Is this finally the program changing win that we’ve been hoping for?
Slim Slocum explores Saturday’s “program changing win,” and how it’s different than the big wins of Aggie football past.
By: The Hammer
Photo: Scott Wachter, USA TODAY Sports
My gracious. It’s Monday afternoon, and I still haven’t come down off my big-win high. Endorphins are still flooding, and I’m ready to strap up and line’em up again, right now.
So many things to say, and so many ways you can talk about how this team played, the guys who stepped up, and what this can mean for the program going forward.
I’ll start here: this was a statement win, a win the likes of which we haven’t seen since Johnny Football scorched fields across the SEC. It was the first win against a top 5 opponent for A&M since Kyle Allen came out of nowhere and smoked #3 Auburn in Jordan-Hare in 2014. It was the first win against a top 5 opponent in Kyle Field since Reggie McNeal burst onto the scene in 2002, beating #1 Oklahoma.
Since 2014, A&M is 2-9 against top 5 opponents, if you include this year. Not great - but Saturday felt different. I’ll get into why in a bit, but we need to examine how past “program changing wins” have played out.
After the win in Tuscaloosa in 2012, we all know the story: Johnny won the Heisman and the Aggies shredded Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl, finishing in the top 5 for the first time since ‘Nam. But 2013 saw A&M regress to 9-4 - though they played #1 Alabama to the wire, got screwed on a horse-collar no-call against #24 Auburn (who finished the season #2, won an SEC title, and played Jimbo Fisher’s FSU in the BCS National Championship), and lost by a touchdown to #5 Missouri in Columbia in a game where Johnny was not 100%. And then Johnny was gone, and the “program changing win” of 2012 quickly became a thing of the past, as the recruiting foundation would crumble and Sumlin would get exposed in subsequent years.
After the 2014 win against #3 Auburn, the Aggies followed it up by getting beaten for the second straight year by Missouri and then losing to unranked LSU at Kyle Field. What could have been a program changing win was followed by two bad losses and led to the debacle of 2015 when Sumlin lost the locker room. Both Kyler Murray and Kyle Allen transferred out of the program ahead of the bowl game (shoutout Jake Hubenak, a true warrior).
The 2002 win was a program changing win in the wrong way. While it has gone down in Aggie lore because of McNeal’s performance, the 2002 team was 6-6. It changed the program in a bad way - the wolves were already circling for R.C. Slocum’s job, and the win raised expectations for a team that was 5-4 to that point. The Ags dropped the next two games and R.C. was shown the door. That gave us Dennis Franchione, the most infamous coach in A&M history, who the very next year in 2003 would lose to #1 Oklahoma 77-0.
Why do I remind us of these harsh wounds? To make a point. In contrast to those big “program changing wins” of A&M’s past and the subsequent crashes, the Ags have the foundation to build upon this for the future. Saturday felt very different from those other wins (with the exception of 2012 - hindsight is 20/20 there). Jimbo has recruited better than any coach in our history, and that will continue, especially in notching big wins like this. We have an elite coaching staff in place. The facilities are elite. The fan base is second to none. The AD is top-notch and the buy-in of the athletic department is there. The foundation is solid.
What was missing was one thing: belief. Big wins come from belief - in yourself, in your coaches, in your team. We needed a win like this to believe. We have 4 and 5-stars all over the field, but most of those guys are still young. They needed to make some plays, gain some confidence, and see that they could go toe to toe with the best in college football. On Saturday, they did, growing up right before our eyes. Talking particularly about the offense: Caleb Chapman, Chase Lane, Isaiah Spiller, even Jaylen Wydermyer. Spiller runs like a man possessed, Caleb Chapman shows he’s the deep threat we’ve been yelling for, and Lane and Wydermyer came up with plays all day, particularly crucial first downs.
This is what we have been talking about - about the mentality taking hold. About doing your job, and making the big plays when your number is called. Buddy Johnson did it today. So did Demarvin Leal. That is what we needed to turn the corner as a program. Saturday felt like a turning of the corner.
And I need to talk about Kellen for a second - for all the criticism and questioning Kellen has received, including from this blog, #11 played the game of his life Saturday. We knew he had it in him. The talent is there. He’s got the frame and experience. It just needed to come together in games. Saturday, it did - it FINALLY DID. His play finally backed up his words: he looked like an elite SEC QB on Saturday, throwing for 338 yards and 3 TDs and outplaying a real Heisman contender in Kyle Trask. And most importantly, he took care of the football. There was one play where my heart stopped and his pass could have been intercepted, but it was not. 94.7 QBR for the game. He was slinging the rock all day. It was fun to watch, and a joy to see what the true potential is of “good Kellen.”
This win can be program defining. We can look back in one, two, three years, and know that this is where we turned the corner as a program. The Jimbo mentality took hold, the locker room bought in, and A&M began the ascent into the SEC elite. I think it’s real, and I believe that will be the case.
It does not get any easier, however. Mississippi State is Jekyll and Hyde, and Mike Leach is an old thorn in our side from Big 12 years gone by. He’s like the ex who it ended poorly with, but he’s come back around and I guess we’ll do this because it’s convenient. South Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee are scrappy, and LSU is a rivalry game where anything can happen. Oh and Auburn is still on the schedule.
Finally, I’m sad that this wasn’t in front of 100,000+ at Kyle Field at 2:30 on CBS or 6:00 on ESPN. The 12th Man after Seth Small’s game-winner would have registered sonic boom decibel levels had it been a full capacity crowd. But even with the pandemic creating problems for crowds, the 12th Man still affected the game. You could hear them all day on the telecast, and even Dan Mullen said after the game that the crowd impacted the game.
College football is a roller coaster. Last week was Last week. This week is this week. What a win, coming off the hurt of another embarrassing blowout at the hands of Alabama. This team has heart, this team has toughness, this team has talent. And now, they have belief.
BTHO Mississippi State.
