We misssed Trayveon Williams badly. Injuries on the offensive line and to opening day starter Jashaun Corbin didn't help, but the end result was a 60 rushing yard/game decrease from 2018 to 2019. And if you dig a little deeper, it was actually worse than what that final number suggested.

In their 5 matchups against teams who finished in the top 15 of the Associated Press Top 25, A&M averaged just 24 carries for 61 yards per game (2.5 yards per carry). Yikes.

Much will be made this offseason about Mond's improvement being the thing that'll determine A&M's success in 2020, and understandably so. But man, that ground game is in need of an even bigger improvement than Mond.

On the surface, that backfield production might look imminent. After all, Isaiah Spiller is back after a true freshman season in which he racked up 1,149 scrimmage yards and double-digit touchdowns. The guy caught 29 passes as A&M's starter following Corbin's injury, which seems similar to what we saw from Williams. Those are all positive things.

The negative is that Spiller averaged just 26.6 rushing yards against those 5 aforementioned top-15 finishers. And of his 946 rushing yards in 2019, 35% of them came against UTSA and FCS Lamar (half of his touchdowns came in those contests). He averaged 10.7 yards per carry against Group of 5/FCS competition and 3.8 yards per carry against Power 5 competition.

The takeaway from Spiller's freshman season, which also saw him deal with ball-security issues he lost a fumble in each of his first 3 SEC games wasn't that he's destined to struggle against elite SEC defenses. It's that he's not the type of back who's going to overcome bad-to-mediocre blocking and put an offense on his back. At least not yet.

https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/tamu-football/kellen-mond-next-step-key-but-dont-overlook-ground-game-development-all-important-2020/

Texas A&M looks to improve on the 29.5 points per game it averaged last season, a 6th-place ranking among SEC teams. There's little doubt that if healthy, the Aggies will push into the 30-35 point range and perhaps beyond.
https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/tamu-football/better-or-worse-is-this-the-year-finally-that-kellen-mond-and-texas-ams-offense-reach-their-peak/

Mond has been great at points. He's carried us a few times particularly late in games. He also has been plagued by inconsistency, especially early in big games (love to have that throw against Clemson back). Let's home he plays like OT again LSU 2018 for all of 2020

I agree with you. The Saturday Down South article I posted said the ground game needs to improve further, but o-line blocking, especially against good defensive linemen and linebackers, will be crucial to improve the running game. After a home loss to Auburn, it became clear how the loss of center Eric McCoy to the NFL draft in 2019 impacted both pass protection and running game. Even against Arkansas, we had 33 rushing attempts for just 89 yards, a paltry 2.7 yards per carry.

Running the ball takes either a village or a first-round* NFL draft pick at RB. We have neither.

Spiller lacks the extra gear that TW had. Spiller is 6'1 220. Fine for college, but the elite RBs are shorter and more muscular. Expecting a Georgia RB carrying an offense is not realistic. Those guys are 5'10 220 and run a 4.5 and can catch, or slightly shorter/smaller/faster and even better receiving.

Spiller got more reliable as the season went on. His vision should take another step and he should get better in the passing game. But he will not be all-SEC without a decent OL and a very high level mental game.

The OL was bad without McCoy and Sutherland. Could not consistently execute inside zone vs SWTS and some of the other cream puffs. Could not execute outside zone at all. And TW also had Trevor Wood, who blocked better than any of the '19 TEs.

Spiller is good enough to hold up his end. The OL and WRs did not hold up theirs.

Edit: Benny Snell was a bmf and carried UK's offense. He went in the 4h round b/c of his limited catching ability. I should have said legit NFL RB. A lot of other big, fast RBs have been drafted in Rounds 2 and 3.

Iraq2xVeteran said:

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We misssed Trayveon Williams badly. Injuries on the offensive line and to opening day starter Jashaun Corbin didn't help, but the end result was a 60 rushing yard/game decrease from 2018 to 2019. And if you dig a little deeper, it was actually worse than what that final number suggested.

In their 5 matchups against teams who finished in the top 15 of the Associated Press Top 25, A&M averaged just 24 carries for 61 yards per game (2.5 yards per carry). Yikes.

Much will be made this offseason about Mond's improvement being the thing that'll determine A&M's success in 2020, and understandably so. But man, that ground game is in need of an even bigger improvement than Mond.

On the surface, that backfield production might look imminent. After all, Isaiah Spiller is back after a true freshman season in which he racked up 1,149 scrimmage yards and double-digit touchdowns. The guy caught 29 passes as A&M's starter following Corbin's injury, which seems similar to what we saw from Williams. Those are all positive things.

