10 Things for Tuesday

Here’s your weekly dose of TTFT:

1. One area where Marcel Reed can still improve is his completion percentage. After going 17-37 against Notre Dame, his percentage dropped to under 59%. That’s not great, but you know what is? His yards per completion (15.6), which is seventh in the nation. I’ll take that, but I’ll bet we see more of the short passing game this weekend than against Notre Dame — which is a safe bet, considering there was no short passing game. Everything was down the field.
2. Auburn comes in to this matchup furious with SEC officiating and they can’t be blamed for that feeling. They were massively screwed at Oklahoma, with the officials missing obvious pass interference calls and not calling an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on OU when they scored a touchdown on a play where Isaiah Sategna looked like he was going off the field, then stopped and ran down the sideline uncovered. They were bad enough that the SEC had to release a statement saying, in essence, “Yeah, they screwed up.” But what’s going to happen? Not a darned thing. The SEC is the elite football conference in America and they have absolutely terrible officials that they coddle. This whole officiating group should be fired. But they’ll walk with nothing more than a slap on the wrist and blow some other game this week.
3. Auburn is ranked 90th against the pass after four games — Baylor, Ball State, South Alabama and OU. Their two Power 4 opponents threw for nearly 700 yards against them, and corner Jay Crawford is unlikely to play this week. OU’s John Mateer threw for 271 yards after injuring his thumb in the first quarter badly enough that he’ll need surgery to repair it. Add in that A&M’s receivers are by far the best that Auburn has faced and there’s at least reason for A&M to have confidence — but they’d better not be cocky. Last year in Auburn should have taught them that.
4. Former A&M safety and 5-star Jacoby Mathews has joined the Auburn program after a year out of football. But he has not played as of yet and he is not on the depth chart at either safety position.
5. Auburn QB Jackson Arnold is a contradiction. He is completing just under 70% of his passes and he hasn’t thrown an interception since the middle of last year (when he was a Sooner). But he’s only averaging 10.4 yards per completion with a long pass of 46 yards. A&M’s quarterbacks are averaging 15.7 yards a completion. Arnold has also been sacked 16 times — 10 times by OU alone — at least in part because he continues to be indecisive and holds onto the ball too long.
6. Aggies remember Cam Coleman‘s great performance against A&M last year, when he caught 7 passes for 128 yards and 2 scores. But that was against a secondary lacking Will Lee after the first drive and Tyreek Chappell for the whole season. Add in Dezz Ricks several levels higher than he was last year and the Aggies seem to be better prepared for the deep ball — and, even with Arnold’s hesitancy and a sketchy offensive line, it seems like a safe bet they’ll try to find out.
7. A&M’s conference opponents for 2026-29 were just announced, and A&M will go on the road to LSU and Missouri two seasons in a row. That, frankly, is ridiculous. If these are two permanent opponents, why shouldn’t they come to Kyle Field next year? The answer, I’m sure, is scheduling issues for the other guys, but I’m sure the “SEC IS SCREWING US!” crowd will think otherwise. And can you really blame them if they do?
8. It is seriously going to take Georgia 15 years to come to Kyle Field. They won’t show up until 2027. That means A&M will play Texas at home twice in the time it took Georgia to show up once — and that will only be Texas’ third year in the SEC. Make it make sense.
9. I got a hoot out of SEC Network saying that the conference set up rivalries that are “travel friendly”, with an average of 281 miles. The distance from College Station to Columbia, Mo.? About 680 miles as the crow flies. REEEEEEAL travel friendly.
10. 2026’s schedule is a BEAST. Roadies to Baton Rouge, both Columbia’s, Norman and Tuscaloosa and home games against Tennessee, Texas, Arkansas and Kentucky? Not many layups to be had there. It’s pretty brutal, really. The backups on the offensive line had better grow up fast (or A&M hits the portal for some veterans).