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Longhornfrenzy

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Everything posted by Longhornfrenzy

  1. These fuckers are taking the Texas win worse than Oklahoma & they actually lost
  2. Goalposts have been moved more times than I can count from the Goober's
  3. Surprised it has taken him this long to produce the sunshine article By Billy Liucci October 7, 2024 Texas A&M opened the season with a golden opportunity to make a statement in game one of the Mike Elko era. When Notre Dame walked off of Kyle Field the winner after four tough quarters, a large group of frustrated Aggie fans — and most of college football media — immediately wrote off the Aggies in 2024. After just a single game, the general consensus was that A&M would scrap through a “rebuilding” season while Elko established his culture and eventually flipped the roster. It took Elko and the Aggies all of five weeks to flip what was a ridiculously premature narrative (even at the time) on its head. Following the 23-13 loss to the Fighting Irish, it was evident that the Maroon & White needed to make significant and immediate strides on both sides of the ball. If not, forget about down the road showdowns later this fall, A&M getting out of September sans another blemish would have been unlikely. A road trip to “The Swamp” to take on a desperate Florida team followed by a senior-laden MAC contender and then the annual circus vs. Arkansas in Arlington. Mix in the fact that Conner Weigman suffered an injury in the season-opening loss that eventually sidelined him for three games, and it's almost understandable that many without any inside knowledge of Elko, his staff or team would write off the Aggies' chances and shift their focus elsewhere. However, a funny thing happened on the way from Notre Dame to a bye week that rests squarely at the season's midway point. The Aggies quietly came together and got better. Marcel Reed played like a seasoned veteran during his first career start in Gainesville, and a team determined to end a two-plus year road losing streak managed to put Florida and the 90,000 Gator fans in attendance away early. A week later, the Aggies appeared to lose some focus but didn't flinch when staring down what would have been a season-derailing upset, winning the fourth quarter and disposing of Bowling Green. At Jerry World, the Aggies again rose up when the game was on the line, thanks to Le'Veon Moss running hog wild and Jay Bateman's defense smothering Bobby Petrino's Arkansas offense down the stretch. September lessons were learned, and as is always the deciding factor in year one of a head coach's tenure, the A&M players remained engaged and were receptive to Elko's messaging. When the Aggies went on the road and raced out to a 20-0 halftime lead at “The Swamp,” it became very clear that the culture was quickly changing in College Station. The next step, of course, was winning the fourth quarter and closing out tough games. That happened in back-to-back weeks — and against two very different foes — against Bowling Green and Arkansas. The September wins were a great indicator of things like improvement and buy-in. The Aggies began making more big plays than allowing them, the run game showed marked week-to-week improvement, they began protecting the football and began regularly producing momentum- and game-changing plays on defense. The result? College football's only ranked matchup of the weekend, with 4-0 and No. 9 Missouri taking on No. 25 and 4-1 Texas A&M in front of the 12th Man. It goes without saying that Elko and the Aggies took full advantage of the chance to force their way back into the SEC and national conversation, taking Missouri to the woodshed and handing the Tigers the kind of beating that led to A&M making an eye-catching 10-spot rise in the polls. An earlier-than-expected shot at redemption for the Aggies, as A&M got a second shot at a top-25 showdown against a top-10 opponent at home before mid-season. It goes without saying that Elko and the Aggies took full advantage of the chance to force their way back into the SEC and national conversation, taking Missouri to the woodshed and handing the Tigers the kind of beating that led to A&M making an eye-catching 10-spot rise in the polls. The newly-ranked No. 15 Aggies drove 60 yards on eight plays into the end zone on their first possession and had Mizzou in a seemingly insurmountable 24-0 hole at halftime. When Moss took a handoff on the first play of the third quarter, saw a gaping hole and sprinted 75 yards to paydirt, the Ags led a top-10 opponent 31-0, and it sure looked like Eli Drinkwitz's Tigers couldn't get on the plane to Columbia fast enough. For four quarters during a 41-10 trouncing of the Tigers, the Aggies played like a team capable of beating anyone on the remaining schedule. Weigman (yes, the lede has been buried here, but we'll get to #15 in a moment) was absolutely dealing, and the passing game clicked like we haven't seen all season, with his targets catching everything thrown their way. With a physical offensive line paving the way, the running game once again carved up an SEC defense as Moss rumbled his way to 138 yards and three touchdowns on just 12 carries. Defensively, the Aggies held a Mizzou offense loaded with skilled playmakers to a single touchdown and barely 250 total yards. A five-game winning streak, the Aggies' first 3-0 SEC record since 