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Jimbo 2021: Meemaw's Got a Brand New Bag


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BulletProof007 said... (original post)If I’m Florida, I throw the same sh/t at A&M next week and keep doing it until they figure it out. 

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It's amazing to me that anyone bothers to run the ball vs A&M.

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Fans don't always agree with media, and coaches don't typically agree with either. Why? Because as those watching the game from the stands or press box, it's our job, our right, our hobby to second-guess. We live in a world where overreaction, hyperbole and pushing the panic button are the norm. All of us. Hell, the very website this story will appear on, owned by yours truly? The currency we deal in is providing the very platform for folks to come together after a result like yesterday's — getting rolled by the Tide in Tuscaloosa yet again — to vent, discuss, debate and explain why 'it's over' or tell your fellow Aggies why Texas A&M will never get this ‘winning at football’ thing figured out. It's what we do.

And by we, I mean we, so please indulge me as I do a little bit of the same.

No, I'm not jumping off the cliff with many of you right now. What I am doing is keeping it as real as I can as I look over the edge and see the canyon this 2020 season could fall into in a hurry.

Unfortunately, the SEC reality is that you simply cannot judge your team based solely on how it performs against Alabama. After all, the Tide is 104-11 in the eight years and two games since A&M joined the conference.

The Ags were out of yesterday's game by halftime, just moments after it seemed like the game would go into the locker room still very much a contested affair. Unfortunately, we've been there, done that. Probably about a half dozen times in the nine SEC meetings with the Tide. All three of Jimbo's matchups with his former boss have been essentially decided during a late first-half stretch in which Bama's superior speed, physicality and playmakers flexed their talent and separated.

Craig Bisacre

Mac Jones led a lethal passing attack that pushed Bama out to an early two-score lead.

That's what happened yesterday at Bryant-Denny. Nice drive to open things up by the A&M offense and a normally reliable kicker shanks a field goal attempt. Bama goes up top on their third offensive play. Touchdown. One drive later, and it's 14-0.

The Ags fight back to tie the game in stunning fashion and seem to settle in. Then, a deep pass for a score to a future first-round receiver, a mistake by your quarterback turns into six points the other way and you're down by two touchdowns again, just like that. Fisher's squad regroups again, marches down the field and looks ready to cut the lead to 28-21 just before halftime. Then, on a pivotal fourth-down play, your senior QB passes on a wide-open running lane to move the sticks and instead drops an easy pass to the best player in Maroon & White that day. He makes his one mistake of the afternoon and drops the chain-moving grab. A few plays later, the Tide finds the end zone again. Instead of a 28-21 halftime score, we're at 35-14 and the game is, for all intents and purposes, over.

Frustrating doesn't even begin to describe it, does it? Let's forget about Bama for the moment, though, shall we?

The key for Jimbo FIsher and the Aggies right now is to make sure that their season doesn't go the way of Saturday's game. In other words, the season has quickly reached a tipping point. Do you capitalize on the opportunity or let things spiral out of control en route to whatever the equivalent of 52-24 looks like in the form of a ten-game SEC record?

Through two games, I know what the common-sense answer to that question looks and feels like, especially with No. 3 Florida on deck. And I'm also not saying that the next two — the Gators at home and Mississippi State in Starkville — are going to define Jimbo Fisher's tenure in College Station. In fact, I've read too much of that crap since Fisher's first (and very successful) season in Aggieland. Folks in the national and state media are waiting, wanting and practically willing to let A&M's $75 million coaching coup to fail and are tripping all over themselves to measure Texas A&M against legitimate top-3 teams, playoff contenders or national title finalists each year. Even in year three under Jimbo, that's an unreasonable litmus test.

...there's clearly been nothing in the way of progress on the ‘beating Bama for the first time since 2012’ front. The information we don't yet have is how the Aggies are going to run the upcoming gauntlet of games in this unprecedented 10-game SEC season.

What's not unreasonable, however, is measuring progress. It's also not unfair to stack the Aggies up against top-15 opponents and programs and check the record. Or to gauge where Fisher and the Ags stack up versus first-year coaches at places with fewer resources or guys like Dan Mullen and Jeremy Pruitt in year three at Florida and Tennessee.

Despite a few moments that provided glimmers of hope on Saturday afternoon, there's clearly been nothing in the way of progress on the “beating Bama for the first time since 2012” front. The information we don't yet have is how the Aggies are going to run the upcoming gauntlet of games in this unprecedented 10-game SEC season.

Here's where I start going all message board fan/ranting media guy on you...except I'm absolutely convinced this isn't hyperbole but me speaking the truth.

