Three takeaways from Texas A&M football (probably) laying Billy Napier's UF tenure to rest in the Swamp
What a win, right Texas A&M football fans? Even though the final score says 33-20, it feels like that's not representative of how much of a shellacking this one was in pretty much all phases of the game. The Gators never really threatened, and it only got this close due to A&M laying off on defense and Randy Bond missing two field goals.
Point being, this was pretty impressive, especially when you consider that the Aggies were missing their best defensive back and had to start a guy at QB with one game of meaningful experience under his belt. Even though UF isn't amazing, it's no easy task to win on the road in the SEC like that.
So, what can we take forward from this one? Let's take a look.
3 takeaways from Texas A&M football vs. Florida: The run game is this team's identity
More than anything else, this game revealed that the Aggies are once more dominant rushing the ball. We saw flashes of this against Notre Dame, but it really became clear last week. Now that we've seen it against yet another team that's... not McNeese, I think we can say this for sure.
Collin Klein's offense rushed the ball 55 times, compared to only 17 pass attempts. And the UF defense didn't really seem interested in stopping them! This includes a 99.5 yard drive that was almost entirely rushes.
In my postgame reaction, I compared that drive to the watershed moment the Aggies had in 2020—notably, also a long drive against Florida that was nearly entirely made up of rushing plays. This feels like a team discovering their offensive identity. In 2020, it took them to a top-4 finish. Can they do the same this year?