Texas A&M Football: King and Spiller ranked as top ten RB-QB duo

As the 2021-22 season approaches, the Texas A&M Football team is still scrambling to find their starting quarterback. Jimbo Fisher has two primary choices: Haynes King and Zach Calzada. While Calzada is a more proven passer, King brings another dimension to the field with his legs, where he has already proven to be an extremely effective dual-threat player.

Even though this is widely considered a quarterback battle with no clear victor, it seems inevitable that we’ll be watching Haynes King step out onto the field in game one against Kent State. It’ll be a great learning experience, as the Golden Flashes had a pretty terrible defense last season.

Texas A&M Football’s new starter at quarterback will benefit from limitless talent surrounding him

For the sake of this article, we’ll be assuming that King is going to be A&M’s starter — you’ll see why in a second. King will be marching out onto the field with an offensive line that only returns a single player in offensive tackle Kenyon Green.

He will, however, be surrounded with talent. Even on an offensive line that is bringing in four new starters, the returning starter is Kenyon Green, who is widely considered a first-round NFL Draft prospect and one of the best offensive linemen in the country. At the tight end spot, you’ll find another player with 2022 NFL Draft first-round potential in Jalen Wydermyer.

Most importantly, however, will be King’s counterpart in the backfield in Isaiah Spiller, who is arguably the SEC’s best returning rusher. Spiller already earned preseason first-team All-SEC honors, so he is set to hold the weight of the offense on his back. A famous Twitter user in Big Game Boomer agrees as he ranked the Aggies’ QB-RB duo in the top ten in the country.

I’ll be the first to admit that Big Game Boomer tends to release some questionable lists. Still, this is good recognition for the Aggies’ duo, which is currently led by Isaiah Spiller. BGB must believe that King can step up and work as a strong counterpart.

Even if King is a bust, the confidence in Isaiah Spiller to carry this duo on his back is a testament to how much he has done for Texas A&M in his first two seasons. So far, Spiller is just short of the 2,000-yard mark with 1,982 career rushing yards. He has tacked on 19 touchdowns and 396 receiving yards.

Spiller won’t “wow” you with his speed or athleticism. Instead, he’s an extremely slippery runner, well described by YardBarker in their scouting report on him.

"“Spiller runs like he’s angry at the ground and punishes defenders with no regard for their life. Seriously, it’s tough to find a running back who will run as physical as Spiller does. At 6’1″ and 225 pounds, Spiller gives off an old-school running back vibe. He might not be the fastest, but he’s going to be tough to tackle.”"

Matthew Durgin continues to explain how Spiller’s strengths rely on his power and compares him to a character from X-Men. Although, if I’m being honest, he lost me on that part. Still, Spiller’s impact is already being felt and the season hasn’t even begun.

Let’s hope Spiller lives up to the hype, as Jimbo Fisher and the Texas A&M football team needs him to step up and guide the team’s offense.