Texas A&M Football
“If Georgia beats Alabama and they have a second conference loss in the first weekend of
October, that changes the dynamics of the West race. Then you would have Alabama sitting there with two conference losses, still having to play Arkansas and A&M in consecutive weeks. This is must win territory right now for Alabama and I think they have a pretty good shot. Grayson Lambert is not the most mobile guy and in the Saban era, when they have lost, it’s been to a mobile quarterback. I think they will slow down Nick Chubb and Sony Michel because it is hard to move those interior lineman. They don’t want to go anywhere and I think they are only giving up two yards a carry right now.”
“I think Ole Miss got its let down game out of its system against Vandy and comes in to blow Florida out. Florida has some movement on the offensive line and they held up pretty well, considering the circumstances against Tennessee. But this is a different animal they are about to see.”
“The champion of the SEC is going to likely have a loss and maybe even two losses. My thing on A&M is that if they win two of the next three, they are in the mix for the West. That’s obviously a huge ask with games against Mississippi State, Alabama and then at Ole Miss. But, it’s not impossible. If they can do it, just look at the rest of their way.”
“I’m surprised how terrible Auburn is, but outside of that nothing is surprising. With A&M, I just don’t know anything them and that has to do with Arizona State. When they beat them, you thought, ‘Okay, they beat somebody good.’ But now it looks like they really weren't that good. The Arkansas game looked like a low scoring version of the Arkansas game last year. They gave up 6.8 yards a play, which looked like last year. Got the fumble late and a pick. If they are going to give up those types of numbers, they are going to have to turn teams over. That’s where the addition of John Chavis comes in. If they can create pressure on the quarterback, even if they cannot stone teams like he did at LSU, if they turn you over, it will allow them to give up a little more. Last week, what saved them was Myles Garrett getting a strip.”
“Leonard Fournette is amazing. He really is. I wrote something at Media Days, because I was thinking that the last game he played before that was the bowl game against Notre Dame when he took a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. You saw him doing some things that he would wind up doing more of this season and you said, ‘This guy has the best skill set of any tailback in the country. Is he ever going to get a chance to show it?’ They needed to get more out of the quarterback and the offensive line. They’ve gotten more out of the line. They were just mauling people against Auburn. La’ell Collins was a great run blocker, so the fact that they are better without him is crazy. Quarterback is to be determined. They haven’t asked much of Brandon Harris, but he has had a few throws where you think, ‘This guy could be really good.’ He just hasn't gotten a chance to show it. I imagine that will come as the games get tougher. Against A&M and Ole Miss, they are going to have to throw it a little more. If he can do it, they will be great. If he can’t, that will be much tougher for Fournette, especially against Alabama and Ole Miss. They are so stout in the middle, that it will be hard to break through and do what he has done against these other teams.”
“The Notre Dame and Clemson game is going to be weird. I don’t know if you all have seen the weather forecast, but that hurricane isn't supposed to hit there, but it will have 18 inches of rain in the bands coming off it this weekend. If that is the case, you can throw out everything else and it will come down to just holding onto the ball. This is kind of an ‘on steroids’ version of the one we had in Florida in 2004. This is a category four and that was a one, but they are so slow moving and just dump rain.”
SI's Andy Staples dissects the SEC through one month of play
Key quotes from Andy Staples interview
“This is a big and interesting weekend in the SEC. Games that we didn't think would have any meaning at all, like Ole Miss/Florida are going to be pretty big. The one in College station, Mississippi State is trying to avoid its second conference loss and A&M is trying to figure out where they are and what they are. I don’t think we know much about A&M at this point.”“If Georgia beats Alabama and they have a second conference loss in the first weekend of
October, that changes the dynamics of the West race. Then you would have Alabama sitting there with two conference losses, still having to play Arkansas and A&M in consecutive weeks. This is must win territory right now for Alabama and I think they have a pretty good shot. Grayson Lambert is not the most mobile guy and in the Saban era, when they have lost, it’s been to a mobile quarterback. I think they will slow down Nick Chubb and Sony Michel because it is hard to move those interior lineman. They don’t want to go anywhere and I think they are only giving up two yards a carry right now.”
“I think Ole Miss got its let down game out of its system against Vandy and comes in to blow Florida out. Florida has some movement on the offensive line and they held up pretty well, considering the circumstances against Tennessee. But this is a different animal they are about to see.”
“The champion of the SEC is going to likely have a loss and maybe even two losses. My thing on A&M is that if they win two of the next three, they are in the mix for the West. That’s obviously a huge ask with games against Mississippi State, Alabama and then at Ole Miss. But, it’s not impossible. If they can do it, just look at the rest of their way.”
“I’m surprised how terrible Auburn is, but outside of that nothing is surprising. With A&M, I just don’t know anything them and that has to do with Arizona State. When they beat them, you thought, ‘Okay, they beat somebody good.’ But now it looks like they really weren't that good. The Arkansas game looked like a low scoring version of the Arkansas game last year. They gave up 6.8 yards a play, which looked like last year. Got the fumble late and a pick. If they are going to give up those types of numbers, they are going to have to turn teams over. That’s where the addition of John Chavis comes in. If they can create pressure on the quarterback, even if they cannot stone teams like he did at LSU, if they turn you over, it will allow them to give up a little more. Last week, what saved them was Myles Garrett getting a strip.”
“Leonard Fournette is amazing. He really is. I wrote something at Media Days, because I was thinking that the last game he played before that was the bowl game against Notre Dame when he took a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. You saw him doing some things that he would wind up doing more of this season and you said, ‘This guy has the best skill set of any tailback in the country. Is he ever going to get a chance to show it?’ They needed to get more out of the quarterback and the offensive line. They’ve gotten more out of the line. They were just mauling people against Auburn. La’ell Collins was a great run blocker, so the fact that they are better without him is crazy. Quarterback is to be determined. They haven’t asked much of Brandon Harris, but he has had a few throws where you think, ‘This guy could be really good.’ He just hasn't gotten a chance to show it. I imagine that will come as the games get tougher. Against A&M and Ole Miss, they are going to have to throw it a little more. If he can do it, they will be great. If he can’t, that will be much tougher for Fournette, especially against Alabama and Ole Miss. They are so stout in the middle, that it will be hard to break through and do what he has done against these other teams.”
“The Notre Dame and Clemson game is going to be weird. I don’t know if you all have seen the weather forecast, but that hurricane isn't supposed to hit there, but it will have 18 inches of rain in the bands coming off it this weekend. If that is the case, you can throw out everything else and it will come down to just holding onto the ball. This is kind of an ‘on steroids’ version of the one we had in Florida in 2004. This is a category four and that was a one, but they are so slow moving and just dump rain.”
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