Texas A&M Football: Will Matthew Wykoff start over Bryce Foster?
All the talk around Texas A&M football is about the starting quarterback battle. That battle has yet to be decided, but there might be another bit of intrigue surrounding the starting center position as well.
This comes as a bit of a surprise because the center position was expected to be Bryce Foster’s to lose. However, is he beginning to lose it? That’s the question we are going to dive into in this article.
Matthew Wykoff has been taking the majority of first-team reps for Texas A&M football throughout camp.
Bryce Foster was forced into the starting lineup last season as a true freshmen and was regarded as one of the weak links of the offensive line before the season. Despite his four-star recruit status, the hope is that you never have to force a true freshman into starting snaps right away.
Foster ended up playing really well in his first season. I won’t say he was elite, or even great, but he did much better than expected. He finished the season with a PFF offense grade of 69.2, which against SEC competition is respectable. He also received multiple awards after the 2021 season including a spot on the 2021 SEC All-Freshman Team, FWAA Freshman All-America Team, and received the Top Newcomer Award for the offense at the annual team banquet.
You would think he would be regarded as the starter no matter what after a season like that. However, that may not be the case this season.
Jimbo Fisher says that he feels comfortable with either Bryce Foster or Matthew Wykoff at center and adds that both have had good fall camps.
— TexAgs (@TexAgs) August 24, 2022
It started in the spring when Foster decided to participate in the Aggies’ Track and Field team. Due to his decision, he could not partake in spring practices for the football team. Since Foster couldn’t practice, Matthew Wykoff took the first-team snaps, and clearly impressed a lot of people.
There is a new offensive line coach in town in Steve Addazio, so he will have a fresh perspective of this offensive line and how they run. This opens up the possibility of there being an open competition for the center spot. The offensive line coach hasn’t seen Foster play in games, or even in scrimmages, but he has seen Wykoff do well, so the possibility is there.
That could be the case, and the Aggies could run with Wykoff as the starter, or, this is just happening to give Foster time to get back into the football way of life. Even if he’s working with the second team, Haynes King and Max Johnson are both spending equal snaps with him, so the chemistry shouldn’t be an issue.
The second option sounds like the likely one. Jimbo Fisher knows how well Foster played last year and must see his All-American potential. He likely is letting Wykoff play while Foster gets back into football shape, and he may even let him play against Sam Houston State. However, I would not worry about Foster being the backup here, his talent is too good to bench, and based off of last year, he is in line to take a big step in year two.
