The Texas A&M football team finished off the month of October with confidence. Even though the Aggies dropped an early matchup against Mississippi State, they bounced back with a vengeance.
This led to a string of wins for the Aggies, starting with arguably the best win in college football this season against Alabama. The Aggies, dead in the water, came out of absolutely nowhere to beat a team that hadn’t lost in nearly two years.
After this, Texas A&M looked like a team possessed. They’d continue their month with two consecutive wins over good SEC teams, both of which came by a margin of at least two scores. Can they continue this hot streak? Today, I’m giving out five bold predictions for the month of November.
Bold Prediction No. 1: Zach Calzada will make the Texas A&M football quarterback situation interesting
The Texas A&M football quarterback situation has found some stability with Haynes King likely out for the year, but upon his return, there will be a controversy. A month ago, I would have told you that King would earn his spot back without question. Now, things have changed.
Zach Calzada is improving on a week-by-week basis. He looked completely inept in his first start but has slowly become the perfect replacement for Kellen Mond.
In the upcoming weeks, he’ll have a couple of chances to prove that he’s the man for the job. Seeing how he performed against Alabama in the Aggies’ biggest game of the season makes me think that he’ll step up again. If he does, this will make for an all-time quarterback competition upon King’s return.
Bold Prediction No. 2: The Texas A&M football team’s offense will have its best month
In a way, I’m piggybacking off of the last slide here. I think Zach Calzada will play well in the month of November, and as a result, I also see the Aggies offense as a whole improving. Here’s why.
None of the Aggies’ upcoming opponents have a defense that ranks in the top-50 of college football. The closest you’ll find is Auburn, who sits at the 51st spot in terms of total defense among 130 teams.
To put this into perspective, here’s where a few of the Aggies’ previous opponents rank in total defense:
- 13th, Alabama: 306.2 YPG
- 16th, Mississippi State: 313 YPG
- 22rd, Arkansas: 334.5 YPG
- 39th, South Carolina: 346.4 YPG
- 45th, New Mexico: 348.6 YPG
That gives five of the Aggies’ first eight opponents a better defense than anybody on the latter part of their schedule. As a result, we should see an Aggie offense that has scored 40 points per game in its last three contests continue to play strong offense.
If they’re able to do this, their chances of winning out should be strong.
Bold Prediction No. 3: The Texas A&M football team’s defense will begin to generate turnovers
It’s no secret that the Texas A&M football team has one of the better defenses in the SEC. They’re not the stout unit that we saw at the beginning of the season, with the best pass defense in college football by a mile, but they’re pretty good.
As things stand, the Aggies rank 28th in total defense with a solid, well-rounded unit.
But one area that Texas A&M hasn’t necessarily succeeded in is creating turnovers. After a hot start to the year where the Aggies created two turnovers, both on Leon O’Neal interceptions, A&M hasn’t done much to create takeaways.
On the year, A&M’s turnover margin is average at best, with just a +1 in that category. Mike Elko’s defense has created 12 turnovers and turned the ball over themselves 11 times. But they’ve been getting better, at least in the latter category.
After the Aggies’ early-October loss to Mississippi State, they were at a point where they hadn’t won the turnover battle in a single game all season long. Even in a dominant win over Kent State, A&M turned the ball over five times to the Golden Flashes’ two.
Since that Mississippi State loss, the Aggies have won the turnover battle in all three of their games — it’s no coincidence that this has translated to three consecutive victories. I think they’ll continue this trend and possibly even generate more turnovers defensively.
Bold Prediction No. 4: The Texas A&M football team will go undefeated in November
Last month, I predicted that the Aggies would go 3-1 in the month of October. Sure, I thought they’d lose to Alabama instead of Mississippi State, but I’m the Site Expert around here — I’m allowed to cherry-pick stats whenever it pleases me.
This month, I think Texas A&M can go undefeated and it starts with a game against Auburn, who may be the only two-loss team who could make the argument that they’re better than the Aggies.
The AP Poll voters seem to think so too, as the Tigers are ranked 12th, one spot above the Aggies. I’d argue that this is solely due to the timing of both teams’ wins, as a win over Alabama seems significantly more impressive than one over Ole Miss, but that’s neither here nor there.
If Texas A&M manages to win out in the month of November, they will have done virtually everything in their control to make a run at the SEC Championship game and College Football Playoff.
As mentioned in an article earlier today, the Aggies’ dreams to be selected to either of those things depends largely on the outcome of the Iron Bowl, where Auburn will have a chance to knock Alabama down to two losses.
If Texas A&M is undefeated at that point in time, they’ll get the nod over every other two-loss SEC team. They would have knocked Ole Miss and Auburn down to three losses while holding the head-to-head advantage over the Crimson Tide.
This is huge and entirely possible for a red-hot Aggie football team.
Bold Prediction No. 5: Caleb Chapman will explode onto the SEC scene
I’ll give you this — I’ve been waiting for Caleb Chapman to have a breakout game for the entirety of the season. After a relatively slow start to the year, he’d sustain an injury that has kept him out for most of the season.
He returned for the Aggies’ win over South Carolina just over a week ago and wasn’t much of a factor in that game. But I still believe that he can have a huge impact on this squad. Here’s why.
Chapman is tall — that’s not a secret. At 6’5″, he’s larger than most Power Five tight ends. So why doesn’t he play tight end, you ask?
To put it simply, he’s not really built to play tight end. The Aggie wideout is skinny and fast. If you couldn’t see him towering over defensive backs and other wide receivers, you wouldn’t even realize how tall he is. He moves like a much smaller player, with a top speed that may not be matched by any defender in the SEC.
The Aggies’ offensive shortcomings will be blamed on a backup quarterback entering a role that he was not ready for with a banged-up offensive line, as they should be. That said, the lack of Chapman in this offense has had a bigger impact than you might think.
When he’s back, truly back, you’ll know.
For now, it’s a waiting game. In all likelihood, he’s not at 100%, which is why he hasn’t had much of an impact as of late. As he returns to full health, the SEC will remember how impactful he can be.