No, the next two games won't determine whether Fisher ultimately succeeds or fails in Aggieland. However, I do believe that the contests between now and the bye week might be the most important he's coached in Maroon & White. It's the beauty and the beast of the SEC, right? Get dusted by No. 2 Bama on Saturday, return to work on Monday in preparation for No. 3 Florida. At your house. A chance to completely change the season outlook and "Fisher, A&M versus top five teams" narrative one short week later. You'll also get other chances in November and on into December, particularly against Tennessee, Auburn and LSU.

However, those games will carry a hell of a lot less weight and be a hell of a lot more difficult to win if Jimbo, Mike Elko and the Aggies didn’t start shaking things up as soon as the team plane landed at Easterwood last night. The cold, hard truth is that the team that has taken the field in each of the first two weeks — and the one that finished last season — simply isn't good enough. Did the Aggies show progress in several areas on Saturday at Bryant-Denny? Yep. The o-line was better. Ainias Smith had his best day as an Aggie. The young receivers grew up a little. The d-line held its own against what will easily be the best offensive front the Ags see all year. Kellen Mond played much better than he did in the opener against Vandy. The problem, of course, is that resulted in a four-touchdown loss to No. 2, and No. 3 is on deck.

Is Florida on Bama's level? No, they're not, but the Gators are very good. They're rolling into Kyle Field as a supremely confident group and a legitimate CFP contender. That improved effort we saw yesterday? It probably won't result in a four-touchdown loss, but it certainly wasn't good enough to knock off a team of Florida's ilk.

The Tuscaloosa News-USA TODAY Sports

Kellen Mond was improved in week two, but A&M is still struggling to produce big plays.

In order to turn things around, Fisher and Co. are going to have to shake things up sooner than they probably wanted to. And, no, I'm not talking exclusively about the quarterback position, but the head coach certainly needs to honestly evaluate things there, as well. I'm talking across the board. There are a lot of areas in which I'd imagine Fisher has reached a point that he's seen enough to know it just isn't going to work. To survive and thrive in today's SEC (and by today, I mean now...as in this weekend and next), the Ags have to get faster on defense, take more risks on offense and really take a hard look at the makeup of the starting lineup and playing rotation. What you've seen in the first two weeks of play should carry infinitely more weight than what you saw during fall camp.

It's tough because you don't want to put too much stock into yesterday's blowout loss because you know that Bama features the best WR corps and OL in college football by a longshot and probably one of the three best defenses in the game. At the same time, an awful lot of the same, nagging issues are what kept A&M from keeping things a hell of a lot closer yesterday in T-Town. The Aggies were way too slow on the back end and had busts at safety, giving up incredibly easy deep touchdowns while watching Mac Jones rack up the fourth-most passing yards in a single-game in Alabama history (just think about that for a moment). A&M held up well against Bama's vaunted ground game but put very little pressure on Jones in the way of a pass rush. Not enough playmakers to keep pace with an elite team. Not enough team speed.

Kellen Mond played a solid football game against the best D the Ags will see in 2020, consistently moving the team down the field and actually made some terrific throws. But he also chose not to run and move the chains on fourth down and made a game-changing mistake when he tossed a second-quarter pick-six. In addition, there were not enough plays by Aggie pass-catchers to help the quarterback out. You want to win in Tuscaloosa? Make the back shoulder catch on the game-opening drive for a touchdown and hang on to the fourth-down dump off. Don't want to find yourself in fourth-and-4? Turn 2nd-and-1 into a first down and don't lose three yards because multiple o-linemen get shoved into the backfield.

It doesn't have to be Bama. It can be Florida or State. As Mike Leach has quickly learned, it can be anyone in the SEC. If the margin for error is as thin as it seems to be for the Aggies, the odds at times seem insurmountable.

The time to empty the chamber is already upon us. Yes, even at 1-1 with the one loss coming at the hands of the best program in college football history.

In a normal season, the September schedule would have afforded Fisher and his staff time to sort through this stuff and figure things out. That's obviously no longer the case, but it's also not the case for anyone in the conference. The time to empty the chamber is already upon us. Yes, even at 1-1 with the one loss coming at the hands of the best program in college football history.

Fisher and his staff have done a remarkable job on the recruiting front. In a perfect world, you could let that talent marinate and work it in gradually as the season progressed, much like last year. Without forcing the issue a little sooner than you'd like this fall, things could very well get away from the Aggies.

