We didn't need to. I remember the Kenny Trill debacle season where we looked awesome in the first SEC game at USCe and how that season imploded.

No cause to panic. We will see if Elko works out and we quickly start playing much better and hitting people in the mouth on the first play.

I would venture to say that consistent 8-4 seasons is not good enough, and at least the Head Coach contract appears to be properly structured so if we do need to move on, it won't cause anywhere near the hardship that firing Jimbo did.

Must say I was highly impressed with the job Jeff Trayler is doing at UTSA. Yes we were their superbowl, but not a single pre-snap penalty or turnover while playing at Kyle Field.

Looked like any other first game against a lesser division 1 football team that we won handily, yet the sky is somehow falling. It's like the majority of people in the zoo have never watched a football season play out before.

1-0 looks like a playoff team a lot more than 0-1.
No worries until we play ND. Then we'll start seeing what this team is.
These aren't more than scrimmges.

Why was the defense so unsettled before each and every play?

For what it is worth the players appeared to be not taking the game seriously.....Celebrating and clowning around is okay after the game is over...During the game I wish they would have been all business....A lot of good plays but too much clowning around....Not the mark of a team that is going far....Hopefully, the Aggie coaching staff will address this issue with the players...

Class of 65 said:

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Why was the defense so unsettled before each and every play?

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I think because their offense on Saturday looked a lot different than anything we'd seen on film. York said in the post game that they were having to adjust for the fact that they weren't really getting the same looks that they'd schemed for all week.

Second half defense was worlds better after we'd had a chance to respond to what they were doing.

Why couldn't we cover the wide receiver crossing on either side.......If I was utSA's coach I would have run that EVERY play.once to the left, then to the right, then to the left then to the right , then a run up the middle for 15 ! Defense needs A LOT of work !

It took midway thru the third to pull away.

They scored on their first play of the second half to make it 21-17.

After that our defense had a 4 and out, and then 5 consecutive 3 and outs.

Then we pulled our starters and they got a garbage time td at the end.

I would say our guys started out going through the motions, then woke up and finished strong.

If you've ever been seated by the team, you'll quickly understand the whys of the clowning, lack of leadership, un-seriousness etc.

To a lot of these kids, its not a job, but rather a rec league atmosphere on the sidelines.

I witnessed this first hand at the Florida game. They have no discipline, self control.

SunrayAg said:

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They scored on their first play of the second half to make it 21-17.

After that our defense had a 4 and out, and then 5 consecutive 3 and outs.

Then we pulled our starters and they got a garbage time td at the end.

I would say our guys started out going through the motions, then woke up and finished strong.

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That level of logic and simple deduction is not allowed here!

We struggled with a G5 team for 3 of 4 quarters until they just ran out of gas and depth won us the game.

That will NOT work on more than 2 of our remaining opponents.

Every year pumpers tell us to ignore all the glaring deficiencies in the first game as "fixable" and a great season still possible

They've been right 3 times in the past 30 years and none of them resulted in any hardware

We don't know anything about our playoff chances at this point other than we did what was necessary in Game 1 . Full stop.

Johnny Boyziel 2 said:

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Looked like any other first game against a lesser division 1 football team that we won handily, yet the sky is somehow falling. It's like the majority of people in the zoo have never watched a football season play out before.

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Almost all of us have watched it play out before. Poorly. Which is why it's disappointing when you see glaring issues with fundamental things. There were adjustments made but I think this teams ceiling is 9 wins

Why was it that we were caught by surprise by utsa's scheme instead of them being caught by surprise?

Schloppy Elko taking this train straight to schloppy town.

Where did Kenny Trill end up? TCU!

Maroon Dawn said:

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We struggled with a G5 team for 3 of 4 quarters until they just ran out of gas and depth won us the game.

That will NOT work on more than 2 of our remaining opponents.

Every year pumpers tell us to ignore all the glaring deficiencies in the first game as "fixable" and a great season still possible

They've been right 3 times in the past 30 years and none of them resulted in any hardware

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Pumpers don't tell others to ignore you because of your logic. They tell them because of your Bama meltdown from '21

Just remember...we kept the playbook vanilla to not put anything on film. We will unleash a storm on the Irish.

Ghost of Bisbee said:

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Maroon Dawn said:

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We struggled with a G5 team for 3 of 4 quarters until they just ran out of gas and depth won us the game.

That will NOT work on more than 2 of our remaining opponents.

Every year pumpers tell us to ignore all the glaring deficiencies in the first game as "fixable" and a great season still possible

They've been right 3 times in the past 30 years and none of them resulted in any hardware

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Pumpers don't tell others to ignore you because of your logic. They tell them because of your Bama meltdown from '21

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Oh you mean when pumpers acted like we won the national title and had permanently turned the corner as a program….only to still go 8-4 again?

Yeah that's why nobody listens to yall anymore

Because they changed their schemes in the offseason to fit all the new personnel they have.

