The Texas A&M football team’s College Football Playoff hopes are done

At 3-2, it’s hard to call this a disaster season for the Texas A&M football team. That said, the Aggies were supposed to be one of the best teams in the country, as was evident by their preseason 6th ranking in the AP Poll.

They’ve been unable to live up to the hype, as they recently took their second loss of the season at the hands of the Mississippi State Bulldogs. They lost the game 26-22 at home against a middling SEC team, which sets them a long way away from their preseason goals.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t look like it’ll be their year. You’d be lying if you thought that this team still had a chance at the College Football Playoff, even before their loss against Mississippi State. Still, this game made it official.

The Aggies now have two losses on the year and are staring down the barrel of Nick Saban’s Alabama football team. Things aren’t looking good for Jimbo Fisher and company.

How can the Texas A&M football team still find meaning in their season after a 3-2 start?

It’s hard to get over the mental block of believing that this could be the year. The year to win a conference championship, make a College Football Playoff appearance, or even win a national championship. It’s not.

Granted, if the Aggies somehow shocked the world and knocked off Alabama before seeing the return of their starting quarterback in Haynes King, they’d be in the conversation as a candidate to be the first two-loss playoff team. But at this point, what am I even talking about? This team is a long way from being able to beat Alabama, a story that was on full display against an average SEC team on Saturday.

The Bulldogs didn’t just beat Texas A&M — they beat the Aggies where they weren’t supposed to. On the night, Bulldog quarterback Will Rogers passed for over 400 yards and completed three touchdown passes against a TAMU secondary that was supposed to be one of the best in the country. On the ground, they didn’t do much, but why would they?

Mississippi State beat them at their own game and did it on their home field. There aren’t many positive takeaways from this one.

The optimistic outlook here is that Texas A&M can now play out a pressure-free season. They don’t have the weight of trying to maintain playoff hopes meaning their young players can develop for a year without any major pressure on them to win immediately. This could go a long way to help starter Haynes King’s development when he returns.

It’ll be a long season, but at least we can all sit back and relax now.