10 Things for Tuesday
Here’s your latest dose of 10 Things for Tuesday, as No. 16 Texas A&M prepares to take on No. 8 Notre Dame:
- Even though last year’s Texas A&M defense — the line in particular — drew headlines and put three players into the NFL in the first two rounds, their production through two games has been easily exceeded by this year’s group. Granted, Notre Dame was the opener last year, but game two was McNeese, a team far worse than UTSA or Utah State. Through two games last year, the A&M defense had a single sack and 10 tackles for loss. This year, they have seven sacks and 18 TFL.
- One of the things that the Aggies had to improve from last year was the ability to get pressure without blitzing — in other words, from their defensive linemen. Through two games, the Aggies have those seven sacks and have consistently pressured both quarterbacks when they took real drop backs — UTSA only did six times, was hurried five and Rylan Kennedy got a sack on the sixth. More to the point, Aggie defensive ends have six of the seven sacks (Cashius Howell 3, Marco Jones, Sam M’Pemba and Kennedy 1 each).
- With his three sacks on three consecutive snaps Saturday, Howell not only won SEC co-Defensive Player of the Week, but also doubled the sack total of first rounder Shemar Stewart from last year. Now teams like Notre Dame will likely look to limit the damage he does, which could lead to more opportunities for the likes of Jones, Dayon Hayes and TJ Searcy.
- Another major concern coming into the season was the lack of depth at offensive tackle. That depth was tested Saturday when Trey Zuhn came out of the game, and redshirt freshman Robbie Bourdon was up to the challenge. I honestly couldn’t tell much of a difference, and he was especially good in pass blocking. Maybe the Aggies won’t need to go out and get veteran tackles and can go into 2026 with Bourdon and Lamont Rogers as the tackles — but I’m still thinking they will good looking in the portal.
- Last year, Dezz Ricks was target number one for opponents in the passing game. This year, Ricks has 1 tackle and 1 pass broken up. In other words, through two games opponents would rather take their chances with Will Lee than throw at Ricks. Utah State didn’t even try to throw his way. I doubt such a trend will continue, but it does mean good things — so far — for both Ricks and the Aggies. If A&M has two stout corners, then they will be tough to deal with.
- How much better is A&M’s passing game this year? Mario Craver, in two games, has 13 catches for 236 yards. With those numbers alone, he would be seventh in receptions and sixth in yards for the season in 2024. Craver and KC Concepcion are on pace to beat last year’s top receiver, Noah Thomas, by a wide margin in terms of both receptions and yards.
- It may sound silly to say this so early in the season, but this is do or die time for Notre Dame. Miami and A&M are the major games on their schedule; they don’t play another (currently) ranked team all season. But if they end up 10-2 and their best win is over USC, the best argument you can make for them is that they got hot after they played the good teams on their schedule.
- Last season, the trio of Jeremiyah Love, Jadarian Price and QB Riley Leonard carved up the Aggie defense for 198 yards rushing. It was clearly the difference in the game. Against Miami two weekends ago, Notre Dame rushed for less than 100 yards and only gained 3.3 yards per carry. They also only ran Love 10 times for 33 yards, while Price had 6 carries for 45. CJ Carr, who is not nearly the runner Leonard is, had 11 carries — for 16 yards. It would seem likely that Notre Dame goes with more of running back-heavy attack against A&M.
- One player the Aggie defense may have to watch out for that they may not have anticipated having to worry about in early August is Notre Dame tight end Eli Raridon. After catching 11 passes all of last year, he caught 5 passes for 97 yards against Miami. He’s a matchup nightmare at 6-foot-7, so he might be a guy 6-foot-3 Marcus Ratcliffe gets to see a lot of Saturday.
- Last year’s game against Notre Dame was a low point for the A&M offense. They picked up only 246 yards for the game and only 100 through the air. Playing against Notre Dame last week, Miami had 324 total yards. I don’t know if A&M will have that many, but with A&M’s new receiver corps and healthy stable of running backs, they’re very, very likely to exceed 246.
