Texas A&M running back Ainias Smith and the Aggies are 7-1 on the season and ranked fifth in both major polls. It’s easily shaping up as A&M’s best season of the 21st century, topping even the 11-2 2012 campaign.
Texas A&M quarterback Kellen Mond (11) has passed for 1,769 yards and 18 touchdowns this year against only two interceptions, while rushing for two more scores.
Heard any good Aggie jokes lately?
Try this one: An Aggie, a Longhorn and a Bear walk into a bar. An hour later, the Aggie walks out arm-in-arm with a coach named Jimbo and a spot in the CFP, while the Longhorns and Bears cry in their beers.
OK, so the punchline lacks a little punch, a little — what’s the word I’m looking for? — humor. But that’s mostly because the 2020 Aggies are no joke.
Entering the second weekend in December, Texas A&M sports a 7-1 record and holds down the No. 5 spot in the College Football Playoff rankings. It’s easily shaping up as the best Aggie season this century and that includes 2012, the year the Legend of Johnny Football was born.
And you know what? Good for the Aggies.
I know that may feel like a strange sentiment coming from the heart of Big 12 country, but it’s genuine. I cover a Big 12 school (Baylor), but I’m not a fan of any Texas college football team, despite growing up in the Lone Star State. Oh, sure, when I attended college at Oklahoma Baptist University in the early 1990s, I used to run around with a Texas state flag anytime the Longhorns vanquished the Sooners, but that had more to do with state pride (and being surrounded by loudmouth Sooner fans) than any sort of infatuation with the Horns themselves.
So, I don’t carry the bitterness over A&M’s departure to the SEC that some in the Big 12 still feel. I get it, I understand it, but my message to those still-wounded fans would be a simple one: Get over it. A&M made the decision it felt best suited the future of the football program. Whether you agree with it or not, it’s kind of ancient history at this point.
If anything, I miss the Aggies. I miss encountering A&M and its, ahem, unique fan base on a regular basis. I miss the rivalries between the Ags and the Longhorns, the Bears, the Frogs and Red Raiders.
But such ruminations are actually beside the point. The point is this: Here in 2020, these Aggies have much to celebrate. (It is kind of the most 2020 thing ever that A&M’s breakthrough came in the year of COVID, isn’t it? OK, that’s my last Aggie joke of the column … probably.)
Under the likes of Dennis Franchione, Mike Sherman and Kevin Sumlin, it felt like A&M would be 8-5 into perpetuity. Sumlin’s last four seasons played out thusly: 8-5, 8-5, 8-5, 7-6. Reads like the least exciting Lotto numbers ever.
Then the Aggies backed up the Brinks truck to Jimbo Fisher’s porch. And what happened? Not much, really. They continued to score well in the recruiting rankings, but did it translate to the field? In Jimbo’s first season in 2018, A&M went 9-4 and won the Gator Bowl. Given that it was the program’s first nine-win season since 2013, that felt like a step of progress. Then last year the Aggies backslid to their usual 8-5, culminating with a win over the Big 12’s Oklahoma State in the Texas Bowl.
So, through his first two years, Jimbo’s arrival felt a little underwhelming. The Aggies certainly couldn’t have been happy about their rate of return on that $75-million contract.
But ol’ Jimbo and the guys are getting it done in 2020. A&M’s only loss was a 52-24 flattening at Alabama on Oct. 3. There’s no shame losing to the No. 1-ranked Crimson Tide, though the Aggies definitely could have helped their current CFP case had they kept that outcome a little closer.
Nevertheless, they’ve found a way to beat their other seven opponents. Really, they’ve done so in a variety of ways, and in hindsight the 41-38 triumph over Florida looks even better than it did at the time, given the snap the sixth-ranked Gators have shown.
Kellen Mond is probably underappreciated as a quarterback. Get this: He’s the only player in A&M program history with 10,000 yards of total offense to his credit. I’m sure every A&M quarterback of the 21st century will always be judged in the light of Johnny Manziel’s shadow, but give Mond his due.
Up front, the Aggies boast some hosses on the offensive line. They’re affectionately known as the Maroon Goons, and they’ve allowed only four sacks all season, which is tied for fifth nationally. The Goons also act as productive road pavers for A&M’s running game. Running back Isaiah Spiller is the big beneficiary there, as he averages 112 rushing yards per game, right on par with the other top runners in the SEC, Najee Harris of Alabama (115.3) and Kevin Harris of South Carolina (113.8). Plus, when Spiller spills into a would-be tackler, he’s a load to bring down, averaging 3.7 yards after contact.
Defensively, it might not be fair to bestow the Wrecking Crew nickname on these Aggies, but they’re at least a sizable Speed Bump. A&M ranks 21st nationally in total defense, which believe it or not leads the SEC. (Apparently this year the SEC is where Big 12 football happens.)
The Aggies have positioned themselves well for a 9-1 season, assuming they can close out with a win over Ole Miss and a road victory over Tennessee on Dec. 19. (That’s also assuming the Ole Miss game happens, as the Rebels are currently dealing with COVID issues and postponed their meeting with the Aggies that was scheduled for Saturday.)
Would 9-1 be enough to crack the CFP? Tough to say. Ohio State has played all of five games, and yet somehow the Buckeyes are in the mix. A&M’s case will be hampered by the fact that it won’t play in the SEC title game, as that contest will pit Alabama and Florida. But if the Aggies won impressively over the Rebels and Volunteers, and Notre Dame handed Clemson a second loss of the season in the ACC title game on Dec. 19, it certainly wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for A&M to crack the Final Four.
So, crack all the Aggie jokes you want. It’s your right as a Texan.
But it looks like Jimbo and the boys might have the last laugh.
Get local news delivered to your inbox!
December 08, 2020 at 03:16AM
https://ift.tt/36Uszsl
Brice Cherry: These Aggies are legit — no joke about it - Waco Tribune-Herald
https://ift.tt/2BsGM2G
Joke
No comments:
Post a Comment