Texas A&M Football Confidence Meter after Week 9; Trending Up?

Confidence in Texas A&M Football after Drubbing Gamecocks

The win for Texas A&M football over the South Carolina Gamecocks didn’t always feel like it was extremely dominant. Especially in the beginning, when the Aggies could hardly move the ball and South Carolina notched a touchdown, many of the Maroon and White faithful began to consider the possibility that this team was essentially just lost for the season. Of course, they got things back on track quickly, but it was still a bit frustrating in the second half that Texas A&M football was unable to get a touchdown (the poor call against Max Wright notwithstanding, of course!).

When you start to look at all the stats from the game, even after watching it in person, things start to feel a little better—especially when it comes to the defensive side of things. Texas A&M football held the Gamecocks to their season low in YPP and YPA, and their second lowest mark in YPC. On the offensive side, the Aggies didn’t look too bad either: Max Johnson was 20 of 30 for 249 yards, with 1 TD and 0 INTs. If you consider the fact that the touchdown to Wright should have been called correctly (thus erasing the ensuing attempt to Noah Thomas), Johnson would have been 21 of 30 for roughly 260 yards and 2 TDs. Not too shabby! The receivers really showed out in this one, in my opinion—especially Ainias Smith. I liked what I saw from Jahdae Walker as well.

All that said, there’s only so much that this one win can do to soothe the pain of the Alabama and Tennessee losses. It wasn’t particularly dominant like the last time the Gamecocks came to Kyle, nor was it over an opponent that is considered very good. Therefore, it won’t do much to change the confidence of those who were bearish on this team and Jimbo. Indeed, I still saw several calls to fire the head man on Twitter whenever something went wrong; yes, from reactionary personalities, but the reason they feel emboldened to spew such opinions is the fact that they feel like they’re tapping into the mood of the fanbase. So in all, confidence, though definitely up from the bye week, is still middling to low.

A win next week, however, could change things quickly.