Texas A&M did what they needed to against The Citadel today, as everyone expected, but the real intrigue in this one was never whether the Aggies would win— it was whether Marcel Reed could begin to look a little bit like he was turning some things around. While it wasn't perfect, that's what we saw out of the Aggie captain.
Marcel finished the day with a statline of 8/13 for 130 yards (10 YPA) and 1 touchdown to 0 interceptions. The numbers look modest as far as the totals, but the fact is that Marcel looked like a lot better passer of the football when he was asked to throw it— which, contrary to my prediction, was not that often.
The most encouraging thing was the imrpovement on the deep pass. There were a couple of throws that didn't look amazing when he was targeting the opposite hash, but when he had to load up and throw it deep, it looked overall like a much better product.
Marcel Reed quiets the noise against The Citadel, but Alabama next week will be the real measure
There was a clear intention to push the designed QB run game in this one for Marcel, as well, which is a factor that has been missing from this offense so far this year. If they add this in as a bigger piece of the offense going forward this season, it could help Marcel's play when he does drop back to pass.
Every single drive that Marcel had the football ended in a touchdown— the Aggies were four for four in the first half in getting into the end zone. That's about as much as you can ask out of a quarterback, of course, but rather than a lackluster performance buoyed by a strong run game, these were drives that were propelled by Marcel's arm.
That's not to say that the run game didn't do much, though. Jamarion Morrow being back in his fully-fledged form was a boost to this offense without a doubt— his shiftiness and burst add even yet another dimension to this offensive backfield.
KJ Edwards was hugely productive in his action, as well, breaking a few runs open in a big way. If The Citadel hadn't been playing so deep in their defensive backfield, he may have had a 90-plus yard run in this one, which would have been the best of his early career highlights.
His long ended up as a 34-yarder, though, which is still enough to show how explosive he is as a runner overall. Carsyn Baker picked up some hard yards as well, while Rueben Owens only notched two carries on the day.
That's a commitment to the youth on this team in a big way, which is what a lot of fans wanted to see coming into this game. You also got to see quite a bit of youth on the defensive side, as well, which was big.
The defense didn't make as many splashy plays as you might have thought coming into a game against an FCS opponent, but that sort of comes with the dinner when you're playing a triple-option team like The Citadel. A&M was suffocating on defense, which is what fans needed to see, and they got the shutout.
Brady Hart made some impressive plays in this game, but he wasn't able to run the offense as effectively as Marcel did, which is pretty telling. He looked good when he was in control of himself, but there were times that he was simply too flustered against this FCS defense, which does not bode well for his chances were he to start against Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
It should be pretty clear at this point that the Aggies need to start Marcel next week against the Tide rather than Hart, no matter what the noise has been thus far. It's possible this is Reed's last best chance— but for now, he's quieted the noise.
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