Ole Misery: A&M seeking elusive win over Rebels with Starkel at controls

Kevin Sumlin answered a question with a question.

Asked about Texas A&M’s difficulty in beating Ole Miss in football, Sumlin retorted: “Can’t we just win?”

As A&M heads to Oxford this Saturday, legions of Aggies surely wonder that, too. Winning hasn’t come easily against Ole Miss. Sometimes, it hasn’t come at all.

Struggling to beat Alabama or LSU is understandable, perhaps even expected. But A&M’s difficulties with Ole Miss are somewhat mind-boggling.

Indeed, when playing the pesky Rebels, A&M’s schedule should just list the opponent as Ole Misery or Ole Missed Opportunities.

Despite often having a better team, A&M is 2-3 against the Rebels. The two victories were last-minute escapes. The losses have been monumental disasters.

Powerful A&M teams led by quarterback Johnny Manziel needed minor miracles to escape Oxford with last-minute victories in 2012 and ’13. The last three seasons the Aggies were dealt painful losses.

Lindsay Caudle, TexAgs

Texas A&M has struggled mightily against Ole Miss in recent seasons and fell to the Rebels inexplicably last season after jumping out to a 15-point lead.

It’s nothing new for a team to have inexplicable trouble against a certain opponent. Arkansas could testify to that. Indeed, back in its Big 12 days A&M often had issues with Colorado and Missouri.

But why Ole Miss?

“I don't know why we've struggled with Ole Miss,” Sumlin said. “More and more, it's about matchups.

"Some people and styles of play can create issues for different people. I don't know why that is. I treat every game as mutually exclusive.”

Matchups could be an explanation. The Rebels certainly have had excellent receivers like Donte Moncrief, Laquon Treadwell and Evan Engram. Some years, Ole Miss has had good defenses, too.

At least to some degree that might explain a 35-20 loss in 2014, which wasn’t nearly that close. Ole Miss led 35-7 before A&M managed a couple of meaningless fourth quarter touchdowns. Maybe it also explains the 23-3 disaster in 2015 when A&M quarterback Kyle Allen had a sprained shoulder and still attempted 34 passes.

But that doesn’t explain last year’s debacle.

The Aggies were ranked eighth, at Kyle Field, needed a win to all but clinch a berth in the Sugar Bowl and had a 15-point halftime lead. Ole Miss was last in the SEC West, and freshman quarterback Shea Patterson was making his first collegiate appearance. Yet, the Rebels came-from-behind for a 29-28 win.

This year’s Rebels certainly don’t have a strong defense. Ole Miss is last in the SEC in total defense and next to last in scoring defense.

However, they still can pose matchup problems. Quarterback Jordan Ta’amu has started the last three games and has passed for more than 350 yards in each of them. Big receivers A.J. Brown, DaMarcus Lodge and D.K. Metcalf all average more than 15 yards a catch. Further, this Ole Miss team — unlike its previous editions — is running efficiently. Senior running back Jordan Wilkins has rushed for 754 yards.

A&M may have to win a shootout to escape Oxford with another win. Sumlin knows that. He seems to have gained confidence from last week’s 55-14 victory over New Mexico in which Nick Starkel passed for 416 yards and four touchdowns in just the first half.

“We have to go there and play well,” Sumlin said. “We have to build off of last week. We accomplished what we wanted to do offensively last week. We had to throw and catch and make plays. We were able to do what we wanted in the first half, which leads to confidence. We want to build on that this week.”

If not, the Aggies could be in for more Ole Misery.