Mike Elko is set to begin his second Texas A&M season with some pretty high expectations, in the media at least.
SEC media outlets are giving Texas A&M the label of a sleeper team to make noise in the conference. If Marcel Reed fits the bill and is all we've been told he is, this will be a tough offense for any team to stop. In the way are several revenge opportunities for the Ags this season.
Matthew Seaver of the Dallas Morning News gives a game-by-game prediction of the Aggies this season. The results that Seaver gives us could be the hard truth, but it could still mean the Aggies squeaking through the College Football Playoff by a hair.
Aggies' predicted 9-3 record could sneak them in CFP or barely get left out
The three teams that Seaver has the Aggies losing to are against Notre Dame, LSU and Texas. The challenge is going to South Bend and Baton Rouge (potentially at night, too) for some of the tougher outings for the Ags coming this season. The Arch Manning hype is still a question around the college football world, so we have to see how that project plays out.
As Seaver predicts, a three-point loss to Notre Dame wouldn't be the end of the world for Texas A&M. It would count as a loss, but not as a conference loss. Even though the Aggies have two conference losses, the committee would consider them a three-loss team when making their decision. That won't stop fans from bringing up the 2020 season, when the Aggies were barely left out in favor of the Irish.
The hope that Aggies fans have is the fact that Clemson just squeaked by as a three-loss team last year. They did need a field goal prayer at the buzzer to beat SMU, but they got in, and that's all that mattered at the time.
The 2024 college football season taught us that anybody can beat anybody come playoff time. We saw the No. 7 seed take on the No. 8 seed in the national championship, with the lower-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes rolling through everybody.
Seeding doesn't matter in college football, and it certainly doesn't matter during the playoffs. The Aggies just need to get in, and we can all worry about the matchups later.