The Texas A&M football team has not lived up to its preseason hype thus far in 2021. The Aggies were ranked 6th in the preseason AP Poll before plummeting into the teens after a loss to Arkansas. A second consecutive loss against Mississippi State would send them out of the rankings entirely.
They did bounce back with a win against Alabama, but with two losses already on the docket, it’s been a relatively disappointing season.
Even so, there are a handful of players who have managed to live up to their preseason hype. Today, I’m going to discuss who those guys are, starting with a familiar face.
Honorable Mention: Texas A&M WR Ainias Smith has found unexpected success
I’m listing Ainias Smith as an honorable mention because he was not hyped up much as a wide receiver. The Aggie wideout was thought to be the SEC’s best returning return man, pun intended.
Instead, we’ve seen Devon Achane thrive as a return man, notably taking back a kickoff to help the Aggies maintain their lead against Alabama.
Jimbo Fisher’s offensive swiss-army knife in Smith shifted from runningback to wide receiver on a more full-time basis this season and it has paid off in a huge way. The shifty Aggie receiver is the team’s leading pass-catcher, pulling in 29 receptions for 319 receiving yards and six touchdowns.
Both of those figures lead the team and have him on track to put up the best numbers of his entire career. Smith hasn’t lived up to the hype in his special teams duties, but he has exceeded the hype as a receiver.
The Texas A&M football team’s star offensive lineman Kenyon Green has been all over the field this year
Nobody is calling home to tell their mother about the Texas A&M football team’s offensive line in 2021. In that sense, it’s been a forgettable year from this unit, which was among the best in college football a season ago.
The Aggies have struggled to protect Zach Calzada due to a flurry of replacements and injuries. Heck, early in the year, A&M was getting overpowered by a three-man rush consistently, which led to offensive struggles.
That said, there has been one shining star on an otherwise disappointing O-line unit. That star goes by the name of Kenyon Green.
Green was already a highly-regarded offensively lineman based on his performances a season ago. Here are some of the honors that he was recognized with for the 2020 football season.
- 2020 FWAA All-America First Team, 2020 Sporting News All-America First Team, 2020 AP All-America Second Team, 2020 AFCA All-America Second Team, 2020 Walter Camp All-America Second Team, 2020 All-SEC Second Team, 2019 SEC All-Freshman Team
If that looks like a hardly-legible mess of awards — it’s by design. That gigantic mess of first-team and second-team honors is a testament to how good Green has played thus far in his career. After these postseason honors, he earned plenty of preseason honors to go along with them.
And thus far, he has lived up to the hype. Heck, he may have even gone above and beyond the preseason hype, playing all over the offensive line thus far this year. It’s been enough to earn him a First-Team midseason All-American honor from The Athletic.
Hopefully, he continues to hold down the offensive line.
The Texas A&M football team has a similarly versatile player in defensive lineman DeMarvin Leal
I could copy and paste the entire slide about Kenyon Green and use it for DeMarvin Leal and it would practically work. These two players could not be more similar on opposite sides of the ball.
While Kenyon Green has been shifted around the offensive line based on circumstances, playing over 80 snaps at four different offensive line positions, Leal does it because he can be dangerous anywhere in the trenches.
Prior to the season, Leal was considered a preseason First-Team All-American by Walter Camp and Athlon Sports. He was hyped up based on a strong first two seasons in College Station, where he recorded 4.5 sacks and 12.5 tackles for loss in his freshman and sophomore campaigns.
Many players crumble under lofty expectations — Leal did not.
On the season, the Aggie defensive lineman has already doubled his career sack total, recording 5.5 in Texas A&M’s first seven games of the year. Beyond that, Leal has recorded 8.5 tackles for loss, a new career-high.
Once again, A&M’s defensive line is one of the best in the country. Even though we’ve seen strong years out of guys like Micheal Clemons and Tyree Johnson, DeMarvin Leal will be this team’s pride and joy until he departs to the NFL.
Leal joined Kenyon Green, earning a midseason All-American honor from The Athletic.
The Texas A&M football team has had quietly strong runningback play from Isaiah Spiller
Sure, the Aggies’ offense as a whole has been underwhelming. Their 384.6 yards per game ranks them 81st in the country and their 5.86 yards per play is pedestrian at best. Still, this offense has its positives, as we learned earlier in this article.
Outside of Kenyon Green, the Aggies’ second consistent performer has been Isaiah Spiller, who was also given his fair share of preseason hype. Spiller was listed on the Maxwell Award Watch List and noted as an AP Preseason All-American. Heck, Spiller was, and still is, considered a potential first-round draft pick in the 2022 NFL Draft.
As things stand, a stagnant offense and two losses on the Aggies’ record will have casual fans thinking that Spiller regressed in 2021 — that couldn’t be further from the truth.
The Aggie starting runningback has rushed his way to a new career-high in yards per rush while being on track to set new career bests in rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns. His 6.3 rushing yards per attempt clear his previous career-high by 0.8, which is a significant gap.
It looks like this Aggie offense is still improving, and as Zach Calzada gets into a groove, Spiller should reap the benefits. This was on full display when he rushed for 168 yards and a touchdown against Missouri.
Some would argue that Spiller hasn’t lived up to the hype. Those people would be wrong.