The negative is that Spiller averaged just 26.6 rushing yards against those 5 aforementioned top-15 finishers. And of his 946 rushing yards in 2019, 35% of them came against UTSA and FCS Lamar (half of his touchdowns came in those contests). He averaged 10.7 yards per carry against Group of 5/FCS competition and 3.8 yards per carry against Power 5 competition.

The takeaway from Spiller's freshman season, which also saw him deal with ball-security issues he lost a fumble in each of his first 3 SEC games wasn't that he's destined to struggle against elite SEC defenses. It's that he's not the type of back who's going to overcome bad-to-mediocre blocking and put an offense on his back. At least not yet.

https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/tamu-football/kellen-mond-next-step-key-but-dont-overlook-ground-game-development-all-important-2020/

Texas A&M looks to improve on the 29.5 points per game it averaged last season, a 6th-place ranking among SEC teams. There's little doubt that if healthy, the Aggies will push into the 30-35 point range and perhaps beyond.
https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/tamu-football/better-or-worse-is-this-the-year-finally-that-kellen-mond-and-texas-ams-offense-reach-their-peak/

---

Unless Mond makes a drastic improvement (highly unlikely) and begins to complete passes longer than ten yards with some consistency, opposing defenses will continue to stack the line. And we will continue to have challenges running the ball regardless of who is at RB.

This is also true. UGA was playing cover 3, but did not drop to normal depth b/c they did not respect us to hit the deep ball. They were able to badly outnumber the run.

If you lose at the line of scrimmage, you lose. Our offensive line was overmatched in our losses. If that doesn't change, this season will be a lot like the last one.

Spiller was also a fish last year. He wasn't far off from where Trayveon was his first year. If we play I expect the offense to be a completely different animal this fall.

OL

Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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Has to be offensive line. Better o line play improves running game and gives KM more time which he desperately needs to work through his progressions.

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Dude, the line actually pass blocked better than average last season. It's not a case of the line needing to give Mond more time. It's a case of Mond needing to operate faster, make better decisions and not run directly into defensive linemen when he does decide to scramble 6 seconds after the snap.

The whole "the offensive line sucked" mentality is the biggest example of message board group think there is. They sucked at run blocking against good teams, but pass blocked pretty solid the entire season.

schmellba99 said:

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Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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Has to be offensive line. Better o line play improves running game and gives KM more time which he desperately needs to work through his progressions.

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Dude, the line actually pass blocked better than average last season. It's not a case of the line needing to give Mond more time. It's a case of Mond needing to operate faster, make better decisions and not run directly into defensive linemen when he does decide to scramble 6 seconds after the snap.

The whole "the offensive line sucked" mentality is the biggest example of message board group think there is. They sucked at run blocking against good teams, but pass blocked pretty solid the entire season.

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Against bad teams, yes. Against average and better SEC D-lines, not so much.

They sucked at run blocking against SWTS. Corbin broke big ones b/c Corbin was a better athlete than anyone on that defense. It looked like a HS game where the stud RB was running around both his own OL and the defense.

We did not start gouging SC until their already thin defense was worn down mid Q3 or early Q4. Same w/ MSU, we did not start breaking off big runs (other than a scramble or2) until they were gassed in the second half. Most of our first half yards vs MSU were passing.

We were good enough in the passing game to keep Arkie/OM/MSU honest. That means little. They all had exploitable holes in their defenses.

The OL sucked at pass blocking vs Arkansas. I think Arkie had 4 sacks. LSU had 6. We allowed 33 on the season. Even if half a dozen were squarely on Mond, the OL still did not get it done.

Except that TW was breaking big runs vs P5s. Spiller's longest vs a P5 was 26 yards.

Spiller proved he belongs in the SEC. I am saying that he is not good enough to carry a mediocre OL.

schmellba99 said:

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Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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Has to be offensive line. Better o line play improves running game and gives KM more time which he desperately needs to work through his progressions.

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Dude, the line actually pass blocked better than average last season. It's not a case of the line needing to give Mond more time. It's a case of Mond needing to operate faster, make better decisions and not run directly into defensive linemen when he does decide to scramble 6 seconds after the snap.

The whole "the offensive line sucked" mentality is the biggest example of message board group think there is. They sucked at run blocking against good teams, but pass blocked pretty solid the entire season.

