The Season Ahead: The SEC's best game in Week One

The light at the end of the tunnel is coming into focus.

What was once just a tiny ray peaking out in late night reruns and the occasional (daily) YouTube compilation is now a full-blown spotlight bearing down upon us.

With fall camp around the corner and SEC Media Days in the rear view mirror, you can scream it as loudly as you like.

Football is back. Well, almost.

Starting with week one, we’ll look at the best games of the SEC football slate. Some include Texas A&M, some don’t, but they are all glorious — and all will have an impact on the Aggies.

Let’s get this thing kicked off.

SEC Game of the Week: Week One

Who: Arizona State vs. Texas A&M
Where: NRG Stadium, Houston, Texas
When: September 5th, 7:00 pm

One year ago, Texas A&M left South Carolina writhing on the field after a 52-28 demolition.

At the time, it looked like the Aggies had found their new star in Kenny Hill, discovered a run defense and were primed for a banner year in the toughest football conference in the country.

While those assumptions proved to be misleading, the Aggies have a chance to make another opening statement — and a strong one at that.

With a marquee non-conference opponent in Arizona State, Texas A&M will have to fire out of the gates. One 60-minute contest won’t allow the Aggies to reach their goals, but it should show whether they are headed in the right direction.

Averaging nearly 37 points last season, the Sun Devils ranked 16th in the nation in offense. While starting QB Taylor Kelly is gone, a bevy of returning starters will pose a threat to an A&M D that was susceptible to big plays and big games in 2014.

Cue the Chief.

Whoever the A&M coaching staff elects to start under center will likely put up huge numbers — we know that. But the biggest question and likely biggest sense of optimism comes on the other side of the ball. If John Chavis can put pressure on the Arizona State backfield, begin to make defense a strength and get the ball back into the offense’s hands quickly, watch out.

That will get a vast majority of the coverage and rightfully so, but that is not the only answer A&M fans will be hoping to walk away with heading to the second week.

At times in the SEC, your best and sometimes only option is to run the ball. That fact has been cruel to the Maroon and White all too often.

Nobody expects a smashmouth form of offense to take the field in September, but Dave Christensen has proven over his career that he can incorporate a strong running game into a spread offense. With a veteran offensive line and options like Tra Carson and James White toting the rock, there’s reason to believe he can do it here as well.

The 12th Man is a renowned part of Aggieland. Having the 12th-ranked rushing attack in the SEC, not so much. If an improvement is made and A&M is able to show a balanced attack, this could be more than just lighting in a bottle.

It could be the start of year-long storm that spells trouble for all those in front of it.

So with all that said, what do we have? We have questions, for one. But with those comes an opportunity to open eyes and piece the puzzle together.

We also have one heck of an opener.