&M had the option of taking the ball at the Aggie 33-yard line or pushing the Gators back to their 7-yard line and punting again.

Elko correctly pushed Florida back and made them punt again. The second punt went 36 yards to the Florida 43-yard line. That gained the Aggies 24 yards.

I feel like Elko would have just taken the ball at the 33-yard line last season.

It’s minor, but I’m glad to see Elko fully aware and making wise decisions rather than just being conservative.

Third Receiver:

It’s obvious that teams are scheming to slow down Concepcion and Craver. Those two guys are seeing double and bracketed coverage, which will leave someone else open, so someone needs to step up.

I’d love it if Terry Bussey finally took that step, but I just don’t know. He and Bethel-Roman had zero receptions on Saturday night despite playing a good portion of the evening.

We’re halfway through the season, with opportunity knocking, and these guys have yet to produce anything meaningful.

The tight ends had a good night, catching eight balls for 88 yards. That’s a great night for them. Maybe they’ll be the guys to step up with the focus on Concepcion and Craver.

If the Aggies can find someone to take advantage of the defense’s focus on Concepcion and Craver, this offense would reach the next level.

Running Back:

We lost Le’veon Moss on Saturday night for a few games.

As you saw on his touchdown run, he’s head and shoulders above our other running backs. That doesn’t mean our other running backs are bad; it’s just a statement of how good Moss is.

Owens struggled up the middle on Saturday night, but he didn’t have any runs for losses to his credit. Up the middle is not his strength, but he can at least grind out some yards. He’s just not going to create yards after contact like Moss can.

I’m cautiously excited about Jamarion Morrow. He’s a true freshman but looks to have some real talent. He’s really compact and strong.

If he grows up quickly, the Aggie offense can keep rolling.

Everyone close to the program thinks Morrow can be an absolute stud. I hope he proves them correct.

Overall:

It’s hard to question much from this game. Sure, a few things could have been better, but the Aggies played their most complete game of the season by a large margin.

It shows serious improvement at the halfway mark.

Looking Forward:

We have two really tough road games the next two weeks.  

We travel to Fayetteville, where Bobby Petrino will make his first home appearance as the Arkansas head coach. The team and fans will be fired up for this game.

Don’t let their 2-4 record fool you. They’re two late fumbles away from being 4-2 and potentially 5-1 as they only lost to Tennessee by three points last week.

After Fayetteville, we travel to Baton Rouge for a night game. I don’t need to waste words on the challenge that will be.

Let’s see what happens in Fayetteville before we get too far ahead of ourselves for what could be for the rest of the season.

I like what I’m seeing, but we’ve got six games left, and they’ll be the most challenging five games of the season, other than the Notre Dame game.

Let’s hope this is a different Aggie team than we’ve seen in the past.

Thoughts from the Mississippi State Game

I’m not really sure where to begin on this game.

The end result was dominating, but the Aggies took three quarters to get there, at least from an offensive standpoint. The defense dominated the whole game just like the week before.

Five games into the season, the Aggies are 5-0, but haven’t even come close to playing a perfect game. That’s good and bad.

The offense carried the team for most of the first three games, but the defense has carried it for the last two games. I didn’t see the defense doing a 180 after the bye week, but I’m glad to see it.  

We’ve been Jekyll and Hyde five games into the season.

Before I go any further, I must say that that was a well-coached Mississippi State team. They’re short on talent, but the Mississippi State coaching staff did everything they could to give their team a chance to win. The problem was that they didn’t have the horses.

To make matters worse, they didn’t have their two starting tackles against us. They came in with lesser talent, and then, to make matters worse, they didn’t even have all of their talent.

What I saw from the Mississippi State coaching staff was light-years ahead of what I saw from the Auburn coaching staff. Coaching absolutely matters.

For three quarters, Mississippi State kept it to a two-score game.

Ultimately, the Aggies wore down the Bulldogs and walked out with an impressive score.

Three things stand out to me from this game:

1) The overall effort of the Aggie defense
2) The running game
3) Concepcion and Craver are difference makers

I won’t break down each unit on both sides of the ball as I usually do; instead, I’ll focus on those three things.

Much of what I would write about this game would be a duplicate of last week. It’s basically the same game as Auburn, except Miss State had a little more offense, and our offense finally landed big punches in the fourth quarter.

The Defense:

For the second straight week, the Aggie defense just dominated their opponent.

The Aggie defense held the Bulldog offense to 219 total yards, 44 of which came on a perfect touchdown pass. The Aggies also kept that number down thanks to four sacks and five tackles for losses. Those nine plays removed 49 yards from the Bulldogs’ offensive ledger.

This was a duplicate effort from the previous week against Auburn, where guys were flying around making plays. York and Sanford led the defense at linebacker. The defensive line was disruptive yet again.

Cashius Howell took advantage of their backup tackles, amassing three sacks.

Mississippi State converted one third down on 10 tries. They didn’t try a fourth-down conversion.

It was yet another dominant performance by the Aggie defense.

