Texas A&M football: 5 reasons Aggies will be better than Texas in 2018
By Jeff Shull
Returning starters
Texas A&M returns 16 starters officially from their 2017 squad, while Texas returns fewer than that. I couldn’t find the exact number for the Longhorns, but this SB Nation article that lists “returning production” by combining several statistical metrics from returning players suggest Texas A&M has a slight advantage.
The Aggies are returning 72 percent of their production from 2017 and the Longhorns returning just 68 percent. They rank 35th and 55th, respectively, in this metric.
More over, the players A&M lost are not as significant as the ones Texas lost. Christian Kirk and Armani Watts hurt, no doubt about it, but the other four players are very much replaceable. As you saw in the last slide, Texas lost four NFL draft picks. They also had six other players picked up as free agents after the draft. A&M had two such players.
Both teams finished 7-6 last season, but Texas has a lot more roster turnover to figure out.