A physical, gritty A&M squad looks to change the narrative against LSU
Football analyst and former LSU defensive tackle Booger McFarland often called Texas A&M “soft.” Former LSU running back Darius Guice once suggested that the Aggies would quit when hit often.
Six straight victories over A&M allowed LSU to talk all the smack their players and fans wanted. Frankly, it was hard to argue.
Enter new Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher, who immediately sought to change the mentality regarding A&M’s physicality.
As A&M heads into the regular season finale against LSU on Saturday, Fisher appears to have changed A&M’s mentality.
Apparently, he’s changed LSU’s, too.
"He’s done it,” LSU coach Ed Orgeron said about Fisher on Monday. “They play physical. They come to hit you on defense. Their front four is very good.
To lead the league in rushing means you’re tough. They’re tough running the football. They have one of the leading rushers on offense. They’re tough. they’re physical. He’s changed the mindset. This is going to be a battle. This is not an old Texas A&M team that we’ve played. This is a physical, tough team.”
Successful running games and run defense typically equate to toughness and physicality.
The Aggies are ranked second in the nation in run defense.
Also, running back Trayveon Williams leads the SEC with 1,326 rushing yards.
“I’ve been very pleased,” Fisher said on Monday. “We’re still second or third — whatever it is — against the rush in the country. [We’re] doing great in the front seven. And we’re able to run on offense. Trayveon is leading the league in rushing.
“It’s going to be hard trudging this week, no doubt. But we’ve made a lot of strides in that area — our short yardages, picking up those and our O-line being able to run the ball on the goal line. We’re getting better in that regard and we’re going to have to be this week.”
Fisher really didn’t need to offer that last warning. The Aggies know they have to be better to finally end that losing streak to the Tigers.
Last season, A&M managed just 55 rushing yards and allowed LSU 250 rushing yards in a 45-21 loss.
The previous year the Aggies allowed 298 rushing yards. The year before that LSU rushed for 244 yards.
Meanwhile, A&M has been held to fewer than 100 rushing yards in four of the last five games against the Tigers.
“They’ve been very physical up front, which we have to match if we want to win this game,” A&M center Erik McCoy said. “They have won the battle in the trenches. That’s our biggest challenge and always have been because they are so physical and so dominant up front. We just have to be physical. We have to match their physicality.”
No one will debate that.
However, Fisher warned that while physicality and toughness are required to beat LSU, those qualities won’t be enough.
He stressed that A&M’s receivers and defensive backs must play with much better technique.
“I’ve loved our toughness improvement, our competition, our physicality,” Fisher said. “We have to become a more technically skilled team. We need to keep getting better with our skill; [we need to be] faster, stronger, but also understanding the precise angles, drops, routes, how our foot placement is, how our pad levels are when we run routes.
“We have to be precise in that. And this group here (LSU) is going to exploit that if you’re not. We have to be very precise in how we do things.”
That will obviously be a high priority this week as the Aggies prepare.
Williams said the Aggies were intensely focused in preparing for last week’s 41-20 victory over Alabama-Birmingham. He indicated he expects an identical approach this week.
“I like where this team is at right now,” Williams said. “Last week I definitely feel like it really showed. We’re having great weeks of practice, great weeks preparation. It’s really carrying over on the field. Last week we had an outstanding week of practice. Probably our best week of practice offensively and defensively throughout the year and it really showed.
Definitely feel like we’re going to go back out on the gridiron and have an even better week of practice, so we can go out there, execute, just have fun and get the win over LSU.”
Execution and precision will be vital. But just as vital will be proving these Aggies are indeed different than the previous teams that have lost to LSU.
“I think we’ll be a more physical team than they’ve faced before,” McCoy said. "That’s just something that we’ve emphasized every day, being able to come off the ball and hit people in the mouth.”
Maybe they can close the mouths of some critics, too.