I have no clue if this type of defensive play is sustainable. We might have played the two worst offenses on our schedule.

Either way, it’s great to see the Aggie defense dial it up when the competition is inferior. At worst, at least this Aggie defense knows and understands how to play dominating defense.

We’ll find out on Saturday if this defense is sustainable when Florida comes to town.

I’ll take a coaching staff getting a defense ready to take care of an inferior offense over some other performances we’ve seen in the past.

This type of defensive performance is why we hired Mike Elko. Kudos to him and his staff for dialing up the defensive play when it looked like a significant question mark in the season’s first three games.

The Running Game:

The offensive line was inconsistent yet again.

They had their penalties and then obviously got stuffed at the goal line.

Real quick—I’m torn about the decision-making there. We went up the gut four plays in a row and only gained one yard when we needed two. It’s insanity to keep trying the same thing repeatedly with no results. At the same time, at some point, you hope your offense can will its way to gaining a yard when it’s genuinely needed.

I’d rather try it in a game like this where you have a good chance of overcoming getting stopped in that moment.

If we see something like this again this season in a close game against an equal opponent, I’ll scream to the heavens. I hope Elko and Klein saw that as a serious warning sign.

Back to the overall running game discussion – Le’veon Moss was in and out of the game yet again.

Reuben Owens stepped up in a big way, rushing 21 times for 143 yards. It goes without saying that he looked the best he’s looked in an Aggie uniform. He showed a lot of confidence and burst.

In addition to Owens, you had Craver with two rushes for 35 yards, including a touchdown. Reed rushed 6 times for 34 yards, including a touchdown. Jamarion Morrow had a nice rush of 23 yards. Concepcion had two rushes for 22 yards.

And Boerkircher converted another third-and-short for a first down. Maybe he should get goal-line carries…

It took a bit to get the running game going, but I’m glad our offensive line could lean on the Mississippi State defense and open up holes. We averaged 5.5 yards a carry, which is a solid number.

You can’t fault 300 yards of rushing. That’s how you impose your will. Even if it took us three quarters to do it. At least it happened.

We had almost twice the possession time as Mississippi State. Which is why things looked like they did in the fourth quarter.

Concepcion and Craver:

There’s a decent chance we win this game if these two guys aren’t on our team.

However, with them on our team, this game became a no-doubter in the fourth quarter.

These two dude are absolute difference makers.  

The stat sheet from this game doesn’t show their importance in receiving yards, but their presence changes how a defense has to defend us.

They “only” had 141 yards of receiving, with Concepcion having 80 yards and Craver having 61 yards. Concepcion had two touchdowns through the air, and Craver had a 42-yard reception in addition to his two carries and score on the ground.

It doesn’t seem like much compared to some of their games, but the dudes produced yet again.

They’re being focused on by defenses and still producing.

Having these guys on the field can be credited with many of those 300 yards of rushing. They’re a nightmare for defenses to worry about, so they can’t focus on shutting down the run.

These guys are flat-out dudes and continue to change the trajectory for the 2025 Aggie Football season.

They continue to be my team MVPs for the season, and it’s not even close.

I can keep going on, but you’ve got eyes and watch the games.

Don’t be griping about the Transfer Portal when we’ve got these two guys on our roster.

Looking Forward:

I still feel like we’ve got a couple of losses on our schedule somewhere. I don’t know when, but we will have a game or two where nothing clicks.

I can’t point to it on the schedule right now because everyone on our schedule has serious question marks. That includes LSU and Texas, which I thought were sure losses coming into the season.

We can still lose those games, but I am much more confident that we can win them.

For now, I want to get through Florida and Arkansas to go to Baton Rouge 7-0.

As much as I want to look forward to Atlanta and the College Football Playoff, I just can’t.

Let’s BTHO Florida and worry about Arkansas after that.

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Thoughts from the Auburn Game

Last Saturday was a real head-scratcher of a game. It should have been a much bigger win, but it wasn’t.

A lot of Aggies ended the game wondering what it meant.

As someone who walked into the season very skeptical of this Aggie program, I saw many positives.

I’m well aware of the negatives, but there were more positives than negatives. That’s assuming this coaching staff and team can continue developing and improving each week.

In looking back, two things stood out to me:

1) Despite a few slight moments of worry in the game, the Aggies controlled the game from start to finish.
2) The defense had everything to do with that. They flat-out owned the Auburn offense the entire game.

The Aggie offense had a fair amount of self-inflicted issues, which caused this game to be closer on the scoreboard than on the field. We missed 6 points on missed field goals. We had a touchdown called back, having to settle for a field goal. That’s 10 points right there.

26-10 would feel much different than 16-10.

Take away the interception, which was essentially a Pick-6, and you’re talking about a potential 10-point swing since we were in field goal range.

That would have made the game 29-3.

I say that with some level of confidence because the defense was just so damn good on Saturday.

