Texas A&M football being left out of AP Top 25 shows they still need to earn respect

Texas A&M football, left out of Top 25 again, will have to earn respect in Mike Elko's first year

It should go without saying that not nearly as many eyes were on Texas A&M football in week two as opposed to week one. When College Gameday rolls into town and you have a top-10 opponent as your night game matchup at one of the most electric venues in the sport, you're bound to have a lot of attention. When you have an 11:45 AM kick against McNeese, you're bound to have... not as much attention.

Of course, in a game like this, that's usually a good thing. People's eyes usually only settle on these kinds of matchups when there's an absolute trainwreck happening (see Dame, Notre).

The converse of this, though, is that you are unlikely to improve your stock really at all, no matter what happens. This is what we saw with the Aggies this week; despite being the first team out of the AP rankings last week, A&M dropped a couple of spots again to what essentially amounts to 28th.

This is part of what stings so much about last week's loss: it was the opportunity to announce yourself as a team in a completely different "slot" than you have been over the last few years. Instead, the Aggies looked... pretty similarly to what they had been recently.

It'll take some time to undo that impression, even among the fanbase. For example, Weigman was absolutely dealing against McNeese, but some fans had heard so much about his footwork over the past week that they just started saying the word over and over without any barometer for what it should look like.

Point being, A&M will have to earn respect this season. They have three more huge opportunities to do so, and one beginning step this weekend against Florida. Can they do it? We'll just have to see.