Paul Finebaum unwilling to declare Texas A&M national title contender after South Carolina comeback

Texas A&M outlasted South Carolina 31-30 after trailing the Gamecocks by 27 points at halftime. Scoring 28 unanswered in the second half, the Aggies remain undefeated (10-0, 7-0 SEC) on the season.

During his weekly Sunday SportsCenter segment, ‘Paul In or Paul Out,’ SEC Network host Paul Finebaum said that he’s “out” on the Aggies being legitimate national championship contenders. Despite the declaration, Finebaum believes Texas A&M’s comeback will bode well for them moving forward.

“I think what they did actually helps them,” Finebaum said. “You talk about a resilient team, Georgia has been resilient all year, and look at them the last two weeks. I mean, they are dominating. I think A&M just really kind of just went to sleep on that game. Was an 11 O’clock kick against an inferior team, but what they did in the second half, I think will portend well for them as they get to the playoffs.”

Texas A&M trailed South Carolina 30-3 at halftime. It seemed as though the Aggies’ undefeated season was over during the break, but would come out in the second half to outscore the Gamecocks 28-0. That included three touchdowns in the third quarter.

The Aggies finished the win with 5-3 yards of total offense which included a 439-yard passing performance from QB Marcel Reed. WRs KC Concepcion and Ashton Bethel-Roman had 158 and 139 receiving yards during the contest, respectively.

One downside offensively was that Texas A&M was held to 64 yards across 22 carries. That’s good for 2.2 yards per carry. That’s unlike the Aggies, as they came into the matchup ranked third in the conference in rushing yards per game (190.8).

Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko didn’t know where to start when discussing the comeback win over the Gamecocks during his postgame press conference. Despite the record of their opponent, he believes that was a big-time win for his program.

“For them to go out in the second half and do what they did, that’s championship-level football,” Elko said. “Obviously, the first half, we didn’t do anything right. But at the end of the day, we came out and we did what we had to do to win a football game.”

Looking ahead, the Aggies have two games left on their regular season schedule. Next week, they’ll take on a 1-10 Samford before hitting the road for the regular season finale against in-state rival Texas.