Not factoring in Auburn’s touchdown because that was on the Aggie offense, Auburn only attempted one field goal. That was thanks to a perfect pass that Will Lee might have intercepted, and then a personal foul by Albert Regis. Even on that drive, Auburn never got inside the 10-yard line. That was Auburn’s only trip inside the red zone the entire game.

The Aggie defense was that dominant on Saturday.

I’m sure you’ve seen the stats: Auburn didn’t convert a third or fourth down on Saturday. In addition, Auburn got 1 yard of offense in the fourth quarter.

Defensive domination.

Coaching:

I was critical of Elko and Klein coming into the season, but I can’t fault them for what they’ve done this season. They’ve not been perfect, but they seem more aware of their talent and this season’s competition.

I’ll address the 3rd and 1 playcall that resulted in the Pick-6. I disagree with it, but I don’t hate it. I get what Klein was trying to do. He was trying to be unpredictable.

Reed took a bad snap and threw a high pass that Bussey couldn’t bring in. It bounced favorably to Auburn, and the worst thing could have happened. It was at minimum a 7-point swing, but likely a 10-point swing or even a 14-point swing.

Klein was a little erratic this game, but I believe he was trying to stay balanced and not rely on one aspect of the offense. I actually get that. I’ve mentioned this before, but the Aggies will need to rely on the pass to beat teams.

Reed needs to develop a better rapport with his receivers and there’s only one way to do that – actually doing it in games.

I like that Klein is trying to continue developing the passing game. We won’t be able to rely solely on the running or passing game if we want to make Atlanta and the CFP. I wish he’d get better at sequencing plays, but I like what he’s doing this season much more than last.

Take away a couple of those offensive line penalties, and this offense would have looked entirely different on Saturday. Klein felt like a boxer who landed the first big punch, staggering the opponent, and then spent the rest of the game trying to land the final knockout punch. He almost had it with the Craver touchdown, but it got called back with a ticky-tack call.

Let’s see what he does against Mississippi State.

The defensive coaching was perfection. It really was. I can’t complain about one thing from the defensive effort on Saturday.

I didn’t see that defensive effort coming at all, but above everything else, it gives me hope this Aggie team can finally get to Atlanta and the CFP. The Auburn offense is pretty bad. Their offensive line and Jackson Arnold are terrible, but credit to Elko and company for coming up with the perfect scheme and getting the players to execute it. That’s often easier said than done.

Let’s get to the sides of the ball.

Offense:

I’ve talked about Klein, but the offense looked good enough. They weren’t even really good, which is encouraging, assuming they continue learning and developing.

Running Back:

Le’veon Moss had another solid day toting the rock. The dude carried 21 times for 140 yards and a score. That’s 6.6 yards a carry. The guy is the most underrated back in the country at this point. I have complete faith in him.

Reuben Owens looks like he’s starting to find his groove. He only had three carries, but he had 52 yards. Amari Daniels had a very serviceable day, carrying the ball 12 times for 42 yards while picking up blitzes.

This group continues to live up to its promise.

Offensive Line:

This unit is solely responsible for our offensive struggles. For all the good they did at times, their penalties flat-out held this offense back.

This unit’s actual play is still inconsistent. They’re really good at times and then struggle at other times. Reed was sacked four times, which is partially a testament to how much pressure Auburn brought most of the game, but also how much this line can still improve.

We will continue to see teams bring pressure and try to exploit this line.

I’m okay with this group, but they still have a lot of room for improvement. That’s even beyond all the penalties.

Wide Receiver:

Auburn made a conscious effort not to let Mario Craver have a big play. Not a terrible move. Craver still had four catches for 34 yards. He should have had five catches for 56 yards and a touchdown. You already know that.

Meanwhile, KC Concepcion had a productive day catching seven passes for 113 yards.

Craver and Concepcion didn’t have quite the impact they had in the Notre Dame game, but they certainly contributed to the production.

Niblack had a nice catch-and-run. This was a great catch as he was going across the middle and anticipated the contact. He kept his arms extended and brought them in right away, avoiding the contact to get quite a few yards after the catch.  A lot of guys would have short armed that ball and not caught it.

My only complaints about the receivers are Bussey and Bethel-roman. Bethel-roman seems to struggle to adjust to and catch balls. Two passes to him weren’t great, but he made zero adjustments to the ball. He basically runs his route. If the ball doesn’t hit him in stride, he won’t adjust and catch it.

Bussey seems to struggle with fluid routes and getting separation from the defender. I’d really like to see these guys develop. They could make an explosive offense even more explosive.

Quarterback:

Marcel Reed had a much better day than most people realize. He was an efficient 15 for 22 for 207 yards, which is an almost 70% completion rate. That has to be one of his most efficient days as a quarterback.

He won’t win the Heisman this season, but I see him continuing to develop the rest of the season. I’m hopeful there’s more to come from Reed.

Defense:

I’m going to talk about this group as a whole.

First, my apologies to Will Lee and Taurean York. I was critical of their play in the Notre Dame game, but they absolutely stepped up in this game.

York may have had the best game of his Aggie career. The dude was all over the field. His play anticipation was off the charts in this game.