On defense, Donell Harris, Fadil Diggs, Antonio Doyle, Chris Russell, Edgerrin Cooper, Antonio Johnson and Brian George probably need to factor into a mix that is already featuring a lot of McKinnley Jackson and Andre White as new faces on a defense that has endured two of its worst days in 30 games (and really the only two truly 'bad' showings) under Mike Elko since last year's date with LSU. I'm sure they're not all ready, but that's a whole lot of names for a unit that could still use the speed and raw athleticism as an upgrade.

On offense, the line looked better on Saturday afternoon, but there has to be a point along the way where one of your talented true freshmen or a youngster like Layden Robinson represents an upgrade somewhere among the starting five, or at least you'd think so.

As I said last week, Fisher's offense is going to have to help the defense out and start scoring more points. They're not going to do that by grinding out several 11-play, 75-yard drives per game. Not against SEC defenses. With SEC offenses trending the way they currently are, big plays are a must, and outside of Ainias Smith and Jalen Wydermyer, the Ags simply aren't getting them in the passing game. Since lighting up Mississippi State and South Carolina last fall, the Ags have produced 13, 7, 24, 17 and 24 points. Let's see more of some of the receivers who made some tough grabs in traffic against Bama, but guys like Demond Demas, Moose Muhammad, Devon Achane and Dylan Wright all represented big recruiting wins because they're really talented skill guys. Fisher and Darrell Dickey need to make sure those guys are up to speed. The Ags must be getting contributions from a couple of names off of that list as soon as possible.

Because of the lack of playmakers on offense (in a league loaded with game-changers) and speed on both sides of the ball, A&M will be exposed by several more opponents this season if the issue isn't addressed in the way of sweeping changes.

The Tuscaloosa News-USA TODAY Sports

Haynes King saw his first action Saturday and offered a glimpse of his potential.

And that's also true at quarterback. Unpopular opinion, but I still don't think it's time to make a change at QB1. Not after seeing Mond look much more comfortable against Bama and making better decisions and throws than he did in his last two starts against far lesser opposition. There were the mistakes, however, and Kellen just hasn't provided the energy or spark this unit desperately needs. I'm not going to put too much stock into a garbage-time fourth-quarter drive that ended in an interception, but I've always liked what I've seen from Haynes King. I do think he has true star potential and flashed that 'juice' late in the game yesterday. Thing is, I don't think it's now, as in this weekend against the Florida Gators. But, as a head coach, you have to make the very tough decisions, and that's another reason why I say these next two weeks will be pivotal for Fisher and the Ags.

We've seen it in recent seasons at places like Bama (Hurts and Tua), Clemson (Kelly Bryant and Trevor Lawrence), OU (Baker Mayfield and our own Trevor Knight) and even at A&M more times than I'd care to recount (but I will in this week's Offense In Review). It would be neither unfair, unprecedented nor unwarranted to enter the next couple of games with the intention of starting Mond and seeing if he can build on his week one to week two improvement while also giving King a pre-determined drive here or there, regardless of how the game is going. Kellen is mature, and he's a team guy who can handle it and still trot back out there focused on the task at hand. I also still believe he gives Fisher and the Aggies their best shot at knocking off the Gators on Saturday, but I also saw Reggie McNeal enter a game against No. 1 Oklahoma years ago after Dustin Long threw one interception too many, and the rest is history. You have to at least be prepared to win even the biggest of showdowns if an in-game change proves necessary.

It's a little ironic that we're talking about all of this with Florida coming to Kyle Field. In year three, Mullen has the Gators at No. 3 in the country and certainly looking the part. They're also doing it with a Texan at quarterback. Kyle Trask didn't even start at Manvel High School (backing up Miami star D'Eriq King) and took over in Gainesville last year for the Gators following an injury to current Arkansas starter Feliepe Franks. He's gone from off-the-radar recruit to Heisman Trophy candidate in less than a year.

Kim Klement/USA Today Sports

The Aggies and Gators have played two SEC games decided in the fourth quarter.

Mullen, hired in the same off-season as Fisher, inherited more talent and had the benefit of playing in the East (and avoiding four games against Bama and Clemson in his first two seasons at the helm). It's a pretty significant difference in terms of who walked into a tougher situation, but three years in, no one is going to research the backstory. All they see is No. 3 Florida and an A&M program in significant need of a noteworthy win. The last two times the Ags played the Gators, both games were decided late in the fourth quarter, with Will Muschamp outlasting Kevin Sumlin in A&M's SEC debut and Johnny Manziel's first collegiate game and then Tyrel Dodson's last-possession interception clinching an Aggie win in The Swamp in 2017.

The winning quarterback that night? Kellen Mond.

