Worst Case Scenario No. 2
Injuries strike again
2012 was the greatest Texas A&M football season in the last two decades, if not longer. Part of what made that magical run possible was the remarkable health of both sides of the football. That enabled the Aggies to play at the top of their game every single week, eventually contributing to their shocking upset of No. 1 Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
Luck doesn’t off strike twice, and no team in college football can plan for injuries. The best each coach can do is recruit a deep roster that has plenty of players that can step up in the event that one of his starters goes down. However, there are some players on every team that are irreplaceable. Even the mighty Alabama Crimson Tide aren’t deep enough to maintain their dominance throughout the entire length of the season. They;re just better built to sustain it that everyone else.
For the rest of the teams in the country that don’t have the depth of Alabama, one big injury can completely obliterate a season. You saw that with the Aggies in 2016 when Trevor Knight went down. Up to that point the Aggies were in the running for the College Football Playoff and had only lost one game, on the road against the Crimson Tide.
The quarterback situation is murkier this year, but there are still several star players that must be on the field all year for the Aggies season to have much hope. Christian Kirk and Armani Watts are two that immediately come to mind, but losing Jhamon Ausbon, Trayveon Williams or Anthony Hines would be devastating too. It’s frowned upon to blame injuries for a lost season, but it’s a reality of this game.