Just as I feared, Texas A&M is now competent. Ugh.
Welcome back to Rock M Nation’s annual opponent preview series of the upcoming season. Each week we will break down one opponent from the schedule in chronological order. Given that rosters are ever fluid – and this is done by a hobbyist rather than a pro – there could be some errors in history and current roster makeup. All mistakes are done on purpose and with ill intent because I don’t like you or your team.
Catch up on previous 2025 opponent previews!
Texas A&M has way too much money, too much talent, and too much care to be mediocre in anything, let alone football. And yet, recent history belies a list of poorly producing investment in their football dealings, to the point where the Aggies have been a the quintessential paper tiger of the SEC for most of the mid-to-late 2010s.
And Jimbo Fisher? A coach who won a national championship at Florida State one time and then was thrown approximately ten trillion dollars guaranteed to do the same thing at Texas A&M? Yes, that was also a bad investment.
From my A&M preview of last year:
All the talent in the world can get you far but it can’t overcome incompetent management, and Fisher’s insistence on being his own, stodgy, regressive offensive coordinator held back many a talented Aggie team. His antiquated, drop-back style offenses with NFL-level verbiage and reads, can absolutely work – see ‘03 LSU and ‘13 Florida State – but if he didn’t have the right kind of talent, it would merely undercut his players’ abilities.
However, A&M booster did a funny thing and hired an actual great football coach. A no-nonsense, underdog-embracing program builder named Mike Elko and the results were positive and immediate:
Yes, they did lose four of their last five games, including the first on-field game against Texas since 2011. But the Aggies were an actual great team, improving to 13th in SP+ while actually beating excellent teams, including Florida, LSU, and (of course!) our beloved Missouri Tigers in brutally-efficient fashion.
And that was what he did while trying to turn things around in Year One, which you would assume would be his worst year.
Uh oh.
Coaching Staff
Photo by David Becker/Getty Images
Mike Elko – 2nd Year – 8-5 (5-3)
Apparently spending 18 years at under-funded football programs as a coordinator and two years at a smart-kid school as a head coach prepares you fairly well to build successful football programs.
From last year’s preview:
Whereas Fisher was a “scheme guy” who thought the way he coached football was infallible because he won a national championship, Elko is a “FFC” (“f***in’ football coach” in industry parlance) and a guy who approaches his team building with a focus on practice, scheme, development, and “let’s see what’s going to work”. He isn’t going to win the press conference and he isn’t going to make you say “WOW” at some unheard of approach or scheme.
But he’s going to find guys who are bought in to his vision, he’s going to maximize what they can do by placing them in positions to thrive, and his teams aren’t going to give up.
Yes, they lost games, but all but one of those losses were less than 10 points and – for the first time in a long time – the Aggies looked prepared and fully understanding of what they were supposed to do, especially on offense. The fact that one of the richest fan bases in the country now has a competent head coach is a disaster for the rest of the SEC.
Assistant Staff
No movement here. It wasn’t broke last year, no need to fix it, and everyone seemingly wants to see where this can go. Again, great for A&M, bad for everyone else.
Roster Movement
Noah Thomas is probably the biggest portal loss for the Aggies as he lead the team in targets, receptions, and receiving yards last year. Other than that Connor Wiegman is the name you all recognize most, thanks to the one good game he ever played just happening to coincide with Missouri coming to town. That lone performance wasn’t enough to have him hold on to his job from Marcel Reed, however, so now he’s off to greener pastures. Everyone else on this list were either rotational or backup players.
If you don’t lose much effective production then you don’t need to import much, and A&M dipped into the portal sparingly this offseason. Clearly they recognized the impact loss of Thomas as the Aggie coaching staff brought in three receivers and three tight ends to bolster the pass catching depth. Other than that, a run on defensive linemen and a lone corner snagged from Georgia were the only items they took from the portal menu.
Also, do you recognize the name Sam M’Pemba? Mizzou went hard after him in his high school days and now he’s at A&M after spending two years at Georgia.
The 9th-best recruiting class in the country is the 6th-best recruiting class in the SEC, including standout names such as 5-star receiver Jerome Myles, high 4-star corner Adonyss Currie, and former Mizzou verbal commit (and Top 50 player) Lamont Rogers. The Aggies have the 7th-highest returning production – second only to Vanderbilt in the SEC – so its unlikely that the names in the chart above see a ton of action. Myles might, though, given the lack of proven playmakers in the receiving corps.
