Texas A&M Football: 3 Takeaways from Bitter Loss on Rocky Top

Backup QB doesn’t work for this Texas A&M football staff

I, among others, expressed a sentiment when Weigman went down with injury that was something along the lines of “hey, at least our backup is basically a starting level QB!” And that sentiment was true as far as it went. But here’s the thing: Max is just plain not the answer for this style of offense. Neither was he last year, nor was Calzada the year before that. I don’t know if it’s something that happens in the offseason, as far as one on one coaching or something like that, but there is a severe drop off from Weigman to Johnson, just as there appeared to be from Haynes to Zach in 2021. Of course, we saw Haynes’s issues in 2022, but I think that might have been exacerbated by some more of the surrounding problems.

Johnson taking over in the ‘22 campaign provided a brief reprieve, but we saw some of the same limitations there as we are now seeing here. He can’t hit open receivers downfield, he holds the ball too long, and he makes some ill-advised throws under pressure. Those proclivities are not masked by the system he’s running; rather, they are even more pronounced than they would otherwise be.

That said, Max is what we have for the rest of the year. Is it crazy to think there’s a chance that Petrino and company take the opportunity offered by this bye week to further tailor some play calls to Max’s strengths? Yes, that is crazy. It will not happen. However, I believe that there’s a chance because I am dumb! Road to 9-3 starts here!