Texas A&M has had a disappointing season by any measure you’d want to use from the preseason— the Aggies were considered at least fringe playoff contenders by most, and they’ve fallen far short of those hopes already, with only 2/3 of their games gone. The lion’s share of the blame thus far has fallen at the feet of the quarterback, Marcel Reed, who has captained an anemic passing game so far this year, especially in comparison to what we saw last season.
It’s not all his fault, of course— there are some systemic issues going on with the entire operation— but this is just the way things have shaken out so far. After the two interceptions early against Alabama in last Saturday’s game, the calls to bench Reed were louder than ever— but, in all fairness, he bounced back from that and played some of the best ball we’ve seen out of him so far this season.
Even so, the Aggies simply cannot abide another extended stretch of play like we saw out of Reed in the LSU and Missouri games in particular. It feels like Reed is building up to the kind of player we saw last year— by no means perfect, but enough, combined with this defense, to get some wins down the stretch— but how much regression would he have to show to have Mike Elko bench him for Hart?
Marcel Reed’s leash is as short as ever heading into the bye week
The Aggies’ next contest will be on the road out in Columbia, SC, against the South Carolina Gamecocks. This seemed like a much easier task a few weeks ago, despite the fact that the Aggies themselves were having issues: Shane Beamer’s program seemed all but irreparably broken and headed for disaster.
Now, though, things look way different in Columbia after two straight ranked wins, and the Aggies are walking into the middle of a hornets’ nest when they head east on November 7. This is going to be a crowd hungry for a huge win, especially in this game given the way last year’s game went— and the environment will be electric.
If Reed comes out and struggles early on against a team that will be looking to play extremely fast and make huge splash plays on defense, it could be curtains for him pretty quickly. The Aggies need to get some momentum going down the stretch of the year here, and it’s easy to envision things getting out of hand quickly down in Williams Brice.
If we see another start like we did in Tuscaloosa, I think we see Brady Hart early on. Elko himself finally said that it was a strong thought in the mind of the coaching staff in this previous game— a huge change of tune from earlier in the season— so it’s tough to imagine that they would not be preparing Hart for some potential in-game action this bye week.
That said, fans could be in for a situation where it immediately becomes evident why the staff has been so reluctant to go to Hart. He is still an unknown quantity at this point, so fans ought not assume that he will be better than what we’ve seen out of Reed at all.
This is a volatile situation, but the leash for Reed has to be as short as it ever has been at this point. Hopefully, he continues to ascend in his level of play, but you have to think that a series or two will be coming Hart’s way soon enough.
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