Texas A&M Football: Can the Aggies finally beat Alabama in 2021?

Since the Texas A&M Football team joined the Southeastern Conference to begin the 2012-13 season, the Aggies have played Alabama each year. This also aligns with when Kevin Sumlin was hired as head coach, marking the beginning of the modern era for the Aggies.

TAMU actually beat Alabama in the first matchup between these two teams, handing the eventual National Champion Crimson Tide team their only loss of the season. It was a statement win for a program that was new to the SEC, which is known to be the toughest conference in college football.

But after this win, the Aggies would have trouble with Alabama. Sumlin wouldn’t scrape together another win and would eventually part ways with the Aggies. It’s really no fault of the Texas A&M Football program — Nick Saban’s teams have destroyed almost everybody in their path during that stretch of time.

In fact, you’d be extremely hard-pressed to find any team in the SEC with a winning percentage of over 20% against ‘Bama.

Could 2021 be the year that the Texas A&M Football team finally beats ‘Bama?

In short, yes.

The Texas A&M Football team has a long way to go before they’re ready to turn it around against Alabama, but there are a few factors that could add up to an Aggies win this season.

Firstly, the Texas A&M Football team returns a lot of talent on the defensive side of the ball. To give you an idea of how important this is, the Aggies had the best defense in the SEC last season, clamping up almost every opponent they faced. The unit finished first in total defense.

Alabama, on the other hand, will have to replace three starters on its offensive line, opening the door for Texas A&M to create mayhem in the trenches. The Crimson Tide will also have a brand new quarterback dropping back, handing the ball off to a new runningback, and passing to new wide receivers.

That’s right, the Crimson Tide will be replacing their top player at every single position offensively next season. These players’ replacements could determine how these two teams fare against one another.

That said, the Aggies will also have an overhaul at the offensive line and quarterback positions of their own offense, but this may be more of a positive for the team in College Station, Texas. Here’s why.

If you’re a Gig’Em Gazette reader, you’ve heard this logic before. The Aggies’ offense wasn’t very good, so why is everybody worried about losing production on that end of the field?

Yes, Kellen Mond was extremely reliable, but he was never an explosive player. He was good for 200-ish yards and a touchdown pass in any given game. Whoever steps in and replaces him could do a lot more damage — think Johnny Manziel. Now, taking a step back, the Aggies likely won’t find the next Johnny Manziel just quite yet, but the potential is there for a star quarterback to step up.

I’m not saying that this will guarantee a win for Texas A&M, but this team will have a higher chance than they’ve had in any of the previous few seasons.

Jimbo Fisher just needs a little bit of luck and he’ll have every chance to take down Nick Saban for the first time in his A&M career.