Texas A&M football fans are extremely excited for their first-ever visit to the College Football Playoff, where they will face the Miami Hurricanes in the first round in Kyle Field. This is a big step for the Aggies' program, of course, but with such a tough opponent coming in, there will no doubt be some anxiety around the game.
This is one of the best defenses the Aggies will face this year, and so it will be no easy task for an Aggie offense that has struggled in their past two outings against Power 4 defenses. That said, though, there's a narrative already latent out there that ought to be cut off before the Aggies get into this game.
With Collin Klein taking the job up at Kansas State, he recently answered some questions about how he would be balancing that job with his continued involvement with the Texas A&M program. His answer disturbed some Aggie fans— but it really should not have.
Texas A&M fans should not fall for the lie that Collin Klein is distracted with Kansas State
This could be approached from a personal level, obviously— Klein is one of the truly good men in the profession who's approach is nothing if not above reproach. He's not going to shortchange the Aggies, especially at this point in the process of this season.
More than that, though, it's not a realistic perspective at all to believe that Klein is going to call plays worse than normal because he's thinking about how things are going in Manhattan. He's been the target of undeserved ire for some time now, as some fans who are less than completely locked into the team's process blame play calling when execution really is the problem.
The Texas game is a great example: there were plenty of well-called plays that the players simply didn't find— ones that they were finding all the rest of the year. There wasn't any huge philosophical shift going on, it was simply that throws and reads weren't being made like they needed to be.
So, when the Aggies face off against Miami on December 20, we are guaranteed to see an offense that has its fair share of struggles, given the quality of the Hurricanes' defense. Do not fall for the idea that this is because Klein is distracted; it will simply be because the Aggies are facing a really good defense.