Will Lee and Dez Ricks all but shut down Auburn’s receivers. Auburn has a great set of receivers. They only had 125 yards of receiving, with one pass going for 37 yards. Will Lee had perfect position on the receiver, to the point that a case could be made that he intercepted the ball.

Cam Coleman is one of the best receivers in the nation, but he was totally shut down, only catching four balls for 18 yards. His longest reception was for five yards. I can’t say enough good things about what Ricks and Lee did on Saturday.

I’m shocked at Ricks’ development, but I’m not complaining—massive kudos to him for what he’s done.

I talked about York already, but Daymion Sanford had another great game. I don’t know what to do when Scooby comes back, but it’s a good problem to have.

The defensive line had far and away its best game of the season. I liked what I saw from the defensive tackles in the Notre Dame game, and they continued to be disruptive against Auburn.  

The defensive ends did a great job of setting edges and not letting Auburn get outside. Auburn’s offensive line contributed to some of the performance, but seeing the defensive line take advantage of an inferior group was great.

The safeties looked great—especially Marcus Ratcliffe.

It was just a great effort by the entire defense. I don’t know how replicable it is because, as mentioned, the Auburn offensive line and Jackson Arnold are pretty bad.  

However, seeing them do so well is encouraging, as they didn’t have any lapses throughout the game.

You’re imparting your will when you hold the opponent to 1 yard in the fourth quarter.

Kudos to Elko and everyone else involved with the defense.

Looking Forward:

After Notre Dame and Auburn, there’s no doubt in my mind that A&M can beat everyone left on its schedule. That’s partially because of how this A&M team is playing and how the remaining teams have played. They all look beatable.

The Aggies won’t run the table, but if this team can keep doing what it’s doing and continue to develop, it will win a lot more games than it loses.

I’ll move the floor to 9-3 for this team and put the overall record at 10-2.

I need to see more from this team, along with LSU, Missouri, and Texas, before I get too confident about the 11 or even 12-win category.

We should be 7-0 when we head to Baton Rouge. After watching this team against Notre Dame and Auburn; wins over Mississippi State, Florida, and Arkansas seem probable.

They can absolutely lose any of those games if they get too confident and have a brain fart.

I’d like to see a perfect game in which they absolutely annihilate an opponent. I’m starting to get bought in on this team, but I’m going to hold back to see what happens in the next three games.

Let’s take it one game at a time and BTHO Mississippi State.

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Thoughts From the Notre Dame Game

What a game in South Bend. It looked bad, then it looked good, then it looked good, then it looked questionable, then it looked really bad, and then it went GREAT. Which is why we love sports so much. As painful as the roller coaster can be at times, the thrill at the end is worth the anguish along the way.

I have to state the obvious before I get to anything else about the game. The additions of K.C. Concepcion and Mario Craver look like the best portal additions of anyone in the country. Without those two guys, we walk out of South Bend with our tails between our legs. We wouldn’t have been competitive without those two guys.

I was skeptical of those two guys before the season started, not because of them specifically, but because I was tired of the off-season receiver hype. Too many guys had been built up since Christian Kirk and Josh Reynolds, and all of them failed to deliver.

I’ve never been happier to be wrong about two guys than Concepcion and Craver. These guys have been amazing. Hats off to Elko and whoever else helped get them to campus.

I don’t know how many more games these guys win for us, but we’re already at one game.

We’re dead in the water without them in South Bend.

Beyond their performance, the Aggies got some breaks to go their way. I’m not saying the Aggies winning was pure luck, but in many close victories, some events prove beneficial without realizing it at the time.

Specifically, here’s what I’m talking about:

• The missed field goal at the end of the half by Bond. If we were down by 3 on the final drive, no way we go for the end zone on 4th and 11. Elko would have kicked for overtime. That miss was a huge factor in the Aggies win.
• Notre Dame scored their final touchdown with a little less than 3 minutes left. I don’t think the Aggies let them score there, but it was a big blessing. Notre Dame drives down and scores with a minute or so left, and our goose was cooked. Our inept defense actually benefitted us in that moment.
• The botched extra point by Notre Dame. Obviously.
• The holding call on our kick return. We give the ball right back to Notre Dame down by 1 with more than two minutes left, and there’s no doubt in my mind they get into field goal range.
• Using all four plays on a goal line series. Once again, not by design, but giving the ball back to Notre Dame with 13 seconds only allowed them two plays, even with their two timeouts. That wasn’t enough time for them to get in field goal range. If they had 30 seconds, they would have had a serious chance to get in field range with how our defense was playing.

I’m not going to bring up anything with the refs, but those five things aligned to force the Aggies to score a touchdown while giving us just enough time to do it and not enough time for Notre Dame to respond.

Thank goodness we didn’t have to go to overtime. I don’t know that we could have pulled out a victory with equal possessions. It could have happened, but I’m totally okay with events aligning, allowing the Aggies to have exactly one more point as regulation expired.

Notre Dame Experience:

Before I get to anything else on the game, I want to discuss the Notre Dame experience.

