Texas A&M Mid Season Report Card - Offense
We’re over halfway done with the season, time to had out mid term grades. By: The Hammer
Well, COVID-19 has officially hit Aggieland. A few positive cases after the South Carolina road trip, followed by subsequent contract tracing protocols (along with injuries and opt outs) left A&M below the 53 scholarship players threshold and postponed the Tennessee game. The Ole Miss game was just postponed as well so we have two straight weeks with no Aggie football.
Currently, the Tennessee game is rescheduled for December 12th. The Ole Miss game will likely take place on December 19th, the same day at the SEC title game but that is not official yet. No one knows how the SEC will juggle the scheduling issues. Anyway, with no games this past weekend or coming up, we decided to dish out some mid season grades for the Aggies with the first edition of the Mid Season Report Card.
First up: the offense.
After a sluggish start against Vanderbilt, this Aggie offense has been lethal. Jimbo seems to finally have the personnel he wants on the field and has been scheming up great plays and sequences all year. Overall, the offense ranks 5th in the SEC with an average of 443 yards and 33.7 points per game. The success all starts with one unit.
Photo: Logan Riely, Texas A&M Athletics
The Offensive Line: A+
This was an easy one. The Aggie offensive line, affectionately called the Maroon Goons, have been one of the best offensive lines in the entire country this year. It’s impossible not to be happy for these guys, especially after the beating they took last year. They were not good in 2019 and the fans and media let them know it. Coming into this year, it was great to see all the experience returning (all 5 starters) but the question was how much better could they get? The answer is clear: A LOT better. Through six games, they have only allowed two sacks. Against an all SEC schedule, that is pretty unbelievable. The offensive line and running backs have been exceptional in pass protection all year long.
This line can do it all, too. The Maroon Goons feast in the run game. Watching this unit get a push and move into the second level is a thing of beauty. Don’t sleep on the work that tight ends Jalen Wydermyer and Ryan Renick do in the run game either. This front has been opening up holes all year for the Aggie rushing attack. A&M is currently second in the SEC in rushing, averaging 189 yards per game. This offensive line lets Jimbo call the exact kind of game he wants to: pass run balance, ball control, play action, etc. Dan Moore, Kenyon Green, Ryan McCollum, Jared Hocker and Carson Green deserve a ton of credit for this team’s success. Also special shout out to Layden “War Daddy” Robinson (#64 in the video)
Quarterbacks: A-
Kellen Mond has been really good this season, outside of the Vanderbilt game. On the season, he has thrown for 1,468 yards, 16 touchdowns and just two interceptions, all while completing 64.3% of his passes. And don’t forget the interception against Mississippi State was a fluke bounce, not necessarily a bad throw or decision by Mond. Plus he is doing this with a depleted receiving corps who lost all its experience to the NFL draft, opts outs and injuries. The Aggie fans, myself included, have long been critical and skeptical of Mond. He has never been consistent enough during his career. He’d have good games, flashy plays, great throws, long runs, only to follow it up with bad decisions, inaccurate throws and dud performances. Now he finally looks like the player we all thought he could be. He is playing really well and looks very mature, poised and in control. He is now the Aggies’ all time leader in passing yards and passing touchdowns, and he’s playing the best football of his career. Only reason Mond doesn’t have an A+ here is the Vanderbilt game.
Running Backs: A+
As I mentioned in the offensive line section, A&M is second in the SEC in rushing yards with an average of 189 yards per game. Last year, A&M averaged 159 yards rushing per game, and that was against a full schedule, sprinkled with cupcakes and stat padding games. So not only are they running for 30 more yards per game, they are doing it against much better defenses consistently. No more 300+ yards rushing against Texas State. The running backs are led by workhorse Isaiah Spiller. This kid is special. Spiller has run for 643 yards through six games and he currently leads the SEC at 6.24 yards per carry. He is the perfect mix of power, speed and agility. He finishes runs and will make defenders look silly.
Ainias Smith has transitioned into (back into I guess) more of a receiver, but when called on has run it well too. Smith has carried the rock for 187 yards and two touchdowns on just 34 attempts. Not to be outdone, freshman running back Devon Achane has been impressive in limited time. He appears to be solidified as the Aggie backup running back and for good reason. Achane is getting 5.9 yards per carry and has added two touchdowns on the ground as well. Spiller and Achane have also proven the ability to catch the ball out of the backfield, helping move the chains through the air. Overall, it’s hard to imagine a better backfield than this one. As a unit, they are complete and do it all: run, catch, pass block, etc. Excellent season so far for A&M running backs.
Photo: Michael Miller, The Eagle
Tight Ends: A-
I’ll keep this one short and sweet. The tight ends have been great. Jalen Wydermyer is a complete tight end and has a future playing on Sundays. He blocks well and is a safety blanket for Mond on third down and in the red zone. After a slower start to the season, Wydermyer has found his groove catching 28 balls for 311 yards and four touchdowns. Add in Max Wright and Ryan Renick who have each caught one pass, both for touchdowns and you have a solid tight end group.
Wide Receivers: B-
The Aggie wide receivers have been okay this year. Making plays when needed, but no one really stands out or puts up great numbers. Credit to Jimbo for scheming up a successful offense without bonafide weapons on the outside, as well as Kellen who has done an excellent job of spreading the ball around. This unit was expected to be bad after losing all its production from last season. Jahmon Ausbon opted out during fall camp, Quartney Davis and Kendrick Rodgers left school early for the NFL, and Cameron Buckley went down for the season with an injury in fall camp. Add onto that Caleb Chapman’s injury. You get the picture. None of the guys currently seeing time had played at all before this year, so we knew it could be a weak spot.
Ainias Smith is leading all statistical categories for wide receivers with 26 catches, 311 yards and five touchdowns.He’s back to playing more of a receiver role but still lines up in the backfield too. Jimbo has done a great job of finding ways to get Ainias the ball. The most consistent wide receiver on the outside has been Chase Lane. But outside of those two (and Wydermyer) no other Aggie receiver has over 10 receptions. As you can see by the grade, they are not playing bad by any means. They are doing what is being asked of them, and all things considered are doing a good job. But there is a lot of room for improvement.
Since Caleb Chapman went down, no one has stepped up and provided a deep ball threat. Outside of the hybrid, do it all Ainias Smith and consistent contributor Chase Lane, no one has proven to be a legitimate threat on the outside. At the end of the day, the receivers have done what they needed to do and this offense does not rely on game breaking wide receivers.
Photo: Sam Craft, AP Photo
This year has been really good offensively. It got off to an ugly start but since that Vanderbilt game, the offense has been clicking. Jimbo is coming in with great gameplans and he finally seems to have the personnel to run the system he wants. Jimbo runs a pro style scheme built off of running the ball and using tight ends. We saw some similar success his first year with Trayveon Williams and Jace Sternberger, but Mond was younger and less consistent. The offensive line was not as good. It just was not as strong of a unit overall compared to this year's squad. But this year, all things seem to be clicking and I think once we can get back on the field, the offense will continue to roll.
#BTOHCOVID
