Texas A&M football: Takeaways from first few spring practices

There have been a few Texas A&M football spring practices in the books and a couple of surprising developments when it comes to the first string lineups.

Jimbo Fisher and his Texas A&M football squad got the first practices leading up to the Spring Game going on March 20, and already we’ve gotten some insights into the burning questions heading into the 2019 season.

Let’s not waste anymore time and just dive right into those answers.

Tank Jenkins at right guard, Ryan McCollum at Center

One of the biggest questions heading into the 2019 season would be how the Aggies replaced starting offensive linemen Erik McCoy and Keaton Sutherland. McCoy was a rock and anchored the offensive line at center for three years straight. McCollum had experience as McCoy’s backup last season and entered the lineup a couple of times when McCoy got hurt.

Tank Jenkins is a monster and many speculated he would get his shot this season. He’s been lining up with the first team every practice at right guard. There was some shuffling on the line yesterday with guys missing practice, but Jenkins remained in the starting right guard spot. When everyone is healthy, it appears the missing piece will be Jenkins adding to the four guys who have starting experience.

Braden White in a starting linebacker spot

We covered this in length here, but Anthony Hines and Ikenna Okeke, the two linebackers when healthy would be most likely to line up next to Buddy Johnson, are still recovering from injury. This has opened the door for Braden White to prove his worth. He’s lined up with the first team defense every practice so far.

Charles Oliver, Debione Renfro are the starting cornerbacks

Plenty of players got experience for the Aggies at cornerback the last couple seasons, but that didn’t necessarily mean it was good experience. Texas A&M finished near the bottom of the NCAA in nearly every passing statistic. We’ve gone over it ad nauseam.

Oliver and Renfro were definitely going to be in the mix no matter what, but it’s interesting to see Oliver in the starting lineup after struggling in 2018.

Myles Jones played well towards the end of last season but had wrist surgery so he hasn’t been participating in the team drills yet. As expected, Roney Elam has slid into the rover position vacated by Deshawn Capers-Smith. Clifford Chattman has been with the second unit but moved into backing up Elam at the nickel spot and appears to be the first option in Dime packages.

There are other things to go over, but we’ll wait to see how things play out in the next few days. Keep checking the Gig ‘Em Gazette for notes on spring practices.

Jeff Shull is the Site Expert for the Gig Em Gazette on FanSided. Follow him on Twitter, and be sure to follow the Gig Em Gazette on Facebook and Twitter.