This is my second time going, as I went in 2000. I stayed in South Bend this time, so my experience was slightly different. I enjoyed spending the whole weekend in South Bend, instead of commuting in from Chicago.

It’s a great place to spend a college football weekend.

I know people get annoyed by all of the attention Notre Dame gets. I’m one of them. They definitely get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the perception of how good their team is and how good they actually are.

Their schedule is usually pretty weak compared to the rest of the SEC or Big 10 schools. It’s frustrating to see them get propped up when they’re playing Navy, Stanford, Boston College, Purdue, and other teams of the same caliber.

However, their gameday experience is pretty awesome.

The history, pageantry, and everything else are as good as it gets in college football.

It’s not as rowdy as other schools, but it’s a great scene. It doesn’t need to be rowdy because it’s reverent. They’ve been relevant in college football longer than any other program. Sure, some have had more success and there have been periods where Notre Dame wasn’t good; but they’ve always been relevant in college football history.

There’s something to be said for that.

If you’ve never been to a game there and you get the chance, go. It’s even better if it’s a marquee matchup.

Let’s talk about the game.

Coaching:

I came into this game feeling that we had to press the gas on offense to win.

We did precisely that.

I felt we would lose if we tried to get into a war of the trenches. Elko and Klein had a great game plan for winning this thing, and they executed it pretty well.

I’m still a little worried about this team as a whole, but I have to give Elko and Klein credit. They had the right game plan for Notre Dame.

It’s clear Concepcion and Craver are the two biggest weapons on this entire team. They need to be fed and fed often if we stand the chance of winning football games.

I felt Klein kind of lost his way in the second half after Reed missed Concepcion and Niblack for what likely would have been touchdowns. We went to a two-back set for a good portion of the second half, and it seemed like we couldn’t quite get anything going.

It seemed like Klein got a little more conservative since Reed missed on those deep balls.

Our third-down calls were especially baffling all evening. We only converted 4 of 11 third downs. I couldn’t quite tell what was going on, but we really didn’t have guys open. Reed missed a couple of guys on plays, but for the most part, the plays didn’t develop enough to convert the third down.

In addition, the call to Reed to run to the short side on 1st and goal from the 10 on our final series was mind-boggling. I don’t like Reid running to the short side. He’s not a super elusive runner, and he’s certainly not powerful. Reid is plenty athletic and can be elusive, but he’s not a guy who’s going to juke an entire defense out of their jocks.

Reed needs as much space as possible to spread guys out.

My only complaints about Klein are the third downs and the call on the first and goal on the final drive, so he did just fine.

The overall game plan of trying to outscore the opponent worked. If this team is to keep winning, the offense has to keep scoring points. Our defense just doesn’t have the horses to dominate the opponent.

I have to assume Elko knows this, and the reason for the game plan against Notre Dame.

There’s some stuff to improve on, but I am glad this staff seems more grounded in the reality of what is and isn’t possible with their roster.

Offense:

Receivers:

I’ve already talked about them, but I’m going to reiterate how good Concepcion and Craver are.

They are the difference in this football team’s being 3-0 instead of 2-1. There is no way around it. If they don’t transfer in, this is a completely different team.

We had 360 yards of passing, and they had 289 of those yards, which is 80% of our passing yards.

Craver averaged 29.6 yards a catch on 7 receptions, and Concepcion averaged 20.5 yards a catch on 4 receptions. That average would have been much higher if he had caught that ball on the first series and if Reed had been able to hit him for what would have been a 99-yard touchdown. He would have had another 150 yards or so.

Concepcion would have averaged close to 40 yards a catch if those two completions had happened.

These guys are just incredible. That’s a tough Notre Dame secondary they did that against. I’ll be curious how defenses defend these guys going forward, as it’ll undoubtedly be a focus.

If I have a complaint about the receiving game, it’s that we never tried a bubble screen to Craver. It was a pretty big staple in the first two games, but we never tried it. Maybe they thought the Notre Dame secondary was too good, but I did want it tried at least once to see if he could have busted it open.

This unit absolutely carried the Aggies to victory.

Running Backs:

Although the running game seemed a bit underwhelming, I thought it was the perfect complement to what we were doing through the air.

Le’Veon Moss had a “quiet” night, rushing 20 times for 81 yards and 3 scores.

Moss saw most of the snaps in the evening. I don’t know if there’s anything to glean from Moss taking most of the snaps. I believe Moss is our best back and can handle the amount of carries he got, so there’s no reason to overthink it.

I like it.

Rueben Owens had 3 carries for 5 yards, and Amari Daniels had 1 carry for 4 yards.

I saw Jamarrion Morrow out there a couple of times and E.J. Smith on the final drive of the first half, along with another third down.

We ran a lot of 2 back sets in the second half, motioning in and out of them, but they didn’t seem to do much. I believe Bussey was one of the guys motioning in and out. I was in the second-to-last row of the stadium, so I couldn’t always make out who was doing what.

