It's pretty easy to pinpoint when the season began to go down the tubes for Texas A&M football last season: a chilly, early November night in Columbia, South Carolina. Some might say it was over when DQ Smith knocked Le'Veon Moss out for the game— and the season— in the first quarter. Others would point to the second half cavalcade of points that the Gamecocks scored.
Whatever the case, the sore memory of this game has abided with the Aggies up until this point. It is not hard to see why this would be the most personal game yet on the schedule for the Aggies, especially given the way they were completely outmatched physically against the Gamecocks.
Quarterback LaNorris Sellers had one of the best games of his career against the Aggies, as did then-Gamecock running back Rocket Sanders. They were impossible for A&M defenders to tackle that evening, setting a worrying trend that continued down the back end of the year.
Texas A&M looks to settle personal score with South Carolina in revenge opportunity
If there was any lack of focus on A&M's part in that game last year, however, there will be no such issue this season. Mike Elko himself will make sure of that, but there's no doubt that any and all returning players from last year recall quite well what happened.
That is only a question due to just how poorly the Gamecocks have played so far this year. Coming in at 3-6, Carolina's only Power 4 wins are over Virginia Tech and Kentucky, with a week two victory over South Carolina State thrown in there for good measure.
They are in the midst of an extremely disheartening losing streak, and there's no indication that they are going to be able to pull out of it. They fired offensive line coach Lonnie Teasley a few weeks back, and dispatched with offensive coordinator Mike Shula after the loss to Alabama— less than ten games into his tenure.
They struggle to run the ball on anything outside of Sellers scrambles, and when he's in the pocket, he has issues getting the ball where it needs to go consistently. He's an athletic marvel and is no slouch throwing the ball, but his weaknesses are pretty clear.
Those weaknesses are only magnified by the extremely porous offensive line that the Gamecocks boast. They have a couple of weapons outside, including Nyck Harbour, but Sellers seldom has the time to get any of them the ball thanks to the constant pressure he faces.
The Gamecocks have given up the second-most sacks in the conference, which is honestly amazing given how much Sellers excels at getting out of pressure. This should be a matchup where Cashius Howell and the other Aggie defenders absolutely feast.
On the defensive side of the ball, Carolina is a team that gets run on with regularity. Oklahoma was unable to run the ball all year until they came to Williams Brice Stadium the week after Red River, and all of a sudden they looked like experts doing so. LSU had a similar experience, and Ole Miss picked up a lot of yardage via the run game as well.
There are some issues to be aware of: Vicari Swain is one of the best punt returners in the nation, with three touchdowns on such plays already this season. The pass defense for the Gamecocks, while not as good as last year, is not bad, either— and they force a lot of turnovers, tied for first in the conference with 16.
Even so, it's hard to see what edges they may have against this Texas A&M team that is rolling as they finally return home. Maybe the bye week helped them completely overhaul things, but the institutional instability seems more likely to cause some big cracks to show.
I don't want to put too fine a point on it, but despite the clearly excellent players that Carolina boasts in Sellers, Dylan Stewart, and Harbour, this is like if you made a team in a lab for A&M to match up well against. The Aggies could probably not throw a single downfield pass this game and win by double digits.
Shane Beamer's seat is getting warm in Columbia, but a massive beatdown could ratchet up that temperature in a big way. I think just such a beatdown is what we see in this one— give me the Aggies pulling away in the second half, 49-13.