Texas A&M is getting set to take on the Citadel this weekend in their final non-conference game of the year. The Aggies, obviously, are heavy favorites in this one, and it's looking like it's going to be relatively non-competitive, as you'd expect against an FCS opponent.
That said, though, this is a Texas A&M team that has a lot to work on. The Aggie faithful are pretty disgruntled with how this season has gone so far, and so there's some opportunity with this game coming in the middle of the year to work out some of the problems that they've had up until this point.
Here are three things that Aggie fans absolutely need to see out of Texas A&M in this game against the Citadel.
Three things Aggie fans need to see from Mike Elko's squad against The Citadel
A shutout from the defense
If the Aggies can pitch a shutout against Missouri State, then they should be able to do the same against The Citadel. Despite the fact that the Bulldogs defeated an FBS team earlier this year in Charlotte, scoring 43 points in the process, this is a team that the Aggies can and should hold scoreless.
The defense has seemed like it has improved noticeably from the first game up until now, so this should be a task that they are up for. The first line on the Aggies' roster can out-athlete this team to an unfair degree, but I'll be watching closely once we get to the time when the backups come in the game to see how they play.
Things happen, of course, and maybe there's a play where The Citadel connects on a deep pass after a corner falls down or something. But the Aggies, all things considered, should hold this team scoreless barring some sort of complete bust.
Success in the deep passing game
Even against Missouri State, we didn't really see this out of the Aggies. If Texas A&M is going to be able to build any confidence at all, they will need to connect on some passes downfield this weekend— Reed should have more than enough time in the pocket, and the receiving corps should have an easy time getting open.
We know the Aggies can run the ball with efficiency against an opponent like Arkansas, but when you run into more athletic defenses, if you're entirely one-dimensional, you can't get anything done. That's what happened against Missouri, and that's exactly why A&M needs to unlock this dimension of the offense in this low-stress environment.
If the problems with Reed truly do come back to the mental game, then this is the time to try to work out some of those kinks. Playing in Tuscaloosa next week will be an entirely different ball game, so the Aggies need to try to get some of this figured out— to whatever degree possible— in this one.
No turnovers
This hardly needs to be said, but the Aggies need to maintain a clean sheet on offense when it comes to turnovers. Reed has thrown at least one interception in four of the last five games, and two interceptions in three of the last four— that can't happen in this game.
That's not because it will give The Citadel a legitimate chance to win, of course, but because the Aggies have a standard that they need to play to. This is a game that should functionally be over once A&M scores their first touchdown, but you can't just score once and then pack it in for the rest of the game— the Aggies have a lot to work on.
That's especially true on offense, so giving the ball away will deprive them of that chance. The Aggies need to get some good, confidence-building snaps under their collective belt so that they can stand a chance down the stretch of the year; if not, they risk not making a bowl game.
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