I assume Klein just wanted the run game to complement the passing game, so I’ll take it.

Offensive Line:

I think the offensive line is decent enough. They’re a little inconsistent in my mind.

They will look good at times, and then they’ll blow assignments. I get that happens, but this unit still has a long way to go to truly be great.

It looked like they were still rotating guys, which puzzled me a bit. I thought they would have the five guys figured out and be willing to roll with them.

Two things really stood out to me in this game.

First, we were unable to run to the left side. We tried three or four times with Moss, but he got nowhere.

The other thing that stood out to me is Chase Bisontis’s inconsistency. I know he’s the guy that some people think could have held on the final play, but I don’t care about that. Throughout the game, he struggled at times. He’s not terrible by any stretch, as he’ll dominate at times, but I think he’s the most inconsistent lineman by far.

We had way too many false starts, which need to be cleaned up.

I think this unit did pretty well against the pass rush, as Notre Dame was trying to bring a lot of pressure. Reed helped this group a ton as he moved through the pocket, but credit to the offensive line for giving him space to move to.

Reed wasn’t sacked once all night, which is a credit to this unit, especially considering Reed threw the ball 37 times.

My hope for this unit is that they get the best five guys figured out and roll forward with them.

I want this to be the 2020 offensive line, and they still have a way to go.

Quarterback:

This statement will sound weird – Marcel Reed didn’t play a great game.

He didn’t.

He played a pretty good game which allowed his team to win but he was far from great.

Which I think is a testament to the players around him and the fact this offense can get even better if Reed can continue to improve.

He had an awful interception and missed Concepcion and Nilback on what would have been touchdowns. At the same time, he made some money throws that were significant factors in the game.

I have no problem with his game at the moment, but just pointing out he can get even better.

One thing I continue to see with Reed is that he’s not a dominant runner. He’s got some elusiveness, but he’s not a burner, and he certainly can’t run through defenders.

He can certainly extend the play, but I don’t think we’ll see him routinely have big running plays like we’ve seen from other dual-threat quarterbacks. You know who I’m talking about…

Reed is wonderful at moving in the pocket, though. His greatest attribute is his ability to move into space and reset.

I’m good with that as long as Reed can stay where he is.

If he dials it up a notch, even better.

Defense:

Overall:

The Aggie defense struggled quite a bit on Saturday night.

My biggest fear came true—this is not a super talented defense. My biggest point in proving this is that there’s very little NFL talent on the defensive side of the ball. Some of the young guys can certainly develop into NFL players, but when it comes to our guys logging the most minutes right now, I don’t see a lot of high NFL draft picks.

I just don’t.

I think we’re going to see a lot more games like this. We just have to hold on, hoping our offense can make one more play than our defense will give up.

I’m curious to see how Elko handles this, as I think he’s pretty aware of the issues facing this defense.

Defensive Line:

The most exciting thing about this game from a defensive standpoint was the play of our defensive tackles. We already know what Albert Regis can do, but D.J. Hicks had the best game of his career and was flat out disruptive at times.

We also had a good rotation of guys who held up inside most of the night. Tyler Onyedim did a wonderful job rotating in with Hicks and Regis.

Notre Dame struggled to run between the tackles, which is a testament to the interior of our defensive line.

I’m pretty pleased with this group.

I didn’t see much from our defensive ends. Cashius Howell was disruptive on a couple of plays, but for the most part, our defensive ends were pretty quiet all night. They seemed to get taken out of plays where they couldn’t seal the edge.

I have a feeling we’ll see a lot more teams test the edge of our defensive line to see if they can find running space.

I’m not totally sure what the best solution is, but it could pose a problem in the SEC. I kind of think we need to run some of the big young defensive ends out there, like Marco Jones.

Linebackers:

This is the unit that perplexes me a bit.

Scooby Williams missed the second half of the game, but something is becoming more obvious about him. He’s really good at playing with his eyes forward, but he’s not so good at playing going backward.

If the play is in front of him, he can ball. If the play is going behind him, he struggles. He’s not been good in pass coverage in the two seasons at A&M.

I’m pretty sure he blew the coverage on the Jeremiyah Love touchdown reception, where Love just ran a standard wheel route and nobody covered him. That’s usually the assignment of a linebacker, and I believe it was Scooby’s.

I could be wrong, but it seems like it should have been Scooby’s guy.

Scooby made some great plays in the backfield, but he’s got to be a net positive overall.

Daymion Sanford filled in for Scooby and had a fantastic night. He had a big sack at the end of the first half and then had a solo tackle taking down Love on a 4th and 1 play to turn the ball over on downs.

Sanford was far and away our best linebacker of the night.

Now comes the tough part – I think Taurean York is regressing.

He struggled quite a bit on Saturday night and didn’t do much. At least not for a middle linebacker.

He was out of position for a good portion of the night and just didn’t do much. On one specific play on third down, we called a stunt where he was supposed to fill the gap left by Albert Regis. York was slow in getting there, and the Notre Dame lineman made him irrelevant on the play as Notre Dame picked up the first down.