Mond will have to channel some Manziel magic, the moxie he displayed in the fourth quarter that night in Gainesville and play better than the week before in order for the Ags to have a chance to play with a Florida team that hasn't been overly impressive on defense to date. There's really no justifiable reason A&M and UF shouldn't be locked in a tight game in the fourth quarter at Kyle Field this weekend.

If not, Fisher and the Aggies will find themselves facing a pretty desperate situation heading into Starkville against a State team that's impossible to get a read on at this point. The Bulldogs beat LSU in Baton Rouge and lost to Arkansas in front of the cowbells...just Mike Leach doing Mike Leach things. Considering the Ags' questions in the secondary and A&M's SEC history in Starkville, it's another daunting challenge. It's also a challenge that the Aggies should be expected to overcome. Sam Pittman did it at Arkansas in his second game as a head coach, after all.

Along those same lines, for as improved as the Hogs, Bulldogs and Ole Miss Rebels look in year one under new leadership, Fisher has a two-year head start, fields a more talented roster and is at a place with much more in the way of resources.

A lot of looking ahead here, but the big-picture point is that the Aggies are up against it just two games into a ten-game season. That's the thing about playing in the SEC: You can reclaim momentum just as quickly as you lost it. We know all about the challenge the next two weeks and the remainder of the 2020 slate presents, but there's a world of opportunity staring the Ags in the face, as well.

That's the thing about playing in the SEC: You can reclaim momentum just as quickly as you lost it. We know all about the challenge the next two weeks and the remainder of the 2020 slate presents, but there's a world of opportunity staring the Ags in the face, as well.

A&M isn't alone right now. LSU and Auburn (the Ags' last two opponents and a pair of pretty freaking big games standing out on the holiday horizon) plus Oklahoma and Texas are each already trying to figure out how things have gone so wrong so early. The Ags are currently somewhere in between, having beaten the worst team in the SEC and lost to the best one.

The truth about this place we all hold so dear is that there's typically too much meddling and not enough patience when it comes to football. Texas A&M is also unmatched in the commitment department, and they made a (very) well-publicized long-term commitment to Fisher. Having high expectations in year three? That goes without saying, doesn't it? Perfectly reasonable, but I also think we're in a situation where, for the first time in as long as I've been doing this, the Aggies have essentially forced themselves to give a head coach plenty of time to build his program and turn the corner.

Fisher is putting together an SEC title-contending roster in the younger classes, and I imagine we're going to see the number of '20 and '21 signees on the field and making plays in big moments increase by the week. What the Ags need now is an SEC title-contending mindset and culture. That's been slower in coming, and A&M got yet another up-close-and-personal lesson in what that looks like yesterday at Bryant-Denny.

They'll see it again on Saturday at Kyle Field. Another opportunity to silence the critics and alter the entire outlook of the season. The status quo won't get it done, but with a few bold moves, Fisher and the Aggies have the potential to close yesterday's glaring gap in the span of a week.

 

 

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On offense, the line looked better on Saturday afternoon, but there has to be a point along the way where one of your talented true freshmen or a youngster like Layden Robinson represents an upgrade somewhere among the starting five, or at least you'd think so.

hahaha yes please start some freshman olinemen

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4 minutes ago, golfclap said:

Didn't get to see the aggy/Bama game yet - but after hearing all about how King reminded them very much of Colt McCoy on his game-ending drive it was nice to see someone post the King drive as a separate video.  

 

 

 

I didn’t see that part of the game, but I’ve seen the aggy posts praising King and the video legitimately made me laugh out loud. All his throws were absolute ducks that reminded me of the Longview game where he threw multiple picks against a shitty John Tyler team. 
 

His first throw was flailing in the air and very lucky to be a catch. His next throw was a poorly placed lob to a blanketed receiver and then he threw another duck nowhere near his receiver that was about 5 yards off target and easily picked. 
 

The runs were meaningless. Bama rushed four and didn’t account for King because they didn’t care if he ran to kill the clock. He also got tagged hard on almost every run. It was a nice attempt by Jimbo to run his 5 minute offense to not give Bama the ball back and make the score look better, while giving his young QB some fake confidence, but even that ended in a pick.

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25 minutes ago, golfclap said:

Didn't get to see the aggy/Bama game yet - but after hearing all about how King reminded them very much of Colt McCoy on his game-ending drive it was nice to see someone post the King drive as a separate video.  

 

 

 

He's a faster Case McCoy 

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20 minutes ago, Burt Macklin said:

 

The runs were meaningless. Bama rushed four and didn’t account for King because they didn’t care if he ran to kill the clock. He also got tagged hard on almost every run. It was a nice attempt by Jimbo to run his 5 minute offense to not give Bama the ball back and make the score look better, while giving his young QB some fake confidence, but even that ended in a pick.

