Texas A&M Football: How do the Aggies replace Christian Kirk’s production?

Texas A&M football lost one of the best receivers in program history in Christian Kirk, so how do they replace his production?

Texas A&M football is not known for having explosive wide receivers who consistently have to be accounted for. They had one over the past three seasons with Christian Kirk, who was a 5-star recruit from the 2015 class.

Kirk lived up to the hype. In his three seasons with the Aggies, he had at least 70 catches, 900 yards and seven touchdowns in each of them. He finished with 234 receptions, 2,856 yards and 26 touchdowns through the air. He added another six touchdowns as a punt returner and one as a kick returner.

The Scottsdale, AZ native finished second in career receptions and third in career yards for the school — the players ahead of him both played four seasons at Texas A&M. He also finished third in career touchdowns.

So where will the Aggies look to replace that elite level production? Unless one of these players blows away expectations, it will probably be a committee of players and a pretty balanced passing attack. The first candidate is one who was actually picked on Athlon Sports’ preseason All-SEC team for 2018.

Jhamon Ausbon

Ausbon is the most likely candidate to produce at a high level in the 2018 season. He came in as a very talented recruit and made some noise as a true freshman. He finished the 2017 season with 50 catches, 571 yards and three touchdowns, most of which came in the last four-five games of the season.

Ausbon was the No. 10 wide receiver and No. 73 player nationally in the 2017 class, according to 247 Sports. He will be asked to carry the load as the main split out wide receiver for Nick Starkel (or Kellen Mond) for the next couple of seasons. He is well-equipped to do so at 6-foot-2, 220 pounds.

Just watch him making all these ridiculous catches in high school.

There is a reason Ausbon cracked a pretty deep wide receiver rotation last year even as a true freshman. He’s super-talented and will make whoever the quarterback’s life very easy.