I’ve never considered York an NFL player due to his lack of size, but I do expect more from him in his third year in the Aggie program.

I’m not sure what Elko and Bateman need to do here other than play Sanford more.

Obviously, Scooby’s health is also a factor.

Secondary:

If you had told me we would have only given up 136 yards of rushing, but Notre Dame scored 34 points on offense, I would have been surprised.

I would have thought Notre Dame would have pounded the ball on the ground to get 34 points on offense.

The Aggie secondary had far and away the roughest night of any position group against Notre Dame. Notre Dame has some decent receiving threats, but they shouldn’t have been able to rack up 291 yards through the air.

One guy showed out, and it’s the guy I’ve been critical of from last year’s team – Dezz Ricks. He was far and away our best defender in the secondary on Saturday night. I have to give him credit.

Everyone else looked like a Keystone Cop trying to defend a Notre Dame receiver. In addition to covering, they also struggled with tackling.

Will Lee needs to lose his nickname for a bit, at least publicly. If he needs it to hype himself up, then go for it. His blanket had a few holes in it on Saturday night, especially on third downs. I don’t know if he was playing zone, but there were several times the receiver would stop right past the line of gain on third down, and Will Lee would be three or four yards off of him for an easy third-down conversion.

Notre Dame was 7/15 for third-down conversions on Saturday night. Four plays were where a Notre Dame receiver went right past the stick and turned around while there was no Aggie defender within a couple of yards of him.

Getting off the field on third down has been a staple for Mike Elko. It wasn’t on Saturday night in South Bend.

I don’t know what to do with this unit, as it’s going to be absolutely tested by SEC offenses. If that happens, it will be the reason we don’t get to Atlanta.

I know Bryce Anderson got hurt. It looks like he’s going to be okay. I don’t know about his football future, and that’s not a concern for me. I’m just happy it looks like he’ll be just fine from a physical standpoint.

I think he just had his bell rung really badly and will need some time to recover.

Special Teams:

What was a strength under Elko all of last season was a liability on Saturday night. It all worked out, but this could have been a much easier win if special teams had done a few things better.

Looking Forward:

This is hard to say, but I feel like the Aggies have 2-3 losses this season. This defense is just too bad. If we go up against a defense that can slow us down or, even worse, stop us, we’ll wind up on the short side of things.

8-4 is definitely our floor right now. I feel pretty confident in saying that. That’s not what I want or expect, but I think it’s our floor right now.

Despite the rankings, the SEC is an absolute grinder right now. There’s not a gimme win on our schedule the rest of the way, including Mississippi State. We come out flat for a game, and whoever we play will bite us.

I still feel like LSU is a loss. Their offense hasn’t found its footing, but their defense seems to have improved dramatically from last season.

I feel much better about the Texas game, but it’s going to be a wild game. One team has a stout defense and a struggling offense; the other has a struggling defense and a stout offense.

It wouldn’t shock me if we lost to Auburn coming off that Notre Dame win, as Auburn torches our secondary. I don’t think it happens, but it could.

Florida seems to be down, but they could get better as the season wears on, just like they did last year.

The road games at Arkansas and Missouri won’t be easy. Arkansas is going to get someone, and it could be us.

Who knows what the Gamecocks will look like when they roll into Kyle in November?

I’m not even going to wager a guess on what our final record will look like.

I would be ecstatic if we somehow managed to pull off a 4-1 record in the next five games against Auburn, Mississippi State, Florida, Arkansas, and LSU.

That would put us at 7-1 and well-positioned for Atlanta and the playoffs.

It’s entirely possible, but we’ve got a lot of things to work on. We won’t always get things to break our way like they did on Saturday night.

Enjoy the off week and then let’s BTHO Auburn.

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Can the Aggies Beat the Domers?

Coming into this season, I would have put the Aggies’ chance of beating Notre Dame in South Bend at below 10%. We were talking about a National Championship finalist against an 8-4 team that collapsed at the season’s end.

I’m now at a coin flip after two games for the Aggies and one for Notre Dame.

Either team can win this game, but it’s going to come down to which team can impart their style of offense.

Notre Dame will want to establish the line of scrimmage, while the Aggies, with their new fancy receiving options, will want to attack through the air.

That’s not to say Notre Dame won’t pass the ball, or that the Aggies won’t want to run the ball, but that’s just how the game will be decided. Notre Dame just pounding the Aggie defense on the ground or the Aggie offense able to outscore the Notre Dame offense through the air.

Let’s first talk about the Aggie defense and offense through two games.

Aggie Defense:

After two games, one thing is very clear to me—the Aggie defense lacks elite-level talent.

Sure, the three consecutive sacks by Cashius Howell are as dominating a defensive effort as it gets.

But let’s be real – Is Cashius Howell Myles Garrett or Von Miller? I’m not trying to degrade Cashius Howell, but he’s not in the same class as Myles or Von. Not even close. Howell will get drafted in the NFL and get his shot, but I don’t think he’s truly elite.

