Texas A&M Football: 3 Reasons the Aggies will Beat South Carolina

The Aggie defense will stand tall

Don’t look now, but Texas A&M football might just finally have a relatively healthy defense.  After suffering an extremely unfortunate spate of injuries early in the season that forced young guys into starting spots before the coaches might’ve preferred them there, it looks like contributors like Tunmise Adeleye, Andre White, Tyreek Chappell, and others will make their return this week.  The status of star S Antonio Johnson is still up in the air, but we’ve seen freshmen Bryce Anderson and Jared Kerr fill in admirably in his stead when he’s been unable to go this season.  Walter Nolen has also begun to really come on and has shown a knack for making big plays and forcing turnovers.

Mckinnley Jackson’s return against Alabama definitely stood out bigtime when the Tide had the ball, and I expect that trend to continue.  Also, the Aggie pass rush has begun to emerge, notching 4 sacks against Alabama after only putting up 6 total in the previous 5 games, and that’s a scary sight for the offenses remaining on their schedule.  Going up against a Gamecock run game that only achieves 84% of opponent averages when it comes to YPC, and facing a QB in Spencer Rattler that has thrown more interceptions this year than touchdowns, it could again be an opportunity for the Aggie defense to feast.  South Carolina has only scored 23 total points against A&M over the last three years— look for the trend of the Aggies stifling defense to continue in this matchup.