Texas A&M is on a collision course with Alabama in tonight's big time matchup in Tuscaloosa between the two squads— a massive game for the Aggies to gain some long-overdue respect on the national scene, while the Tide are desperately trying to get back on track after a lot of recent bad publicity.
It's no secret that Bucky McMillan has a lot of ties to the state of Alabama. He coached high school ball there for quite some time, and came over to Texas A&M from Samford University, which is a private college in Birmingham, Alabama— all factors that led to him being a very popular name in the state and Bucky Ball becoming a known quantity.
The high-intensity, relentless nature of Bucky's style is already taking the SEC by storm, and no matter the team or the style that has matched up against the Aggies, it's been tough for opponents to deal with. But it's not just some gimmick that anyone can run, as Alabama coach Nate Oats admitted recently.
Nate Oats admits he tried his hand at Bucky McMillan's style, but couldn't make it work
It's easy to look at the Aggies and criticize them as just the flavor of the day, but if it were easy to pull off what the Ags have done, then everyone would do it. But that's clearly not the case, as Nate Oats knows:
Nate Oats said that he tried Texas A&M head coach Bucky McMillan's style when he was coaching high school, but it didn't work for him after a one year attempt.
— Hunter De Siver (@HunterDeSiver) February 3, 2026
Not everyone can do what Bucky has done. There are detractors who wish to downplay what the Aggies are doing right now, but one by one, they will be proven wrong.
Bucky's style is inimitable in several respects, and though it's new to the conference, it certainly looks like it's working— and working with what is likely the least talent that he'll have while a coach in College Station. The Aggie head man did an admirable job cobbling together talent from the transfer portal, but the circumstances were less than ideal, to say the least.