10 Things for Tuesday
Since we’re at the midpoint of Texas A&M’s season, it’s a great time to look at five preseason predictions I made that are right, and five that…maybe aren’t that good.
Five I nailed:
1. A&M’s offensive line would be better. Pretty easy guess, I suppose, but they’ve definitely made it look good. A&M is second nationally in tackles for loss allowed and have only given up seven sacks on the season — four to Auburn. Against Florida, they posted a clean stat sheet with no sacks, tackles for loss or pressures allowed. That’s why the Aggies are in the top 25 in total offense right now.
2. The Aggies would have better defensive end play that most observers expected. A big thank you very much to Cashius Howell for making this one work, but it’s not just him in recent weeks. Dayon Hayes was the SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week last week and TJ Searcy improves every week. But Howell is terrorizing opponents in a way we expected Nic Scourton to.
3. The Texas offensive line would not be good. Actually, it’s more like they stink, but it’s a start. I figured that, with so many changes and new starters, it would just be too much to ask for them to pick up where the 2024 offensive line left off.
4. This is the best A&M linebacker corps in a long time. That’s certainly come to pass. Taurean York has been fantastic in conference play and Daymion Sanford has been a machine since entering the starting lineup. Add in the return of Scooby Williams, who was playing great before he got hurt, and Jordan Lockart and you’ve got a lot to work with.
5. I don’t get the hype around Florida. It just seemed premature after they struggled for most of last year and DJ Lagway still hadn’t shown me much. Looks like that was right.
Five I nailed totally missed on:
6. A&M needs more depth at receiver. Yeah, forget this one. They’ve got the two they need in KC Concepcion and Mario Craver. Terry Bussey looks like he’s improved. And that looks like enough.
7. Texas’ defensive line won’t be good. Batting .500 ain’t bad.
8. The lack of depth at defensive tackle could be an issue. So far, it’s been the farthest thing from the truth. The trio of Albert Regis, Tyler Onyedim and DJ Hicks have gotten occasional help from Dealyn Evans and the results have been great: 63 tackles, 7 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks. More importantly, they have done a great job against the run.
9. South Carolina will still be good. They’re not just not good, in some places they’re really, really bad. So I blew this one.
10. The Aggies may need a freshman to step up at corner. Um…no. The improvement of Dezz Ricks and the presence of Julio Humphrey to go with Will Lee has been more than sufficient, especially when you add Tyreek Chappell and Jordan Shaw at nickel.