2016 (their second since joining the league) and a top-15 ranking had the national college football voices singing a very different tune about Texas A&M football by Saturday afternoon, as top-10 teams around the country continued dropping like flies. And while field stormings and goalpost takedowns in Nashville and Fayetteville ultimately stole the weekend headlines (deservedly so), the Aggies beating the hell out of Missouri was the top-10 “upset” that didn't feel like one. The Aggies looked like a top-10 outfit on Saturday, while Missouri looked like a fringe top-25 squad. Seemingly out of nowhere, A&M looked elite in all three phases of the game. The ease with which the Ags disposed of a Missouri team that came in 15-2 since the start of last season — combined with what took place around the SEC and college football — changed a lot of opinions when it comes to A&M's potential in year one of the Elko Era. Four top-10 teams went down on Saturday, and five of the top-11. Four of those five losses came to previously unranked opponents, and a fifth top-10 upset was narrowly averted because Mario Christobal's Miami Hurricanes appear to have cut a backroom deal with ACC officials. If college football as a whole has been a six-week thrill ride thus far, what's happening in the SEC would qualify as a three-ring circus. In the last two Saturdays alone, A&M beating Missouri by 31 points hardly registers on the insanity meter. Kentucky stormed into Oxford and beat then-No. 6 Ole Miss on the same day Alabama raced out to a 30-7 lead, fell behind and then knocked off Georgia in one of the wildest games you'll ever see. Fast forward to two days ago, and the same Arkansas team the Aggies just beat held Tennessee's high-flying offense to just 14 points, and the Hogs — with a backup quarterback, no less — knocked the No. 4 Vols from the ranks of the unbeaten. And then there's Vanderbilt. Without wasting too much energy trying to describe the magnitude of perhaps the most stunning upset in recent college football history, the ripple effect the shocking result in Music City will likely have on the SEC title race could rival the waves a certain set of goalposts made in the Cumberland River on Saturday night. In four thoroughly impressive quarters, the Aggies went from Southeastern Conference also-rans to joining the likes of Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Ole Miss and perhaps even LSU as candidates to reach Atlanta. The same applies to the 12-team playoff discussion. And as folks begin to really dig into the Aggies' remaining schedule this week and during the upcoming bye, the chatter surrounding Elko and the Aggies is only going to get louder. Make no mistake: This is exactly why I said following the Notre Dame loss that the Aggies could play their way into another very meaningful tilt vs. a top-10 foe at Kyle Field. It's also why, leading up to Saturday's kickoff, the thought of what things would look like if A&M outlasted Missouri was tough to ignore … and that was if the Aggies managed to win close. By looking so dominant en route to a five-score win, the Aggies are now the latest en-vogue pick to reach the expanded CFP, to the point that even those who rarely give credit to anything Maroon & White-related are taking notice, including none other than Joel Klatt, who said on Monday: "Wrap your mind around this … Aggie football has a good shot at the CFP … in fact I would put money on it right now." Again, this is all highly complimentary stuff, and it's a combination of how good A&M looked on Saturday, a suddenly wide-open SEC race and the remaining schedule. It also has to do with folks now realizing the Aggies played a more challenging first-half schedule than many realized. Graham Mertz has Florida playing better ball as of late, and the underdog Gators just handled UCF fairly easily. Arkansas did to Josh Heupel's Vols what they couldn't do to the Aggies, and the Hogs now sit at 4-2. Notre Dame is back in the top 10 and will likely be favored in every game from here on out, while Missouri is still in the top 25 and sitting at 4-1 with a realistic shot at 10 wins. While all of the positive attention makes sense, and there's no reason the Aggies shouldn't enjoy the sudden spotlight (so should all of you as fans), it's also a good time to point out that the “A&M and Texas could meet at Kyle Field on Nov. 30 and again a week later in Atlanta” chatter is fun and somehow at this point not even fantasy. The Aggies' remaining schedule is still full of potential landmines. While outside entities will tell you A&M will cruise towards resuming the rivalry, one look at the schedule would tell anyone who knows anything about the Southeastern Conference that the Aggies' path to carrying a 7-0 or even 6-1 record entering the regular-season finale will be daunting. No matter what the current records say, road trips to Starkville, South Carolina and Jordan-Hare are tough, tough games to win. The Aggies' history against Mississippi State has been spotty at best, and coming off of a big win followed by an off-week, that one has a trap game written all over it. Shane Beamer's Gamecocks have a bye week before hosting the Aggies for Homecoming in Columbia, but they're coming off of a beatdown at the hands of Ole Miss and have Alabama followed by a road trip to Norman before facing A&M. While Auburn appears to be spiraling on the surface, War Eagle was very close to running Oklahoma out