Offense
Don’t use last year’s Mizzou game as any sort of barometer on what Texas A&M did offensively last year. They were still good, mind you, but not nearly as good as they showed on October 5th.
Much like his Kansas State offenses before, Collin Klein’s first Aggie offense was excellent at running the ball, efficient as hell, and about as unexplosive as you could possibly be. The converted 3rd-downs at a Top 25 rate, were Top 10 in preventing run stuffs, one of the best opportunity rate offenses in the nation, and maximized their trips to the red zone. Methodical, efficiency, ball control…basically everything that they weren’t against the Tigers.
Quarterback
Photo by David Becker/Getty Images
For Mizzou fans Marcel Reed is famous for being not the guy that they had to face in 2024, despite the fact that Eli Drinkwitz went on one of his silly smack-talk campaigns of saying they were preparing for Reed and knew he was going to play without any thought that Conner Weigman would be taking snaps that day. Weigman transferred away so we know for sure that he won’t be hurting Mizzou again during the regular season, which is nice. As for Reed, his first year slotted as QB1 had its ups and downs, as he flashed a ton of potential as a runner and left a little to be desired in the passing game. His 7.1 ANY/A is worse than Brady Cook last year, just to give you a comparison. Still, his main utilization is to provide another threat for the Aggie ground game and he is certainly equipped to that effectively.
Running Back
Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images
Bad news: Texas A&M didn’t portal in any new running backs. Good news: they didn’t need to since their rushing offense was one of the best in the country and everyone who contributed is returning. Amari Daniels received 18 more carries than Le’Veon Moss but a.) Moss was better in yards per carry and avoiding negative plays, and b.) they’re both going to get a ton of work so it’s going to be gnarly for opposing defenses regardless.
Receivers
Photo by Nicholas Faulkner/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The A&M passing game was seemingly allergic to big passes downfield, with nearly 50% of all passes thrown occurring 1-10 yards away from the line of scrimmage. This meant that Aggie receivers had great catch rates and terrible yards yards per target and yards per catch.
The answer? Bring in some deep threats! Both K.C. Concepcion (NC State) and Mario Craver (Mississippi State) are guys who excel in bringing in the deep ball and, consequently, have terrible catch rates. But the threat of speed and stretch on the outside should work wonders to open up the Aggie ground game even further.
If Reed can connect on those passes, that is.
Offensive Line
Photo by Ken Murray/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Another unit where all the starters return and no transfers were portalled in. A&M’s o-line was fairly leaky in pass protection but exceled in run blocking. I know, what a surprise! Bringing back Trey Zuhn was huge, as is getting 2024’s project-starting center, Mark Nabou, Jr., back from injury after he missed the season 19 snaps in to the first game of the year.
Defense
The Aggie defense was maniacally good. Top 20 in the nation good. With one big weakness, of course.
EXPLOSIVE PLAYS.
Bottom 15 in stopping them and allowing them.
But that only hurt them so much. What Elko and DC Jay Bateman would do is bring in their elite secondary close and dare offenses to go deep, while unleashing a hellacious pass rush onto their foes. Essentially, they banked on their 5th-best havoc rate in the nation to hit home thanks to the 6th-best havoc defensive line and not allow quarterbacks time to hit deep shots.
But if quarterbacks could hit deep shots the Aggies were cooked. Think the South Carolina or USC games last year. Big plays, ahoy!
The good news is that Elko and Bateman return almost their entire back seven defensive two deep. The bad news: they’re getting a hard reset on the defensive line, aka the engine that kept this entire havoc vehicle running. It is interesting that they went with younger, unproven defensive lineman rather than big impact transfers; then again, the Elko system works with almost anybody they slot in there and the first bad Elko d-line we see will most likely be the first.
So what does it all mean?
They’re wealthy. They’re talented. They have a chip on their shoulder. And they have one of the best program builders in the sport today in charge. Texas A&M is a major threat as long as Elko is patrolling the sidelines, and there are just too few questions about this unit to make you reasonably think that they’re going to fall flat on their faces in Year Two. I’ll say it: this should not only be an SEC contender but a Playoff participant as well, and most likely will get to at least the second round of the Playoff.
And Mizzou gets them at home! Well into the season where the Aggies will be motivated to win and make statements for the Playoff committee. Eli Drinkwitz’s sterling 66% winning percentage in November will be put to the test when Elko and friends come to down.
Maybe last year’s defensive plan can just be copy/pasted into this year and produce a victory!