When it was announced last week that Haynes King had won the Texas A&M Football starting quarterback job, there were plenty of assumptions made. The first, and perhaps the easiest to assume, was that King had won the job long ago. Not even earlier this offseason — as long ago as last year.
This was supported by the fact that King took over as Kellen Mond’s backup last season, a sign that Fisher wanted to go with a younger, higher-rated quarterback.
This was recently disproven, however, in Fisher’s weekly press conference on Monday. Here’s what he said about King winning the starting job.
"“This was not a deal where ‘all right, one’s the good one. They kept matching each other. He (King) just played a little bit better and that’s where we went with it. We’re very comfortable with both guys and what we’re doing.”"
Texas A&M Football head coach Jimbo Fisher noted Haynes King’s consistency over Zach Calzada
Remember how I talked about a list of assumptions made about the Haynes King vs. Zach Calzada quarterback battle? The first was the fact that King had already earned the starting job, while the second was in regards to how he won it.
In fact, the general assumption was that King and Calzada were comparable passers. If anything, it seemed like Calzada may have been a slightly better pure quarterback, while King brought forth more talent running the football. As a result, most people assumed that the aforementioned reasoning is why King won the job.
Fisher also disproved that, however, stating one primary reason for why King won it. Here’s what he said.
"“Consistency. . . At the end of the day, everybody says it was his athleticism. No, it wasn’t — it was his pocket presence and his ability to throw the football accurately and make decisions.”"
This should come as a slight surprise to Aggie fans. We haven’t seen much of either quarterback in a Texas A&M football uniform, but from what we have seen, Calzada did look more consistent. Take the spring game as an example, where the more experienced quarterback seemed to have an easier time against his own defense.
In the game, Calzada threw for 250 yards, completing 19-of-41 passes through the air. It wasn’t the best performance of all time, but with a single touchdown and single interception, he did look more consistent.
King, on the other hand, had a similar stat line, completing 16-of-31 passes with the same touchdown-to-interception ratio. Those who watched the game knew that King didn’t look as consistent — at least not in the context of the Maroon and White game.
At the end of the day, we only knew so much about this team. With Fisher’s clarification, Aggie fans should feel great about King under center in the upcoming season.