The common narrative about the Texas A&M football program is that the Aggies are facing a crisis: following the highest ever rated recruiting class, the 2022 Ags got a large portion of those freshmen on the field en route to a 5-7 record, and, in response, said freshmen decided to go elsewhere. I’ve written before about how I think this line of thought comes from the idea that the Aggies “bought” their 2022 class, and hence the confident predictions of a “mass exodus” flowed freely from those enamored of this notion.
Such people doubtless felt uninhibited glee at the social media graphics declaring the massive amounts of transfers from the Aggie program once the offseason hit. Of course, who those transfers actually were—and, more specifically, how much each outbound player had contributed—did not matter, and a new stat that has been making the rounds today shows what Texas A&M fans have been trying to say all offseason.
SEC teams national rank in percentage of returning production for 2023, via @ESPN_BillC:
— Connor O'Gara (@cjogara) February 7, 2023
7. Texas A&M
9. Mizzou
28. Auburn
30. Ole Miss
32. LSU
58. Vandy
69. Tennessee
73. Kentucky
80. Georgia
91. MSU
102. South Carolina
106. Arkansas
107. Florida
125. Alabama
This is, of course, including the fact that the Aggies’ premier offensive weapon in Devon Achane is not returning to school, which underscores just how much production the Aggies have coming back. This also lines up nicely with another important stat that I’ve mentioned on here before: of the 28 players to record a single stat in the final game of Texas A&M football’s season, exactly one of them (Andre White, Jr.) transferred.
In fact, according to Robert Behrens on Twitter, this is actually the most returning production that Jimbo has had coming back out of any year he’s been the head coach of Texas A&M football. It’s worth mentioning that a lot of the returning production came from that freshman class, and so the Aggies will remain young, but this is also only the second time that Jimbo returns his entire offensive line, with the other time being the 2020 season that led to a top-5 finish.
There’s a reason they play the games, of course, but with these stats in mind, you have to feel good about the amount of talent the Aggies bring back headed into the 2023 season.