The Texas A&M Football team travels to to Columbia, South Carolina this weekend for a matchup against their cross-division foe, the South Carolina Gamecocks. Both teams having come off a bye, the anticipation for this contest has been building for the last two weeks.
The Gamecocks are coming off a big upset victory over a top-25 Kentucky team on the road, though the Wildcats were without their starting QB in Will Levis. On the A&M side of things, there has been no shortage of consternation regarding the offense, injuries, defensive alignments, you name it, despite falling only 2 yards short of defeating a then-top-ranked Alabama team also without their QB1.
Optimism among Aggie fans has seemed to alternatively wax and wane depending on the day since the game in Tuscaloosa came to a close on a highly-debated non-PI-call against Aggie receiver Evan Stewart. On the one hand, this Texas A&M football team has seemed more and more competent on offense both through the air and on the ground over the past two weeks; on the other hand, both of those games were losses where many other things went wrong, and mystery surrounding injuries, especially on the offensive line, has many Aggie fans sweating bullets about this upcoming matchup. Advanced stats such as SP+ also see this being a close game.
Points deserving of consideration have been raised on both sides. In this article, though, we’ll be focusing on reasons for optimism and the edges that this Texas A&M football team might hold over the opposing Gamecocks. Can the offense continue to improve? How will the defense fare against Spencer Rattler and Marshawn Lloyd? Let’s dive in.