---

I will have to disagree with you and not because of group think. I watched the games and saw our offensive line get whooped routinely. We could barely run the ball in the opener against Texas state. against good to very good competition we could not block anyone. I agree with KM needing to process quicker I am definitely not a KM apologist however the O line regressed dramatically in 2019. I saw 2-4 whiffs a game by Kenyon green who is suppose to be our best blocker I saw lineman get pushed straight back into the quarterback and I saw tackles that got exposed if the defensive end they were blocking had any next level ability. We absolutely missed Eric McCoy up the middle. You don't actually believe losing a future pro bowler at center and replacing him with Colton prater is an upgrade, do you? So for those reasons I believe the best way for our team to improve is via improved offensive line play and as I stated earlier for KM to process quicker.

Did you mean Eric McCoy? If so, I completely agree with you. Since center Eric McCoy was drafted, the O-line regressed. It impacted our offense more than the loss of running back Traveon Williams and tight end Jace Sternberger.

Yes, I am getting older and names start to run together.

Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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schmellba99 said:

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Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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Has to be offensive line. Better o line play improves running game and gives KM more time which he desperately needs to work through his progressions.

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Dude, the line actually pass blocked better than average last season. It's not a case of the line needing to give Mond more time. It's a case of Mond needing to operate faster, make better decisions and not run directly into defensive linemen when he does decide to scramble 6 seconds after the snap.

The whole "the offensive line sucked" mentality is the biggest example of message board group think there is. They sucked at run blocking against good teams, but pass blocked pretty solid the entire season.

---

I will have to disagree with you and not because of group think. I watched the games and saw our offensive line get whooped routinely. We could barely run the ball in the opener against Texas state. against good to very good competition we could not block anyone. I agree with KM needing to process quicker I am definitely not a KM apologist however the O line regressed dramatically in 2019. I saw 2-4 whiffs a game by Kenyon green who is suppose to be our best blocker I saw lineman get pushed straight back into the quarterback and I saw tackles that got exposed if the defensive end they were blocking had any next level ability. We absolutely missed Eric McCoy up the middle. You don't actually believe losing a future pro bowler at center and replacing him with Colton prater is an upgrade, do you? So for those reasons I believe the best way for our team to improve is via improved offensive line play and as I stated earlier for KM to process quicker.

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this, and i would add to that by mentioning that our te blocking was a huge liability last year. i'm surprised the coaching staff would leave wydermyer out on the field in blocking situations because he was just so bad at it...

Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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schmellba99 said:

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Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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Has to be offensive line. Better o line play improves running game and gives KM more time which he desperately needs to work through his progressions.

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Dude, the line actually pass blocked better than average last season. It's not a case of the line needing to give Mond more time. It's a case of Mond needing to operate faster, make better decisions and not run directly into defensive linemen when he does decide to scramble 6 seconds after the snap.

The whole "the offensive line sucked" mentality is the biggest example of message board group think there is. They sucked at run blocking against good teams, but pass blocked pretty solid the entire season.

---

I will have to disagree with you and not because of group think. I watched the games and saw our offensive line get whooped routinely. We could barely run the ball in the opener against Texas state. against good to very good competition we could not block anyone. I agree with KM needing to process quicker I am definitely not a KM apologist however the O line regressed dramatically in 2019. I saw 2-4 whiffs a game by Kenyon green who is suppose to be our best blocker I saw lineman get pushed straight back into the quarterback and I saw tackles that got exposed if the defensive end they were blocking had any next level ability. We absolutely missed Eric McCoy up the middle. You don't actually believe losing a future pro bowler at center and replacing him with Colton prater is an upgrade, do you? So for those reasons I believe the best way for our team to improve is via improved offensive line play and as I stated earlier for KM to process quicker.

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Just look at the stats. We were worst in the entire SEC in sacks allowed and if you subtract Monds rushing we were second to worst in rushing. Mond may have had issues but he didn't get a lot of help.

rootube said:

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Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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schmellba99 said:

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Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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Has to be offensive line. Better o line play improves running game and gives KM more time which he desperately needs to work through his progressions.

---

Dude, the line actually pass blocked better than average last season. It's not a case of the line needing to give Mond more time. It's a case of Mond needing to operate faster, make better decisions and not run directly into defensive linemen when he does decide to scramble 6 seconds after the snap.

The whole "the offensive line sucked" mentality is the biggest example of message board group think there is. They sucked at run blocking against good teams, but pass blocked pretty solid the entire season.

---

I will have to disagree with you and not because of group think. I watched the games and saw our offensive line get whooped routinely. We could barely run the ball in the opener against Texas state. against good to very good competition we could not block anyone. I agree with KM needing to process quicker I am definitely not a KM apologist however the O line regressed dramatically in 2019. I saw 2-4 whiffs a game by Kenyon green who is suppose to be our best blocker I saw lineman get pushed straight back into the quarterback and I saw tackles that got exposed if the defensive end they were blocking had any next level ability. We absolutely missed Eric McCoy up the middle. You don't actually believe losing a future pro bowler at center and replacing him with Colton prater is an upgrade, do you? So for those reasons I believe the best way for our team to improve is via improved offensive line play and as I stated earlier for KM to process quicker.

