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Texas A&M Football

Around CFB: Real season begins after bye week for No. 17 Aggies

October 16, 2018
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What Jimbo Fisher says goes and it doesn’t matter if the calendar or football schedule disagrees.

Fisher says Texas A&M’s football season really begins when the No. 17 Aggies (5-2, 3-1 in the Southeastern Conference) travel after a bye week to face No. 22 Mississippi State on Oct. 27.

But first, he said the Aggies will spend a week trying to bolster areas in which they’ve been deficient and get healthy. He indicated in a Tuesday press conference that senior guard Keaton Sutherland, who sat out last week’s 26-23 victory over South Carolina, will be back in action for the Mississippi State game.

However, he did not reveal whether cornerback Clifford Chattman or defensive end Michael Clemons, sidelined all season, could make their ’18 debuts.

“This is a week for us to get better because the season just now begins in my opinion,” Fisher said. “You put yourself in a position to get things going. Now, you’ve got to finish off the year.”

The Aggies, who’ve won three straight, have faltered down the stretch in recent years. But they would play in a New Year’s Day bowl game if they could close out the season with wins over Mississippi State, Auburn, Ole Miss, UAB and LSU.

“We’re going to have to very tough road trips right off the bat,” Fisher said about the remaining schedule. “Then, we’ve got three games at home. They’re all very good opponents, so we have to focus on ourselves right now.”

That would seem to translate to making improvement in the secondary, shore up pass protection, became more efficient in the Red Zone and for quarterback Kellen Mond to continue making progress.

Jeff Blake/USA Today Sports
Kellen Mond has made progress but must continue to do so in order for the Aggies to win out.

“We’ve got a lot of room for improvement, but that’s the encouraging thing,” Fisher said. “We’re getting better. We’re playing tougher. We’re competing well. We’re understanding things. There’s still a lot of areas where we can get better.”

A&M is ranked 93rd nationally in pass defense and allowed 223 passing yards and three touchdowns to South Carolina.


“The secondary in the (South Carolina) game I thought played OK, but we had some breakdowns,” Fisher said. “They had some passes they could have completed and we had three or four interference penalties and two targetings, which is ridiculous.”

Fisher said he’s very pleased with Mond, who passed for 353 yards against South Carolina. Fisher wants Mond to identify open receivers a little quicker and run more.

“Get (the football) out of your hand a split second quicker,” Fisher said. “The quicker you get the ball to a player he can get an extra half step on a guy. That could be the difference in breaking a tackle or not getting a tackle. There’s always recognition things, accuracy things, technique things.

“And continuing on his running game. I think some open field runs, I think, he’ll stutter sometimes. I think he’s got to make a one-step cut. He’s fast now. I think there are some runs that he can come out of there on when they’re there.”

He’s going to be looking for that improvement when the Aggies restarted. Or, according to Fisher, when they get started.

“The season just started. We’ve done some decent things. There's some things we’ve got to get better on,” he said. "Now you’ve got to finish the season. You’ve got to play these tough games at the end of the year when teams are banged and bruised. This is where you find out a lot about your team and the character of your team.”
 

Heisman watch

1. Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama, QB: An aggravated knee injury forced Tagovailoa out early in the third quarter of the Tide’s 39-10 victory over Missouri. Before his exit, he’d passed for 265 yards and three touchdowns. Tagovailoa now 1,760 yards and 21 touchdowns. He still hasn’t thrown an interception and still hasn’t played in the fourth quarter.

2. Dwayne Haskins, Ohio State, QB: For the second consecutive game Haskins exceeded 400 passing yards. He threw for 412 yards and three touchdowns in a 30-14 victory over Minnesota. He’s now fourth in the nation in passing with 2,331 yards and has thrown for 28 touchdowns.

3. Travis Etienne, Clemson, RB: Since getting limited to 44 rushing yards against Texas A&M, Etienne has been on a tear. He’s rushed for at least 122 yards in each of the last four games and three times exceeded 160. Etienne has accumulated 761 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns. He ranks fifth in the nation in rushing with an average of 126.8 per game.

4. Kyler Murray, Oklahoma, QB: The Sooners were idle this week. Murray has passed for 1,764 yards and rushed for 377 to rank fourth in the nation in total offense with 2,141 yards. He’s thrown 21 touchdown passes and has rushed for five TDs.

5. McKenzie Milton, UCF, QB: He passed for 296 yards and a touchdown and ran for the game-winning touchdown in a 31-30 come-from-behind victory over Memphis. Milton has passed for 1,797 yards and rushed of 248 to rank seventh in the nation in total offense. He’s posted 16 passing touchdowns and six rushing for the unbeaten Knights.

Predicted playoff participants

1. Alabama: A Nov. 3 clash with LSU is the only remaining game in which the Tide figures to be seriously challenged. If that.
2. Ohio State: The Buckeyes keep winning, but not in dominant style.
3. Clemson: The combination of improving Travis Etienne and emerging Trevor Lawrence makes the Tigers tough to stop. Ask Wake Forest. 
4. Notre Dame: The Irish sleepwalked through a 19-14 win over Pitt last week. If they stay wide awake they’re unlikely to lose.

This week’s best games

No. 6 Michigan at No. 24 Michigan State: A nasty rivalry anyway, but both teams still have very real aspirations of winning the Big Ten East Division. Both are also strong against the run.
No. 16 NC State at No. 3 Clemson: A de facto ACC Atlantic Division championship game. It’s also the only matchup of unbeaten teams this week.
No. 22 Mississippi State at No. 5 LSU: Mississippi State often gives LSU problems. But the Bulldogs’ bounce-back win over Auburn doesn’t look so bouncy now.
No. 12 Oregon at No. 25 Washington State: Winner remains in the thick of the Pac-12 North race.
North Texas at UAB: Future Texas A&M opponent, UAB can all but wrap up the C-USA West Division with a win. But Arkansas knows the Mean Green can’t be taken lightly.

Idle thoughts

  • Auburn fans might start giving Gene Chizik some credit for that 2010 national championship after all.
  • Oklahoma (5-1) went into overtime with Army, has no wins over a ranked opponent and lost to the team that lost to Maryland. Meanwhile, Texas A&M (5-2) lost to unbeaten No. 3 Clemson and No. 1 Alabama and defeated No. 14 Kentucky in overtime. Yet, A&M is ranked 17th. Strange.
  • Looks like Michigan and coach Jim Harbaugh detractors overreacted to the Wolverines’ season-opening loss to Notre Dame. Michigan has won six straight and is ranked No. 6. By the way, Notre Dame is one of a handful of unbeaten teams.
  • Speaking of the Big Ten. There’s a school of thought that Ohio State is easily the conference’s most powerful team and is a sure bet for the playoff. But Ohio State also struggled to beat (3-3) TCU, escaped with a one-point win over Penn State and needed big fourth quarters to stave off mediocre Indiana and Minnesota Chinks in the armor?
  • How bad does (3-4) Arizona need to beat (1-5) UCLA? Well, consider the Wildcats’ next three opponents — Oregon, Colorado and Washington State — are all 5-1. A loss to UCLA would mean the Wildcats must win two of those three just to be bowl eligible. Of course, that’s assuming they close with a win over arch-rival Arizona State (3-3).
Discussion from...

Around CFB: Real season begins after bye week for No. 17 Aggies

5,901 Views | 3 Replies | Last: 5 yr ago by EastSideAg2002
EastSideAg2002
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Periods are your friend.
4
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AG
That's not what she said...
EastSideAg2002
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4 said:

That's not what she said...
True, but the Golden Gophers and Chinese would agree.
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