of the stadium a week ago and hung tough with Georgia for much of the game on Saturday. And we know what kind of talent the Tiger roster features. Oh, and there's also this pesky little home game against a team in Purple and Gold from Baton Rouge. LSU is quietly sitting at 4-1 overall and inside the top 15. Regardless of what happens against Ole Miss at Death Valley on Saturday, the matchup between the Aggies and Bayou Bengals promises to be a four-quarter war at Kyle Field. That's the cautious look at the Aggies' second-half schedule. There's also a reality that what Elko's squad put on display against Missouri is what the current ceiling looks like. The team we saw on Saturday would be a real problem for anyone in the country, including the teams currently residing inside the top five. While the Aggies have a challenging road ahead, the likes of Jeff Lebby, Brian Kelly, Beamer and Hugh Freeze all know they're likely to have real problems with A&M if this team continues to improve at its current rate. The reality is that while the Aggies won't be able to sustain that level of across-the-board excellence each and every Saturday from here on out, this team has only scratched the surface when it comes to how good it can be. Perhaps the biggest reason the Aggies began to unlock their full potential against Mizzou is none other than Weigman. Throughout the offseason, I tried to convey what NFL scouts and the national media believed Elko and Collin Klein had at the quarterback position in #15, and I fully expected the junior to emerge as one of the SEC's breakout performers. Then, Weigman played his worst game as an Aggie in the season opener — clearly not himself in his first game of action in nearly a year — and everyone seemed to forget the talent he flashed when healthy. While Reed did what can only be described as a sensational job stepping in as a completely inexperienced backup, leading the Ags to a perfect 3-0 mark, Elko made the choice to go back to the dude who earned the QB1 role based on his performance throughout the offseason. It was a gutsy call by the first-year head coach, but the reality is that Weigman's experience and NFL-caliber passing talent open up everything for Klein's offense. On Saturday, Weigman got rid of the ball quickly and in rhythm, hit deep shots down the field and kept a couple of key drives alive with his legs when needed. He also played with a lot more confidence and emotion than he showed against Notre Dame, looking much more like the fiery field general everyone expected to see entering the season. He connected on 18-of-22 passes for 276 yards, and his pinpoint passing led directly to the Aggie pass-catching corps enjoying their best game of the season by a longshot, with a suddenly-hot Noah Thomas, Terry Bussey and Jahdae Walker making big plays. As expected, backing Missouri off by throwing them out of heavy boxes led directly to things opening up in a big way for what was already a deadly effective ground game. Moss now leads the SEC in rushing following the best outing of his career, and #8 has run for 228 yards on just 18 carries in the Aggies' last five quarters of action. The Aggies have been good on defense from game one, but the unit has really turned it on the last two Saturdays. With Nic Scourton playing like an All-American (3.5 sacks and 5.5 TFLs in the last two games) and the defensive line looking very much like the best in the country, A&M demolished the blocking plans of both Arkansas and Missouri. In three SEC games, the Ags have amassed 11 sacks and 23 backfield stops while giving up an average of just 116 yards per game on the ground. A deep, athletic and talented back seven is flying around and getting hands on a lot of passes, a combination that has led to the Ags forcing six turnovers in three conference tilts. With so much new talent playing in a new scheme, Elko and Batemen know that there's still plenty of room for improvement for a unit that has a chance to be as good as any in the league. While the Aggies obviously put it all together against the Tigers, there's still a lot of room for this newly-minted contender to improve, which is perhaps more exciting than anything we saw from the home team during a 31-point rout (the second time A&M has dismantled an SEC opponent in three tries this fall). What the Ags can't do is lose focus, a point Elko is certain to hammer home throughout the bye and into next week's Mississippi State prep. The Aggies fought their way back, and the fight only gets tougher in order for this team to stay in power in the SEC and playoff races. Entering Saturday's second shot at a top-10 team, Missouri's head coach, players and even the Tigers media decided it would be wise to talk an awful lot of trash. Drinkwitz was yapping about Elko's quarterback business, Brady Cook called out the 12th Man, and Theo Wease Jr. arrived at Kyle Field wearing a blanket supposedly gifted by Will “The Blanket” Lee III. But it was a simple post by the Tiger account on X that looked the most foolish by sometime around the second quarter on Saturday. "Time to make a statement." Elko and the Aggies were not amused, and a motivated bunch in Maroon & White did just that. Statement made
  4. The mental gymnastics in this 1 screenshot is astounding
  5. It's amazing how Texas schedule was a cakewalk. Now, according too those dips shits Texas could lose 3 or 4 games
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