Also when King wins the starting spot next year, Jimbo will limit his running 

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25 minutes ago, golfclap said:

Didn't get to see the aggy/Bama game yet - but after hearing all about how King reminded them very much of Colt McCoy on his game-ending drive it was nice to see someone post the King drive as a separate video.  

 

 

 

 

Looks like he's doing the "pull the ball back and hold it behind your ear" set up to throw, much like freshman Jimmy Clausen. Thought that went out of style a long time ago. 

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1 hour ago, golfclap said:

Didn't get to see the aggy/Bama game yet - but after hearing all about how King reminded them very much of Colt McCoy on his game-ending drive it was nice to see someone post the King drive as a separate video.  

 

 

 

My favorite part is at 2:24, where the one sock that he was able to pull up slid down his leg because it's so skinny.

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spacer.png

Haynes King's first drive very much resembles the aggy roller coaster, especially skipping the OOC Schedule since it's only conference play:

Preseason: 17 yard completion

Heisman talk: run for 8

Early "Setback": incompletion

Clickity clack up: 4 straight positive runs

October: INT

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Reed out for the year again. I assume he will retire from football at this point, but who knows. 

Quote

"Grayson had a lower-body (injury) and it will be a year-ending deal for him. He won't be able to come back for the rest of the year, unfortunately," Fisher said

.

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1 hour ago, Beau Vine said:

My favorite part is at 2:24, where the one sock that he was able to pull up slid down his leg because it's so skinny.

I also like how he looked the receiver down the entire throw... including the incompletion.. and.. including the interception.. Also, I like how Dylan Moses trucked that farmer. sigh... wish he was ours.

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1 hour ago, Scholz said:

Fixed

I'll offer up the position that Case McCoy is the ... least attractive player in the history of CFB. He could make a freight train take a dirt road. That considered, Rattler and Haynes King could both very well give that guy a run for his money. An ATM/OU bowl game with Case McCoy on location with A/V duty for the TV crew could create a galactic cataclysm of ugly and cause the entire Milky Way to fold in on itself in order to spare the universe's future. 

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12 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

I'll offer up the position that Case McCoy is the ... least attractive player in the history of CFB. He could make a freight train take a dirt road. That considered, Rattler and Haynes King could both very well give that guy a run for his money. An ATM/OU bowl game with Case McCoy on location with A/V duty for the TV crew could create a galactic cataclysm of ugly and cause the entire Milky Way to fold in on itself in order to spare the universe's future. 

didn't Case have some medical condition that fucked up his face? what are Rattler and King's excuses?

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9 minutes ago, Viper said:

didn't Case have some medical condition that fucked up his face? what are Rattler and King's excuses?

Yeah, I think when Case was born, the doctor couldn't tell which end was his face and which was his ass, so he smacked the shit out of his face and left permanent damage. Or something like that.

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36 minutes ago, Viper said:

didn't Case have some medical condition that fucked up his face? what are Rattler and King's excuses?

 

25 minutes ago, Tex Pete said:

Yeah, I think when Case was born, the doctor couldn't tell which end was his face and which was his ass, so he smacked the shit out of his face and left permanent damage. Or something like that.

 

23 minutes ago, blacklab said:

I thought it was some kind of farming/truck related accident that almost killed him and crushed one side of his face

Well, now I feel bad. I just figured the guy hit puberty and ugly jumped all over him or something. I didn't mean to mock someone with an actual disfigurement. Calling healthy dudes ugly is fair game, even in today's world, as far as I'm concerned. That's what I thought I was doing. So if he gets a free pass, then shit, we're no longer #1 and ATM or OU can have that fucking title. 

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29 minutes ago, gernblansten said:

My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Case pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious.

Nm 

Edited by Doc Reeves
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1 hour ago, closetojumping said:

I'll offer up the position that Case McCoy is the ... least attractive player in the history of CFB. He could make a freight train take a dirt road. That considered, Rattler and Haynes King could both very well give that guy a run for his money. An ATM/OU bowl game with Case McCoy on location with A/V duty for the TV crew could create a galactic cataclysm of ugly and cause the entire Milky Way to fold in on itself in order to spare the universe's future. 

And the announcer is DJ Qualls.

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13 hours ago, golfclap said:

Didn't get to see the aggy/Bama game yet - but after hearing all about how King reminded them very much of Colt McCoy on his game-ending drive it was nice to see someone post the King drive as a separate video.  

 

 

 

Whoever compared him to Stephen McGee, spot on.

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