Texas A&M vs Kent State Recap
First game is in the books. Aggies take down Kent State 41-10 in a Red, White & Blue Kyle Field. By: The Hammer
Photo by Cassie Stricker, The Eagle
A bit sloppy, but the Aggies took care of business and beat Kent State 41-10, covering the spread thanks to two missed chip shot field goals late in the game by the Golden Flashes. I saw a bunch of Aggies on Twitter hollering about how bad this game was. I can understand that to an extent, there’s plenty of mistakes to clean up, but come on. I’ve seen way worse games than this in my time as an Aggie football fan. I refuse to become a fan base that is upset at a 41-10 victory.
Kent State is not a bad team. They were picked to win their division in the MAC, and we beat them by 31 points while not playing anything close to our best game. So everyone take a deep breath. Remember Vanderbilt last year? This game was way better than that. There were a lot of positives I walked away with and two major things that need improvement.
We’ll start with the negatives, and one is obvious: turnovers. Haynes King threw three interceptions, Calzada threw one and Ainias Smith mishandeld a punt, totaling five turnovers. That cannot happen against good teams. Thankfully the Aggie defense played well and bailed us out, but better teams will take advantage of those mistakes. Two of the three King interceptions I put on him. The other was more flukey with it being tipped at the line of scrimmage so it doesn’t concern me as much. And I’m not sure what the hell Ainias was doing. Just a bone headed play that a junior and team leader should not be making. I trust Ainias and Jimbo to get that corrected, and if Ainias pulls something like that again, put someone else back there. I think King will make better decisions as the year goes on, but outside of the interceptions he looked good.
The other thing that needs to improve is run defense. Kent State ran for 226 yards, which is more than A&M gave up in a game all last year. I was pretty confident that we could replace Buddy Johnson and Bobby Brown pretty easily, but that wasn't the case last night. Of course, McKinnley Jackson and Micheal Clemons were suspended so that hurt the defensive line. True freshmen Shemar Turner flashed a few times, but overall the defensive line was pretty average. I expect improvement whenever Jackson and Clemons are able to return.
Edgerrin Cooper seemed to get the lion’s share of the snaps filling Buddy Johnson’s spot, and Andre White got some time as well. Neither looked that good in my opinion. I thought Hansford had a solid game but the linebackers just seemed a little slow to react at times, which comes with experience and trusting your keys. We’ll need better linebacker play as the season goes on. I think they will improve, but surrendering 226 rushing yards to Kent State is slightly concerning.
Shifting to the positives, the Aggie defense held Kent State to just 10 points, and their touchdown was scored late when the game was out of hand. When we needed to, we found ways to get stops or force turnovers. I know it's just Kent State but that’s a good offense. I don’t care what conference you are in, averaging 600 yards and 50 points a game is impressive, which is what Kent State did in their four games last season. It was good to see the Aggies secondary step up and snag a few interceptions, and see the defense as a whole get important stops. The defense showed flashes and I think they are right on track to be a top 10 defense nationally, especially when the full cast of characters return.
Photo by Michael Miller, The Eagle
On offense, A&M looked really good minus the turnovers. 595 yards of total offense, over 300 yards rushing, and 9/13 on third down is all phenomenal. I sound like a broken record here but outside of the turnovers, Haynes looked good as well. Going 21-33 for 292 yards and two touchdowns is solid for his first start. Aggie wideouts had a few drops, too. King also showed off his legs a few times. I think Jimbo knew we could run it down Kent State’s throat if we needed to, but he wanted to give Haynes some work out there. Let him throw it around and get those in game reps. Spiller and Achane could get pretty much whatever they wanted all night long, but Jimbo kept letting Haynes throw. In a closer game, especially one where your QB throws three picks, I think Jimbo would have leaned way more on the run game but he knew letting Haynes work through it would pay dividends later in the year.
Ainias Smith and Caleb Chapman both flashed in the passing game. Chapman hauled in 4 catches for 81 yards, including a 53 yarder in the third quarter that made Aggies everywhere grin from ear to ear. He is a bonafide deep threat and we need that desperately. Smith impressed as well with two touchdowns, eight receptions and 100 yards. I would have liked to see more rotation on the outside, but Jimbo seems to be riding with Chapman, Smith and Lane yet again. I’ll continue to keep a close eye on this, but no one else really saw any snaps until the game was out of hand. Why he never rotates these guys is a mystery to me.
Photo by Michael Miller The Eagle
Biggest impact players in my mind were Isaiah Spiller, Devon Achane and of course Leon O’Neal. Spiller was so smooth and would have run for 200 if he had enough carries. Achane is a homerun threat every time he touches the ball. He evaporates defender’s angles and is so fun to watch in the open field. And Leon really came through when we needed him. This team needed a spark and Leon stepped up. He’s come a long way in an Aggie uniform and I couldn’t be more happy to see him making big plays. We’ll need that kind of play all year.
Bottom line is there were a ton of positives and a few glaring negatives, but it’s just game one. I was a lot more upset after the Vandy opener last year and we went ahead and won 8 of the next 9 games. So it really doesn't mean that much. If we play like that against Colorado, it’ll be dang close. But I think we’ll improve a lot over the next few weeks. I trust the talent we have and the coaches to get the best out of it. Never be upset with a 31 point win.
1-0.
#BTHOCOLORADO