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Just look at the stats. We were worst in the entire SEC in sacks allowed and if you subtract Monds rushing we were second to worst in rushing. Mond may have had issues but he didn't get a lot of help.

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Slow reads, slow to work through progression, slow release and a penchant for running headlong into the pressure. Yep, he had issues. Much of the problem was of his own making.

The two tight end sets with Wydermyer and Cupp should help o- line performance this year.

Honestly Mond is great

Quote:

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Much will be made this offseason about Mond's improvement being the thing that'll determine A&M's success in 2020, and understandably so. But man, that ground game is in need of an even bigger improvement than Mond.

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Who determined that Mond or any other Aggie has made improvements since last season? How was this determined? We have held no practices, no drills, no scrimmages. I strongly believe that if we were playing a schedule as strong as last year's, Mond would NOT be our starting QB at the end of the season. Fortunately for Mond, we have the easiest schedule in the SEC this year. And if we do not play our last two games (as i predict), we will probably have the easiest SEC season we will ever have.

If Mond can avoid COVID-19, he should hold onto his starting QB job.

Easily my greatest fear this year is that the staff will NOT play backups at QB or in the OL (same as last season). If so, next season we will have very inexperienced players at essentially all QB & OL positions. We will also have far fewer starters and our schedule will be a lot tougher. In addition, all SEC West opponents (minus Ark) should be stronger. This combination might be disastrous for us next season and take us two more seasons to correct it.

Agsuffering@bulaw said:

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Spiller is 6'1 220. Fine for college, but the elite RBs are shorter and more muscular.

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To name a few, Derrick Henry (6'3"), Adrian Peterson (6'1"), Todd Gurley (6'1"), Ezekiel Elliott (6'), Leonard Fournette (6'), Le'Veon Bell (6'), and Joe Mixon (6') might disagree that top backs need to be shorter. Aside from their NFL productivity, all were pretty elite college backs, too.

Spiller could use a little more speed, but he's plenty good if the OL gets the job done.

TRaww said:

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Honestly Mond is great

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<sarcasm meter pegged out>

can mond still go in draft somehow maybe , and please dont tell me he can still use his red shirt

Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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schmellba99 said:

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Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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Has to be offensive line. Better o line play improves running game and gives KM more time which he desperately needs to work through his progressions.

---

Dude, the line actually pass blocked better than average last season. It's not a case of the line needing to give Mond more time. It's a case of Mond needing to operate faster, make better decisions and not run directly into defensive linemen when he does decide to scramble 6 seconds after the snap.

The whole "the offensive line sucked" mentality is the biggest example of message board group think there is. They sucked at run blocking against good teams, but pass blocked pretty solid the entire season.

---

I will have to disagree with you and not because of group think. I watched the games and saw our offensive line get whooped routinely. We could barely run the ball in the opener against Texas state. against good to very good competition we could not block anyone. I agree with KM needing to process quicker I am definitely not a KM apologist however the O line regressed dramatically in 2019. I saw 2-4 whiffs a game by Kenyon green who is suppose to be our best blocker I saw lineman get pushed straight back into the quarterback and I saw tackles that got exposed if the defensive end they were blocking had any next level ability. We absolutely missed Eric McCoy up the middle. You don't actually believe losing a future pro bowler at center and replacing him with Colton prater is an upgrade, do you? So for those reasons I believe the best way for our team to improve is via improved offensive line play and as I stated earlier for KM to process quicker.

---

I specifically stated "pass blocking". We were horrible at run blocking, but the line did get better on that as teh season went on. All in all though, our pass blocking was not an issue last season for the overwhelming majority of passing plays.

But hey, see what you want to see I guess.

samhoustonag said:

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rootube said:

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Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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schmellba99 said:

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Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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Has to be offensive line. Better o line play improves running game and gives KM more time which he desperately needs to work through his progressions.

---

Dude, the line actually pass blocked better than average last season. It's not a case of the line needing to give Mond more time. It's a case of Mond needing to operate faster, make better decisions and not run directly into defensive linemen when he does decide to scramble 6 seconds after the snap.

The whole "the offensive line sucked" mentality is the biggest example of message board group think there is. They sucked at run blocking against good teams, but pass blocked pretty solid the entire season.