No push on either line that is a problem. LB's who are slow and unathletic, safeties that continually take the wrong angles. I'm in agreement with the above I've lived this for over 35 years.
We haven't beat a ranked non-conference team since Pitt in 2002 and before that it was 1994 and 1988 at L$U which were terrible years and they were not any good. 3 wins in 38 years that is pure crap, yet we are pumping the sunshine it ain't happening. Believe me I wish it was but it isn't going to get better, lines, weak lb play isn't gonna get better vs better competition.

My week one observations:

LSU looks like a playoff team.
Arch is probably not a heisman front runner.
Auburn is going to be a tough game at home
South Carolina is going to be a tough game at home
Notre Dame has a scrappy QB and they may be fighting for for a playoff berth against us with their schedule
UNC is not very good
Zachariah Branch is really good
Kudos to Elko for going out and getting Concepcion and Craver in the portal.

Kozmozag said:

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Why was it that we were caught by surprise by utsa's scheme instead of them being caught by surprise?

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Jeff Traylor didn't send a YouTube telling us the scheme he'd been cooking up over the off season. I know it is rude, however this is typically what the underdog team does. A&M didn't need to catch UTSA by surprise, we just needed to do what we did working on weaknesses, getting game time, and trying to avoid injuries. Likewise we've designed our offense around our playmakers, "Reed", over the offseason. Should we have thrown down our cards against UTSA? How about this week against Utah St.? Notre Dame has requested that we do...

Our opponents double cover who? What we put on tape against UTSA is going to force future opponents to rethink their defense. They can't sell out to stop the run. With KC and Craver both on the field pass coverage and blitzes are a problem. We have not had weapons like this at least since 2012.

The defense looked outmatched and befuddled with UTSA's play calling. You can say all you want about watching film and this was different, but that is what great coaches do, change it up so they see something different that what they saw on film.

It reminded me of the State Farm commercial: We need Batman, not Bateman and the defense looked slow.

Also, which of our coaching staff decided to wear an orange shirt? Did he not know that UTSA's colors orange and blue? Does he need to be reminded that our big in-state rival's color is orange and white. Pick any color, other than a shade of orange.

MagnumLoad said:

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Our opponents double cover who? What we put on tape against UTSA is going to force future opponents to rethink their defense. They can't sell out to stop the run. With KC and Craver both on the field pass coverage and blitzes are a problem. We have not had weapons like this at least since 2012.

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Something less people are talking about is our TE group. We have the deepest TE rotation in the SEC. We were platooning those guys and they all seemed to make plays.

The good news is Notre Dame couldn't play vanilla on offense against Miami, so that tape will not lie. There is a lot our coaches and players will be able to learn from it.

I suspect Notre Dame, knowing that we are concerned about our run defense and that they ran well on us last year, will show a lot of run in the first half so that we put 7 in the box, and then they will have Carr test our secondary in 1 on 1 coverage. Being able to get to Carr with our edge rushers (and actually bring him down) will be absolutely huge in this game.

Play Kennedy.

we didn't struggle the 3rd qtr. We gave up 1 play. After that we out gained them about 150 to 16 and outscored them 14-0. Completely dominated the 2nd half of play. It wasn't a perfect effort, and there is a room for improvement everywhere. But all in all a solid game to build on. As everyone has said. The trip to South Bend will give us a better idea of where this team stands.

bdp514am said:

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we didn't struggle the 3rd qtr. We gave up 1 play. After that we out gained them about 150 to 16 and outscored them 14-0. Completely dominated the 2nd half of play. It wasn't a perfect effort, and there is a room for improvement everywhere. But all in all a solid game to build on. As everyone has said. The trip to South Bend will give us a better idea of where this team stands.

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Yes thankfully we tired them out and our depth won us the game.

But that's not a viable strategy for more than 2 more teams on our schedule

the most cool guy said:

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The good news is Notre Dame couldn't play vanilla on offense against Miami, so that tape will not lie. There is a lot our coaches and players will be able to learn from it.

I suspect Notre Dame, knowing that we are concerned about our run defense and that they ran well on us last year, will show a lot of run in the first half so that we put 7 in the box, and then they will have Carr test our secondary in 1 on 1 coverage. Being able to get to Carr with our edge rushers (and actually bring him down) will be absolutely huge in this game.

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They may not have been able to play vanilla but they sure looked rather pedestrian.
Miami's defense was awful last year. Did they improve that much?
The ND QB did not handle pressure well at all.

God, I hope we can fix our run defense by then.

Johnny Boyziel 2 said:

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Looked like any other first game against a lesser division 1 football team that we won handily, yet the sky is somehow falling. It's like the majority of people in the zoo have never watched a football season play out before.

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no it wasn't

giving up 24 points to a G5 school AT HOME is pretty embarrassing

being up only a touchdown in the third quarter is embarrassing

Maroon Dawn said:

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We struggled with a G5 team for 3 of 4 quarters until they just ran out of gas and depth won us the game.

That will NOT work on more than 2 of our remaining opponents.

Every year pumpers tell us to ignore all the glaring deficiencies in the first game as "fixable" and a great season still possible

They've been right 3 times in the past 30 years and none of them resulted in any hardware

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