10 Things for Tuesday

Here’s the latest TTFT, sponsored by Brent Campbell:

1. Indiana’s 16-0 season and national championship was something truly remarkable and probably won’t be repeated. Not that there won’t be another team to go unbeaten, but to be this old. 

Indiana didn’t have seniors, they had senior citizens. I joke, of course, but when the average age of your team is nearly 23, you have some guys who are long in the tooth. They’re also stronger, more physically developed and able to handle 18, 19, 20-year-olds.

Indiana has a lot of players with four years or more of collegiate experience — 25 of them, in fact. Sixteen of the 22 regular starters had four years or more in college football. Their average time playing college football was 3.9 years, which in most cases means you’re getting ready for the combine or looking for a job. 

Curt Cignetti played the transfer portal to perfection, looking for veterans who could quickly turn a program around and could beat on teams with younger rosters. It worked. He has guys on his roster that are using their Covid years, for Pete’s sake! 

Getting mature players who have several years in college S&C systems we see more and more of in the transfer portal. Some teams, like A&M, are using those players for a year or two to buy time for high school signees with bright future. But I don’t think anyone’s going to be able to do it to the extent Indiana did this year.

2. Going into this year, while I didn’t think the Aggies would go 11-2, I did think they were a deeper, more talented team with fewer holes. Apparently other programs agreed with that, because the 11 scholarship players that went into the portal were snapped up very quickly.

Jayvon Thomas was the last to pick a school, signing with SMU today (likely to replace another former A&M corner, Deuce Harmon). So the list of players and where they went is as follows:

Thomas: SMU

Theo Ohrstrom: SMU

Jonte Newman: Texas

Jordan Pride: Southern Miss

Solomon Williams: Cal

Tristan Jernigan: Cal

Izaiah Williams: K-State

Dealyn Evans: Mississippi State

Rylan Kennedy: FSU

Miles O’Neill: UNC

Cobey Sellers: Vanderbilt

That is a highly respectable list of locations. The Aggies had three transfers in the SEC, six in the ACC, one in the Big 12 and one in the Sun Belt. Everyone landed on their feet quite nicely. 

3. The Aggies had by far the fewest transfer portal entries this time around. Here’s the damage report as it seems to be at this point:

Alabama – 23

Arkansas – 35

Auburn – 36

LSU – 35

Florida – 32

OU – 28

Texas – 26

Missouri – 25

Kentucky – 23

South Carolina – 22

Ole Miss – 19

Vandy – 16

A&M – 11

4. One of A&M’s bigger transfer portal signings (literally and figuratively) was former North Carolina defensive tackle CJ Mims. At this point, the Aggies could well have a starting defensive line of Mims, DJ Hicks, TJ Searcy and Marco Jones. To keep it short, CJ, DJ, TJ and MJ.

5. If you’ve watched any of the Aggie basketball team, you know Buckyball is very up-tempo. He told us shortly after he arrived that he wants a shot up in four seconds, which isn’t easy to do — but they’ve done a pretty good job coming close. Basketball is obviously a sport that requires superior conditioning, but the Aggies may still be able to wear opponents down.

After the Texas game, forward Rashuan Agee said, “They were talking about how they’re gonna whoop us and do all this stuff to us. Then, later in the game, they couldn’t talk trash because they couldn’t breathe.”

6. One of the things coach Bucky McMillan was hoping to see this year was a return to form of Rylan Griffen, who shot well at Alabama but really struggled at Kansas. He may be getting his wish, because Griffen is heating up. Since conference play began, he’s hitting 50% of his 3-pointers and has scored in double digits three times. He’s one of six Aggies scoring in double figures (including the injured Mackenzie Mgbako), ranking third on the team with 11.1 points per game. He’s second on the team in 3-point shooting percentage for players with more than 20 attempts at 42.7%. Ruben Dominguez leads every with a 45.6% shooting percentage from 3, 

7. This kind of goes back to the first point about mature players being able to physically dominate younger guys, but guess who’s second in the SEC with eight double-doubles? A&M’s Rashaun Agee. The leader is Florida center Rueben Chinyelu, who has 10. Chinyelu is 6-foot-11; Agee is generously listed at 6-foot-8 and is probably closer to 6-foot-5. He’s giving up several inches to nearly every SEC big man — but he’s also 25. 

8. A&M’s scoring offense is currently ranked sixth in the nation (third in the SEC) at 93 points a game. They’re 289th in scoring defense at 78 points a game. That’s part of what comes with such an up-tempo offense. But it doesn’t mean that the Aggies haven’t improved on the defensive end. They’re first in the conference (10th nationally) in turnovers forced per game, second in steals per game (19th nationally) at 9.7 and third in turnover margin. 

9. The Aggies play Mississippi State tomorrow night at Reed Arena, and the Bulldogs don’t seem to be very good. They’re 10-8, 2-3 in conference. State started off like a house on fire, beating Texas in overtime and blowing out Oklahoma. Since then, they’ve really gone in the tank offensively, scoring in the 60s in two of their last three games (all losses). But they have one guy who can go off and score in bunches: guard Josh Hubbard, who has already gone for more than 30 points twice and 20 points twice more in SEC play. If the Aggies can limit him, they should be in good position.

10. Even though it’s just mid-January, Texas A&M already has 10 commits for its 2027 class, the most recent being Kaeden Scott Sunday night. All 10 are 4-stars, and that has A&M ranked fourth nationally right now. It could get better, because the Aggies are looking strong for a lot of other big names in this class. The nation’s top player, CB John Meredith, has a lot of analysts believing he’ll choose A&M in the end. Five-star offensive linemen Albert Simien and Kennedy Brown could also fall Texas A&M’s way. Top running back Landen Williams-Callis also seems to be leaning towards A&M. This could get really, really good for the Aggies, and they may have their best offensive line recruiting class since 2010, when they added Luke Joeckel, Jake Matthews, Cedric Ogbuehi and Jarvis Harrison.

Our sponsor

Sponsored by Brent Campbell, Fighting Texas Aggie Class of 1998. Brent is a Commercial Real Estate Broker, serving all of Central Texas and specializing in sales, leasing & development. He leads a retail acquisition and sales team and was recognized by the Austin Business Journal as a Commercial Real Estate Heavy Hitter in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020 & 2023.

In the last 22 years, he has closed deals with a total transactional value of over $375 million and has leased more than 4.5 million square feet. Brent currently serves as the president of the board of directors for Habitat Homes, Inc. and Pathways Youth and Family Services. He is a former president of the Heart of Round Rock Neighborhood Association and a former member of the Round Rock Zoning Advisory Committee, the Round Rock Business and Retention Committee, and the City of Round Rock Ethics Commission, which has led him to begin developing in Williamson and Travis County.

An Austin native, Brent lives in Round Rock where he and his wife have raised four boys. Brent works for Don Quick and Associates, Inc. in Round Rock, TX and can be reached at [email protected].