Texas A&M football is looking to have a breakout season under Mike Elko in his second year down in College Station. The Aggies finished a disappointing 8-5 in 2024 after slipping down the stretch of the season, losing games to South Carolina, Auburn, Texas, and USC.
However, the Aggies had a real shot in all of those games— yes, even South Carolina, which was a contest that was tied at halftime and spiraled late when A&M lost control. It was precisely because the Ags were so close that things were so frustrating for A&M fans; the quadruple-overtime game against Auburn, the definition of a result on the razor's edge, was the pinnacle of that frustration.
But as we move into the 2025 season, it's time to finally stop looking backward, and look forward to what is coming up for the Aggies. Of course, the irony is that, sometimes, you have to look backwards to know what's coming up— and in that vein, there is an interesting blueprint from the past that can inform how things look going forward.
Texas A&M can look to beginning of Georgia, Kirby Smart dynasty to see roadmap for 2025
So why am I picking Georgia here? It's not just because they're one of the hottest names and best programs over the last near-decade, but because of some specific similarities that jump out between the Bulldogs in their breakout season and Mike Elko's squad— and it goes beyond the defensive-minded head coach in his second year.
In Kirby Smart's first season at Georgia, a place that had had some great seasons but never really achieved their potential under Mark Richt, the Bulldogs went... 8-5, including a home loss in a rivalry game. In all honesty, it was a worse season than Elko and the Aggies just had, given that the Bulldogs got smoked by Ole Miss, lost to Vandy, and fell to Georgia Tech at home.
They entered the following season with middling expectations. They were ranked no. 15 in the preseason AP Poll, and advanced metrics like SP+ (then called S&P+), had them just outside the top 20 in their first ratings.
Of course, the preseason AP Poll has yet to drop, but the Aggies could well swap these two numbers: I expect them to land in the high teens or low twenties in the poll, and SP+ sees the Aggies as a top-15 team for the season. A similar profile indeed— not to mention the Bulldogs were facing a big question mark at quarterback.
But the similarities don't end there, of course. The Bulldogs opened with a game against a upper-tier G5 team in Appalachian State— much like A&M begins with UTSA, who will be no slouch when it comes to that level of team— before an early-season matchup... at Notre Dame.
The Bulldogs emerged from South Bend after defeating the Irish 20-19. The closest of calls, but they came out with a win— one that sprung them forward with dizzying speed and momentum. They began to trounce opponents— Mississippi State, Tennessee, Missouri, Florida— going undefeated for the first two-thirds of the season.
If the Aggies can beat Notre Dame, it's not hard to see something similar happening. Auburn and Florida at home are the biggest tests during that time, but if the Aggies can defend Kyle Field the same way they did last year, they should emerge unscathed from those games— perhaps even with similarly emphatic wins, if they have this kind of momentum.
Eerie similarities mark 2025 Texas A&M Aggies and 2017 Georgia Bulldogs
It was a November matchup on the road in the SEC against their second-biggest rival where the Bulldogs tripped up— and they did so big time. The Auburn Tigers destroyed Georgia, 40-17, in Jordan-Hare two weeks before they would similarly run roughshod over the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Of course, looking at A&M's schedule, you see the comparison. A November matchup on the road in the SEC against their second-biggest rival— also named the Tigers, for whatever that's worth— when A&M heads to LSU.
Georgia went undefeated the rest of the way in the regular season, vanquishing Georgia Tech on the road, before avenging themselves against Auburn in the SEC Championship (thanks in no small part to Kerryon Johnson's injury). It wasn't until the overtime game against Alabama in the national championship, when Tua threw to Devonta Smith on 2nd and 26, that the Bulldogs lost another game.
If Texas A&M follows this path, losing in the national championship, I think most Aggie fans would take it. Conference champions and making it all the way to the final game? Better than what most expect of the Aggies this year.
But there are some discontinuities, too. For one, the Aggies have a lot of their road games mashed together at the end of the year (but Georgia only had 6 home games, all told, in 2017, for whatever that's worth). It should also be said that A&M's slate is significantly tougher this year than UGA's was in 2017.
But the similarities here are hard to deny. Though we're all tempering our expectations at the moment, it was in a very similar state that the UGA fans found themselves before the 2017 breakout. Can the Aggies replicate it? We'll just have to see.