AggieYell Mailbag
Here’s this week’s AggieYell Mailbag, sponsored by Tipton Auto Group:
Q: How is it that Auburn, Oklahoma, and Mizzou are getting a lot more love from the press than the Aggies? We have as much or more talent than all of those teams. Is it our QB or the collapse of the team last season or …? (Aggdoc)
A: I think it’s the idea of being edgy, or controversial. Auburn and OU weren’t good last year and Missouri is undergoing major changes, so kissing up to them could draw some extra attention than picking teams who have been talked about a lot lately. Writers don’t care if you’re an angry reader, a happy reader or a curious reader, as long as you’re reading.
Q: Rank your favorite A&M uniforms all time between Football, Basketball, and Baseball. A top 4 or 5 would be cool.
I really love our 1939 throwbacks (even tho we sucked in them), and I love our Baseball “Heritage” uniform with the Texas Aggies in sans script font. (Dp47)
A: I wasn’t a fan of the throwbacks, but maybe that’s because they played like crap in them. I DID like the 1998 throwbacks; those were nice.
I’ll give you five, and you can make whatever order you want out of them (and I like the classics most, so we can get that out of the way):
Original icy whites
All blacks at Mississippi State
1998 throwbacks
Basketball team in black
Baseball Sunday (USA) uniforms
Q: What role will Lyle Hemphill have in the defense this year? How much do you think his presence will help shore up our defense to see improvement from last season – especially in the secondary? (Shanehammett12)
A: I hope a lot, because that’s the primary reason he’s here. He’s going to have a role in game planning and scheming, but he’s the guy they really hope can sort out the mess that was the secondary last year (safeties especially).
Q: What’s your favorite part of your job? Least favorite? (TAMU-83)
A: Favorite part: going to games.
Least favorite: dealing with the board after losses, with traveling to actually get to the games being a close second.
Q: Let’s take Tank Jones and his recruitment currently. It sounds as if he’s going to make a call soon between us, Bama, and Oregon (Note: Jones committed to Oregon Thursday afternoon). So the question is, outside of coaches reaching to him to try and sway him, do they come back and up the NIL offer a bit? Is an NIL offer fairly locked down by this point in a recruitment? I’m sure it depends on the recruit, but any insight is appreciated.
A: It’s not locked down until they actually sign something. I’m sure that Jones’ people tried to get A&M and Alabama to up their ante, but both teams have other positions that are more pressing needs.
Through the years, we always talk about the S&C coach. Black Death is our savior in the 4th Qtr, etc. How has this progressed over the last couple of years with the guy we got from LSU? More curious on how you see our strength & stamina.
That’s hard to tell from watching a half hour or 45 minutes of a training camp practice, but coach Elko did say during his first press conference that they felt like the stamina, especially, was not there last season and they were seriously trying to address that in the offseason.
Now that we’ve turned over a significant portion of our baseball roster, and given who we’ve gotten from the portal, kept here on the team, in hindsight, would you have let Earley go in the offseason? (Tsip Despiser)
I haven’t changed my opinion (and would have let him go), but I’m glad A&M has been able to go out and add some weapons for him to work with as he takes another shot at it this year.
Q: Who are the possible freshman phenoms? (Travster23)
A: I want to see Jerome Myles, but right now my pick would easily be Marco Jones. The Aggies need a pass rusher and he didn’t get six sacks in the spring game on just a fluke. He’s explosive, he’s gotten bigger and stronger and I think he could be an impact player right off the bat.
Q: How much more NIL money will we allocate to keys that would have been spent on tank? (Chickennugget666777)
A: I don’t know, because I don’t know Jones’ number. I do know Keys’ number, and I’m guessing it wouldn’t have been easy to hit both.
Q: Are football drills on the first day about the dumbest use of time you can imagine? OMG! Running under a trampoline. Sprinting 5 yards to block a punt. Pushing a blocking sled 2 feet. (Richard23)
A: Actually, running under a trampoline is a really important one because it reminds players that they need to stay low. What’s a common gripe about high school linemen? That they pop up too fast after the snap, and that takes away from their power. If you hit your head on the trampoline, you know you’re screwing up.
Regardless, it’s not dumber than the first day of spring training in baseball. I loathed that. “All right, line up over here and practice getting off the mound and covering first.”
