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FULL PREVIEW – Texas A&M Football vs. Alabama

By Graham Harmon

Sep 30, 2023; Starkville, Mississippi, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe (4) rolls over in the end zone after scoring on a long run in Davis Wade Stadium at Mississippi State University. Mandatory Credit: Gary Cosby Jr.-Tuscaloosa News
Sep 30, 2023; Starkville, Mississippi, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe (4) rolls over in the end zone after scoring on a long run in Davis Wade Stadium at Mississippi State University. Mandatory Credit: Gary Cosby Jr.-Tuscaloosa News /
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Final Thoughts and Prediction for Texas A&M Football vs. Alabama

There’s a narrative out there among the Alabama fans that I’ve seen that the Aggies should not have given the Tide bulletin board material for this game. I’d guess they are referencing what Ainias Smith said in a press conference the other day. As I said in the opening of this article, though, that’s pretty much a nonfactor here. Think about what Jimbo said in the offseason before the 2021 game. Why didn’t that bulletin board material work? What about the 2022 offseason? Why didn’t the Tide crush the Aggies in that game?

The obvious answer is that they simply can’t. They no longer have the ability to do that to a team like Texas A&M football. Alabama is no longer singular. They are now just one of a handful of skilled teams in college football. The myth is breaking—and, after this weekend, might be broken for good. Goliath bleeds. The crimson helmet no longer brings an inherent mental edge over its opponents, especially this one. The Aggies know they can defeat Alabama. They know they should have beaten the Tide last year, when Texas A&M football was far more inexperience, battered, and bruised than they are now.

Who has the mental edge here: a team who knows they should have won last year on the road now welcoming their opponent into the most hostile environment in the conference, or a team who barely escaped against an overmatched squad in the previous matchup? The answer seems clear, especially when the latter team is teetering on the edge of disaster (relatively speaking).

The Tide will fall this weekend. They will in all likelihood do so once more before the season is done (I’m keeping my eye on the Iron Bowl after the events of this past weekend). This is not so much the beginning of the end for them as the final step of a process that began two years ago this weekend.

I don’t see this one as too terribly close—again, provided the Aggies play mistake-free (which I think more likely than not, as they’ve been locked in against Bama in the past), I don’t think there will be much question as to who the better team is. I’ve been saying 27-13, and I feel good with that prediction.

BTHObama.

Perspective on A&M's recent defensive dominance. dark. Next