I think he’s going to face teams this season that scheme him out of a lot of plays. I hope I’m wrong and he winds up a Top 10 pick, but I want to see him do it week in and week out for the rest of the season before I crown him an elite-level defender.

After Howell, I can’t think of anyone who comes close to being elite right now. I know everyone loves Will Lee, and he’s a good, solid corner, but I don’t think he’s elite. Some young guys on the defensive line could be elite, but I think they’re a season or two away.

Our linebackers are pretty solid, but the group undoubtedly has no first-round pick.

That’s not to say this defense is horrible. It can be pretty good, but it won’t be as dominating as fans want.

I feel that, depending on the opposing offense, this defense will give up 20ish points a game.

And that’s okay if the offense can keep the gas mashed down and score a few more points.

Don’t get me wrong—I’d love a dominating defense. It’s just not there for this unit this season. There will be a lot of frustration points watching this defense give up big plays this season.

I do like one stat from this defense. Mike Elko’s calling card has been limiting the opponent’s third-down conversion. UTSA was 5 for 16 on third-down conversions, and Utah St. was 2 for 14. UTSA was a little higher than I would like, but Utah St. flat-out struggled on third downs against the Aggie defense.

If you can keep the opponent converting less than one-third of their third-down conversions, you’ll keep yourself in a lot of football games. There’s nothing worse than a defense that can’t get off the field on third downs.

With Nick Saban gone from college football, there are no elite defenses in college football. Sure, some defenses have more talent and better coaching than others, but nobody is stacking talent on defense like Bama, LSU, and Georgia did over the last decade.

Thanks to the portal and NIL, college football is in a different era. The defensive talent is more spread out.

You need offensive playmakers and hope your defense can slow down the opponent just enough.

I do still have one overall question for this defense—the secondary. I don’t think our secondary is bad, but we haven’t seen it tested in the first two games. I don’t think we’ll see it against Notre Dame, but we’ll find out more about it two weeks later when Auburn comes to town.

Aggie Offense:

I can’t say enough good things about the new toys the Aggie offense has at receiver.

I was skeptical coming into the season because I’ve seen so many receivers hyped up in the offseason but failed to deliver. However, Concepcion and Craver seem like they can live up to the hype. Sure, it’s just UTSA and Utah St., but it’s been since Christian Kirk and Josh Reynolds that we’ve had two players of this caliber at receiver.

Even against inferior competition, I can’t recall two guys producing in consecutive games right out of the gate. It’s really nice to see.

What’s even better to see is the coaching staff using them.

My greatest fear coming into the season from an offensive standpoint was Elko and Klein’s desire to lean on teams with the running game. We’ve got a seasoned line and a loaded running back room, so I feared Elko would tell Klein to see if we could lean on the other team.

That doesn’t appear to be the case for the 2025 offense. We appear to want to challenge opposing defenses through the air and on the ground.

I don’t know if it’s because Elko realizes his defense is deficient, which means we’re going to have to score points, or if it’s just finally having some weapons at receiver. It’s likely a combination of both.

This offense won’t be without hiccups, but it’s nice to know we now have weapons on the ground and through the air. That will make it more difficult for opposing defenses to defend.

I do like what I’ve seen out of Marcel Reed so far. He hasn’t been dominating or perfect, but he appears really comfortable with what Klein wants to do and can execute on it more times than not. He’s had some excellent passes. Sure, he’s missed a few completions he should have made, but Reed has looked good so far.

In addition to the talent increase at receiver, I’ve been impressed by Klein’s playcalling and design. I didn’t know he had this in him.

There have been some playcalls at the goalline that I absolutely loved. I wish we had run them last year.

The playcalling has also been pretty balanced, with us not trying to do too much through the ground or air. It’s not perfect, but I agree with Klein’s approach this season.

My question for the offense is the offensive line. I don’t think it’s been tested at all. It’s looked good, so I can’t complain, but I am excited to watch it on Saturday night in South Bend. We’ll find out if this unit is as good as we hope.

The Notre Dame Game Itself:

This is cliché, but this game will come down to big plays and turnovers.

I think Freeman knows he has the better overall team and will look to wear down the Aggie defense and bust off some big runs. Miami did a nice job of limiting Notre Dame’s rushing attack, but I don’t think Freeman will abandon it just because Miami limited it. Rushing the ball is Notre Dame’s bread and butter.

The Aggies have more playmakers than last season, so they must take some shots. They’ve indicated they will do that in the first two games.

If Elko tries to win the line of scrimmage like he did last season, the Aggies will lose—just like they did last season. I hope he’s smarter than that.

The line on this game is Notre Dame by 6ish. I know Vegas has some brilliant people, and they usually come out really close. I think they’re favoring the Irish a little too much. I believe this is a 4-point game by one team or the other.

I think both teams will score in the 20s, but it’s just a matter of who makes the big plays and can hold onto the ball.

I personally can’t wait, as a lot of questions about the 2025 Aggies will be answered on Saturday night.

BTHO Notre Dame!

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