“I’m not a pitcher.”
“Do it anyway.”
Q: If you were Elko what drills would you run on practice day 1. (H273)
A: The ones that win you 10 games.
Q: Does Klein use a play script for the first 10-20 plays? (Tsmith3001)
A: I don’t think so, but I’ll ask him next week.
Q: One more question based upon Wed. Practice Notes.
The OL appears to be about 320 lbs as an avg. and the DT’s are the same maybe slightly under 300 depending on a particular guy. The DE’s are slimmed down at 250-260 lbs. this year. The question is, are the DE’s able to get around or by our tackles, and secondly, are our DE’s holding up against the run when they’ve got 320+ coming at them. (Tsip Despiser)
A: I don’t know yet. We don’t get to see these things, and they’re not in pads yet anyway. But they’ve got to think it’s going to be more effective, because they are certainly embracing the idea.
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Q: Did we ever get an exact diagnosis of Moss’s injury last year. From the way he’s already recovered, it doesn’t seem like it was a full ACL tear. Is that correct? (Naytch)
A: We never did get a diagnosis. All I can say is that he is out there without a brace, which is pretty impressive.
Q: Do you think any of our fish RB’s will see the field this year? With our injury history I would think if we got a comfortable lead we could sit our starting 3 with only a little drop off. Or is that thinking why I’ve never coached? (H273)
A: I don’t think you’re going to see much of them this year. The idea is to give them a year to develop, because you’re going to be down three running backs next year for sure and Rueben Owens will be draft eligible.
Q: I keep seeing Tristen Keys as a reason to keep a sizable portion of our budget available.
Who was the other WR that we were after? Not Boobie Feaster…maybe Chase?
Is he still an option? (Richard23)
A: Yeah, Chase Mathews. He is still an option, but I’m not hearing anything good for A&M on that front at the moment.
Q: Why does the SEC Network only show games where A&M loses?
A: I have no idea. I watched 30 seconds of SEC Network this afternoon and that was literally the first time I’ve turned it on in four months.
Is the TE Armstrong our secret weapon? (LTGrenader)
Not sure how secret he is, but it’s possible. I’ve been banging the drum for him for well over a year, and he’s imposing at 6-foot-7 and 275 pounds.
Q: I have seen some comparisons between Marcel Reed and Jayden Daniels. After all, their first-year stats are actually quite similar.
Jayden Daniels
2019 (ASU)
12 games played
205/338, 60.7% completion
2,943 yards passing, 17 TD, 2 INT
149.2 rating
355 yards rushing, 125 attempts, 3 TD
Marcel Reed
2024 (A&M)
10 games played
147/240, 61.3% completion
1,864 yards passing, 15 TD, 6 INT
142.1 rating
547 yards rushing, 116 attempts, 7 TD
What is something you hope to see Marcel Reed work on this fall camp going into the year to improve in areas where Jayden Daniels excelled? What is something you think Marcel Reed already has over Jayden Daniels at this stage going into Year 2? (MC9008)
A: One thing that Daniels did from year one at LSU — where he really wasn’t all that impressive — to year two when he was dynamite is he became more decisive. He trusted his eyes and got the ball out; if nobody’s open, take off.
Reading the defense and getting through his progression were two areas where he also improved dramatically. Finally, he got more accurate as a passer, going from a guy who was iffy the intermediate and deep passing games to someone who could make all the throws at any time.
If Reed can improve the way Daniels did, A&M will be extremely tough to beat.
Q: Do you get a feeling with your fellow reporters that A&M will be better prepared team this year? (Wick)
A: It’s still really early, but practices sure seem like they’re more efficient this year.
Q: So if Oregon/Nike backed up the armored truck to get Tank Jones’ commitment, how does that work within the new NCAA rules limiting schools to $20.5m in total payments this year to all of their players (all sports) and NIL deals that have to be approved as “market-based” by the clearinghouse (Deloitte)? (Rbodnar)
A: The clearinghouse has already been defanged and a deal with Nike would not be covered by the $20.5 million cap for universities. It would be an outside deal and those aren’t limited.
Q: What are 3 things you are looking to see improvement in for Klein’s play calling early this season? (RacerRod)
A: More RPO calls, more throws to the tight end and fewer runs up the gut on second down.
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