Texas A&M Football: 10 best Aggie players entering the 2018 season
By Jeff Shull
Nick Starkel
Nick Starkel, my projected winner of the quarterback competition, despite Jimbo Fisher reportedly being nowhere near ready to name a starter, will not only be one of the best players on the team this season, but also the most important. Obviously, he’s the quarterback.
While just being a quarterback immediately makes you the most important player on most teams, the fact that Starkel fits the mold of previous successful Fisher quarterbacks makes him stand out more than the other quarterbacks on the roster. Fisher has a history of getting everything and then some out of his quarterbacks.
He turned Christian Ponder, who was a 3-star recruit and ranked 420th in his recruiting class, into a first-round NFL Draft pick. He coached a Heisman Trophy winner in Jameis Winston. He was part of the staff at LSU that won national titles with Matt Mauck and Matt Flynn (though he left LSU after 2006, he was still Flynn’s quarterbacks coach for a couple years).
Starkel brings a lot to the table as a passer, though he still has some work to do. He flashed his brilliance at the end of last season and in the spring game. When you approach Kenny Hill‘s record for passing yards in a game, you know you’re doing something right. There won’t be a player more important to A&M’s record than the quarterback, and it should be Starkel.