Texas A&M Football: Comparing the UNM Game to Other Openers Under Jimbo
It’s no secret that opening games for the Texas A&M football program under Jimbo Fisher haven’t always shown off the team’s most polished performances in a given year. The Aggies have garnered a reputation among the fanbase for sluggish starts since Fisher has taken over as the head man. Last night’s game against New Mexico was anything but. The Aggies came out firing on all cylinders against the Lobos, putting up half a hundred and operating extremely efficiently on the offensive end.
With that in mind, I thought I would put together a bit of a retrospective/comparison of this game against other openers the Ags have had under Fisher. Let’s take a look, starting with 2018.
2018: Texas A&M Football 59, Northwestern State 7
Elephant in the room here: Northwestern State is obviously an FCS team. Not only are they an FCS team, they weren’t even a good FCS team in 2018, finishing 5-6 on the year. Given that, the Aggies pretty much did what they were supposed to against an opponent of this caliber. Kellen Mond passed for 184 yards (7.4 YPA) on 68% completion. This game was much more about the rushing attack, however, with Trayveon Williams carrying the ball 20 times for 240 yards. The sole touchdown the Aggies surrendered was in the fourth quarter with the backups in. They allowed a total of 251 yards (which, it should be said, is more than the 2023 Aggies gave up to New Mexico), with most of it coming through the air (230 yards, with a long pass of 71 yards).
Not too much to say about this one—it’s definitely one of the times the Aggies have looked more prepared in an opener under Jimbo, but it is also definitely against the worst opponent they’ve faced in any of those games.
2019: Texas A&M Football 41, Texas State 7
This was a game where many Aggie fans saw signs of the difficult season that was to come. 8-5 isn’t too bad, but it was certainly a disappointment coming off the excitement of 2018. Twice the Aggies were stuffed in short yardage situations against a less athletically talented Texas State defensive line, portending the offensive line issues that were coming down the pike for the Aggies. Still, though, a relatively dominant win against a lesser program—they turned out to be one of the lesser G5 teams around, ending up 3-9.
Mond finished the day with 194 yards passing (7.2 YPA) on 70% completion, throwing 3 touchdowns to 1 interception. The rushing attack was once again the offensive focus, racking up 246 yards on 36 carries (6.8 YPC) split chiefly between Jashaun Corbin and Isaiah Spiller. The Aggies showed a stingy run defense yet again, giving up a total of only 8 yards on the ground, but were outgained through the air, with the Bobcats putting up 211 yards passing.
As I said, this was another one of those bellwether games for Texas A&M football fans. Despite the stat sheet showcasing a decisive win, most of the Maroon and White faithful knew that the Aggies should have won by an even greater margin.