Some believe Texas A&M football is ready to take another step forward in 2019, but the schedule may hinder that. Colin Cowherd took it a step further.
Texas A&M football is coming up to a fork in the road. On the one path is glory, national championship contention, elite program status. The other path is a familiar one of mediocrity suffered for most of the program’s history.
It’s not a shot at the program. I bleed maroon as much as the rest of you, but sometimes you have to give an honest opinion of the program’s history. No national championships since 1939. No conference championships since 1998. It is what it is.
However, I do buy into the Jimbo Fisher effect. It’s obvious. He is in the midst of turning this program into a perennial contender. However, things can go awry quickly, and a poor season could have a negative effect on future recruiting. The former path is more likely, but the latter path is looming.
It could be a rough year if Colin Cowherd’s prediction comes true. The FS1 and national radio host went through college football betting win totals for the 2019 season and did not have nice things to say about the Aggies despite 2018 being a better year than most expected.
"“They’re going to win fewer than 7.5 games — the SEC is just too good right now. You can go seven to eight deep in the SEC, unlike other conferences where there’s two or three top teams and its weak in the middle. Jimbo Fisher can recruit, that’s his strength, I don’t think he’s a great schematic coach. Problem is, most of his recruits aren’t playing yet. This is only his second year and he’s had two recruiting classes.”“The schedule is brutal — at Clemson, Auburn, Alabama, at Ole Miss, at Georgia, at LSU. I’ve got five, six losses right there. That would put them at 7-5 or 6-6. They also only have one starter on offense that’s a senior. In the SEC, are you kidding me? They’ll be good eventually with Jimbo, I think they’re a .500 team this year. They’ve also been worse than expected the last three years at home in the SEC.”"
I won’t argue with the point the schedule is tough. It is. But Auburn? at Ole Miss? A&M should be favored in both of those games and is clearly more talented than Ole Miss. Auburn is starting a new quarterback this season and, despite the fact that last season was the first in seven tries since joining the SEC in which the home team won, the game being at Kyle Field is a plus for the Aggies.
The point about seniors makes me think Cowherd did zero research and just looked at some projected depth chart. A&M returns its starting quarterback, three of five offensive lineman (with a fourth having started a few games), every wide receiver who caught a pass, and it’s primary backup running back who was a 4-star recruit in 2018.
The good news is Cowherd is often wrong about stuff like this. Don’t sweat it, Ags.