The Texas A&M football team did the impossible — they knocked off a top-ranked ‘Bama team during a season that originally looked like a lost cause. On his birthday, Jimbo Fisher put his name down in history as the first former assistant coach to beat Nick Saban.
This has huge implications down the road for a Texas A&M football program that is hoping to take over the SEC in the coming years.
That said, the performance took strong games out of a few Aggie football players. Today, I’m going over three guys who stepped up for Jimbo Fisher in Texas A&M’s upset over No. 1 Alabama on Saturday.
Texas A&M Football Player No. 1: QB Zach Calzada
I use this phrase a lot, but who could have seen this coming? Zach Calzada was arguably the most hated man in College Station after the Aggies took their second straight loss at the hands of Mississippi State over a week ago.
I don’t want to say “rightfully so,” but Calzada did nothing to make anyone think otherwise. He had been inaccurate, unwilling to throw the football, and simply looked like the lights were too bright for him as he filled in for Haynes King.
On Saturday, he changed that forever.
Heck, after a 285-yard, three-touchdown performance against the Alabama Crimson Tide, the Cuban Missile (Zach Calzada) will be a campus legend forever. He became one of just six SEC quarterbacks that have taken down Nick Saban’s Alabama and did it in style.
Calzada could never do another good thing for Texas A&M and it wouldn’t matter. He cemented himself as an Aggie legend with this win.
Texas A&M Football Player No. 2: DE Tyree Johnson
One of the more under-the-radar performances from Saturday came from defensive end Tyree Johnson, who had been somewhat of an afterthought on a dominant Texas A&M defensive line throughout the year.
On Saturday, he put his name on the map.
Johnson was applying pressure to the quarterback all night long, joining an elite defensive line in disrupting the backfield. His game was highlighted by two sacks on Heisman candidate Bryce Young, both of which resulted in a huge momentum shift for Texas A&M.
These sacks came within four plays of each other in the second quarter and had Kyle Field energized leading into halftime. Tyree Johnson would earn SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week honors for his performance.
I should also give credit to Micheal Clemons, another Aggie defensive end who stuffed the stat sheet. On the night, Clemons had three QB hurries, one pass deflection, one sack, and three total tackles. This defensive line showed out, especially in the first half.
If these two defensive ends can continue to produce, it’ll have a ripple effect that makes the Aggies’ pass defense as a whole return to its early-season form.
Texas A&M Football Player No. 3: WR Ainias Smith
Heading into the Aggies’ Week 6 matchup against Alabama, Ainias Smith was leading the team in receiving yards. That said, none of the pass-catchers on this team had been having a particularly strong year, with Smith leading the charge at just 200 yards and a pair of touchdowns through five games.
That said, Smith separated himself as the best receiver on the team against Alabama, catching two touchdown passes and accumulating 85 total yards on the night. This included a pair of crucial catches in A&M’s game-tying drive in the fourth quarter.
The second of these catches was a 25-yard touchdown catch where Smith burned his receiver and ended up wide open heading toward the endzone. Calzada dropped the pass right where it needed to be, which tied the game with just three minutes remaining.
The defense got another stop, followed by an efficient drive that put Texas A&M into field goal range. This drive included a big 12-yard first-down catch from Smith. The rest is history.
For a unit that had struggled to open up options for Calzada, Smith gave Aggie fans hope for the future. If ‘Bama’s corners can’t keep up with him, who can?