Can Texas A&M make the jump in 2020?
The 2020 season looks promising for the Aggies, even with a daunting all-SEC pandemic schedule
By: Slim Slocum
The look of 90% of SEC fans in late November. Photo: 20th Century Fox
An ACC friend of mine made a remark to me recently that if A&M was in another conference, say the ACC, that we would be competing for a College Football Playoff spot every year. He’s right. As it stands, it would be Clemson, A&M, and...no one. You’d have a clean slate with only trap games until you played Clemson, and that would act as a play-in game for the playoff.
But we don’t play in the Clemson-and-Everyone-Else-Conference, we play in the SEC West. The best division in college football. The division where hope springs eternal for fans of all the schools each preseason until the inevitable conference cannibalism eats our hopes and dreams like the Donner Party on a leg each October (unless you’re the Tide).
Thankfully it’s still September and my Battered Aggie Syndrome hasn’t produced a fever yet, meaning we’re going to win our first national championship. Our first natty since Americans were beating the ever-living, ever-loving piss out of the Axis powers in WWII.
In tamping down my sky-high preseason optimism, the realist in me knows that an 8-2 finish is likely, and can be argued would still be a breakthrough for the program. Finishing 8-2 would mean a pair of W’s over two SEC bluebloods from the likes of Alabama, Auburn, Florida, and LSU (our schedule is a gauntlet - again). A 9-1 finish would mean you swipe three of those games and are knocking on the door of the SEC Championship Game and a CFP berth.
In my mind, a 7-3 finish would mean the program has taken a step back. There is simply too much talent in the locker room at this point to be 7-3, even with the overbearing all-SEC schedule. With a 4-year starter at QB, A&M should be making the jump. I don’t think I have to spell this out for Aggie fans either - 6-4 would be unacceptable and probably put a few warm coals under Jimbo’s seat. But I do not expect that.
So, can this team take another step forward in becoming one of the perennial elites team in the SEC? Can we start living up to Jimbo’s call that “when this helmet comes to town, Hell comes with it”?
The answer is yes. The experience is there (all but three starters return). The talent is there. We have three years of Jimbo recruits and back-to-back top six classes. The defense is going to be mean. We have more linebacker and DB depth than I can remember at any time as a fan of A&M football. Our defensive line has Frankenstein freaks up and down the roster. We have the speed, size, and physicality to compete with the big-dog, smash-mouth SEC powers.
LSU lost basically all of their weapons from the National Championship last year, except for Terrace Marshall. A&M can beat the Tigers. The Tide will always be strong but are led by an unproven QB in Mac Jones. Kellen Mond has won in The Swamp before, and this Aggie team can do it again. Auburn has been an Achilles heel the past few years, but without improvement from Bo Nix, I like the Aggies chances. The Magical Pirate Lord and marriage counselor Mike Leach is back to torment us, but it won’t be this year. Ole Miss has Lane, but they need some time to rebuild. Yes, the schedule is daunting, but it also sets up perfectly for A&M to make the leap.
Our biggest questions are on offense and go hand-in-hand with the Aggies fortunes this year. Can the O-line improve to respectability, and can Kellen Mond be “good Kellen” for the entire 10-game season? The offensive line is led by Kenyon Green who will vie for an All-SEC spot this year, but help is needed around him. The Maroon & White are loaded in the backfield, but those backs, and Kellen, will need the hogs upfront to make significant improvements if A&M is to take the leap.
I believe both will happen. Jimbo & Co. have recruited well on the O-line, and it’s time for them to become a cohesive unit and grow into their roles. Kellen has all the weapons he needs, and if the line gives him time, this will be his best season at A&M, and he’ll take his rightful place near the top of Aggie QB lore.
It’s our time to take that step and join the SEC powers. Freakin’ Gig’em.