---

I will have to disagree with you and not because of group think. I watched the games and saw our offensive line get whooped routinely. We could barely run the ball in the opener against Texas state. against good to very good competition we could not block anyone. I agree with KM needing to process quicker I am definitely not a KM apologist however the O line regressed dramatically in 2019. I saw 2-4 whiffs a game by Kenyon green who is suppose to be our best blocker I saw lineman get pushed straight back into the quarterback and I saw tackles that got exposed if the defensive end they were blocking had any next level ability. We absolutely missed Eric McCoy up the middle. You don't actually believe losing a future pro bowler at center and replacing him with Colton prater is an upgrade, do you? So for those reasons I believe the best way for our team to improve is via improved offensive line play and as I stated earlier for KM to process quicker.

---

Just look at the stats. We were worst in the entire SEC in sacks allowed and if you subtract Monds rushing we were second to worst in rushing. Mond may have had issues but he didn't get a lot of help.

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Slow reads, slow to work through progression, slow release and a penchant for running headlong into the pressure. Yep, he had issues. Much of the problem was of his own making.

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And yet somehow we were one of the best passing teams in the SEC last year. We had a pretty bad offense last year and there was plenty of blame to go around. If we can't protect the QB and run the ball more effectively this year then it won't matter who is our QB.

rootube said:

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samhoustonag said:

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rootube said:

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Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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schmellba99 said:

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Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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Has to be offensive line. Better o line play improves running game and gives KM more time which he desperately needs to work through his progressions.

---

Dude, the line actually pass blocked better than average last season. It's not a case of the line needing to give Mond more time. It's a case of Mond needing to operate faster, make better decisions and not run directly into defensive linemen when he does decide to scramble 6 seconds after the snap.

The whole "the offensive line sucked" mentality is the biggest example of message board group think there is. They sucked at run blocking against good teams, but pass blocked pretty solid the entire season.

---

I will have to disagree with you and not because of group think. I watched the games and saw our offensive line get whooped routinely. We could barely run the ball in the opener against Texas state. against good to very good competition we could not block anyone. I agree with KM needing to process quicker I am definitely not a KM apologist however the O line regressed dramatically in 2019. I saw 2-4 whiffs a game by Kenyon green who is suppose to be our best blocker I saw lineman get pushed straight back into the quarterback and I saw tackles that got exposed if the defensive end they were blocking had any next level ability. We absolutely missed Eric McCoy up the middle. You don't actually believe losing a future pro bowler at center and replacing him with Colton prater is an upgrade, do you? So for those reasons I believe the best way for our team to improve is via improved offensive line play and as I stated earlier for KM to process quicker.

---

Just look at the stats. We were worst in the entire SEC in sacks allowed and if you subtract Monds rushing we were second to worst in rushing. Mond may have had issues but he didn't get a lot of help.

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Slow reads, slow to work through progression, slow release and a penchant for running headlong into the pressure. Yep, he had issues. Much of the problem was of his own making.

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And yet somehow we were one of the best passing teams in the SEC last year. We had a pretty bad offense last year and there was plenty of blame to go around. If we can't protect the QB and run the ball more effectively this year then it won't matter who is our QB.

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And yet somehow we finished fourth in the West division.

{Also, based on what metric?}

Our conclusions are the same. Spiller is good enough, the OL was not.

Maybe I should have said "out of preportion." Elite RBs with his height are typically 230 or more. Typical proportions:

5'9/215
5'10/220
5'11/225
6/230


Those lacking proportion typically have speed. AD and Mixon were around 4.4. Chuba runs a 4.3. Leveon Bell is a rare exception.

The schematic breakdowns mostly got fixed. Kenyon and Spiller got better as the season went on. But we still got beat plenty even with correct execution. We led the SEC in sacks/game by a significant margin. We were 2.62. Next was MSU at 2.39, then LSU and Vandy at 2.33, Mizzou at 2.25, SC at 2.08. The rest were under 2.

Actually Mond is terrible.

A viable Covid vaccine.

And to OP's question, the biggest single position for us next year is probably WDE. I say that, b/c the OL will not be significantly better unless the right 2 or any 3 take their games up a level.

IF we dont find a WDE to get us 6 sacks and play run, we will struggle against the pass unless several others step up in a huge and unlikely way. Figure we need 25-30 sacks. We got 25 last year bc Madabuike was a beast and Elko is a great coach. We won't have Madabuike commanding doubles and a coach needs something to leverage. We dont have a real blitzing LB or DB, unless one of the young players emerges. But if the WDE is good enough and Peevy and Leal do what the do, Elko should have enough to scheme with.