Texas A&M Football: Why South Carolina isn’t a trap game for the Aggies

Jaylon Jones, Texas A&M football Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports
Jaylon Jones, Texas A&M football Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports
Texas A&M football
Jaylon Jones, Texas A&M football Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports

The Texas A&M football team avoided falling in a trap game to the Missouri Tigers by marching into Columbia, Missouri, and dominating the Tigers for 60 minutes. Isaiah Spiller and Devon Achane carried the load, rushing for a combined 292 yards and three touchdowns on just 36 carries.

After an emotional victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide, this could have easily been an overlooked Mizzou team. The Aggies would not have it.

After this win, whispers have already begun that indicate that the Aggies could be at risk of another trap game in their Week 8 matchup against South Carolina. Fortunately for the Aggies, this isn’t the case. Allow me to explain why.

The Texas A&M football team is looking increasingly more threatening, while South Carolina is regressing

To those who think South Carolina could be a trap game, I’ll give you this — if you only watched the Gamecocks’ Week 4 matchup against a now-15th-ranked Kentucky team, you may have reason to believe South Carolina is a threat.

That said, outside of that single matchup, the Gamecocks have not looked good. Not even close.

I may be forced to eat my words if Texas A&M-South Carolina ends up being a close contest, but right now, I could not have more confidence that this game will be a blowout in favor of the Aggies.

The Gamecocks kicked off their season with a dominating 48-0 victory against an FCS team in Eastern Illinois. At this point, they could have been good. For those who are unaware, Eastern Illinois is the school that 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo attended. Guess what? He’s not there anymore.

Unfortunately for Gamecock fans, any momentum they built in their Week 1 win went down the drain with a close call against East Carolina, where they defeated the — give me a moment while I look up their mascot — pirates by just three points.

The next two weeks would see them get blown out by Georgia and lose to Kentucky. Then, the Gamecocks would beat Troy by an unconvincing nine points and move on to get their doors blown off by an unimpressive Tennessee team, losing by 25 points.

Finally, they have capped off their season thus far with a nail-biting one-point victory over Vanderbilt. South Carolina is a bad football team.

I could give a deeper analysis of South Carolina’s team, but at this point, it should be obvious that they don’t stand much of a chance at winning this weekend. Predicting the Gamecocks to beat Texas A&M on Saturday would be a terrible take, no matter how you spin it.

This should not and cannot be considered a trap game for the Aggies.