Scouting the Texas A&M spring game
The Aggies had their spring game over the weekend with little fanfare, even from their own fans who had a much lighter turnout than you’ll see this coming fall. However, there were a number of members from their no. 1 recruiting class on the field, including blue chips Conner Weigman (quarterback), Bryce Anderson (nickel), Denver Harris (cornerback), and Evan Stewart (wide receiver).
The benefit of a full offseason for skill talents is not something to overlook, it’s often just schematic familiarity preventing elite skill athletes from seeing the field, not the ability to match up with upperclassmen opponents.
Beyond the value of checking in on those young stars, you could see a few things on display for A&M’s 2022 team in the spring game. They offered a sense of the current pecking order on the depth chart and also ran several schemes which are presumably a part of the base package. There’s a wide range of opinions on what you can glean from a spring game. In the past I’ve taken lessons which proved false but I’ve also spotted features which proved very true, you just have to be careful to check your assumptions about what you really know. I will say this, there’s a reason Gary Patterson never wanted TCU spring games televised and he’d comment on how he’d carefully watch spring games from opponents.
There’s always something to be learned by watching people try to play football, even if it’s obfuscated by layers of misleading context.
Here’s what I observed from the Aggie spring game and what I think it tells us about their upcoming 2022 season.
Identity features
One aspect of the Aggies which stood out in this game is how massive they are up front on offense. Bryce “the Mountain” Foster was missing as he participates in shot-put in the spring but his backup at center, Matthew Wykoff, is somehow even bigger. They currently have Foster listed at 6-foot-5, 325 pounds and Wykoff at 6-foot-6, 330 pounds. Next to him at left guard, perhaps because Aki Ogunbiyi (6-foot-4, 315 pounds) is out with injury, was Jordan Spasojevic-Moko, a 6-foot-5, 340 pounder. Then they also had Max Wright as the first team tight end, which meant the front six for A&M went like this:
- Left tackle: Trey Zuhn, 6-foot-6, 315 pounds.
- Left guard: Jordan Spasojevic-Moko, 6-foot-5, 340 pounds.
- Center: Matthew Wykoff, 6-foot-6, 330 pounds.
- Right guard: Layden Robinson, 6-foot-4, 320 pounds.
- Right tackle: Reuben Fatheree, 6-foot-8, 320 pounds.
- Tight end: Max Wright, 6-foot-4, 260 pounds.
The group gets lighter if/when Ogunbiyi and Foster rejoin the starting lineup, but this is still a pretty sizable group. As you might expect from such a big group, they ran a lot of downhill, inside zone schemes and then some duo-looking schemes as well.
On the perimeter it’s obvious enough Evan Stewart was the best receiver they had on the field. They’d routinely isolate him on the backside and Haynes King looked for him whenever he could. Including on a mesh play on 3rd and 2 where Stewart wasn’t even in the main pattern. Ainias Smith is the top leading receiver (he was out) and will be back in the slot next season, so there’s two of your starting receivers in 11 personnel (surely the base package).
The rest of the Aggie receivers had very mixed days. The timing and spacing on their routes wasn’t always great, most of them spent the day with defensive backs or linebackers glued to them, and they had a number of bobbles and drops.
All this together spells out an offensive lineup with a big, physical interior and a lot of speed at receiver including a star slot and a true freshman outside. This all calls for a smashmouth spread approach, which we saw and will revisit in the next section.
I didn’t look to clarify which defensive linemen were 1st vs 2nd string but the Aggies do clearly have great depth there and also at defensive back, particularly with 5-stars Denver Harris and Bryce Anderson already in the mix at cornerback and nickel respectively. I’m not totally sure how their secondary will shake out in the fall but I reckon they have a lot of options in who fits where and presumably they’ll look to optimize Demani Richardson and Antonio Johnson, their two returning veterans at safety.
It’ll be pretty shocking if the Aggies don’t play great defense next season. They were all over everything the offense wanted to do in the passing game (even if it was due in large part to familiarity), D.J. Durkin has a solid array of Nick Saban match coverages installed already, the linebackers looked good in coverage, and whoever was playing at D-line for either maroon or white was all up in the quarterback’s business all afternoon.
Interesting schemes
One thing the defense was doing pretty regularly was playing a brand of single-high match coverage with the boundary safety dropping down to cover the weak hook. For instance.
They’re basically playing single-high man with the boundary safety (Demani Richardson) as the weak hook defender in position to help on in-breaking routes. The linebacker on the tight end is all over him, he has help inside from Richardson, and the the other linebacker can chase the running back to the flat without worrying about leaving the middle vacant against a receiver running a slant.
You don’t really want to throw the ball over the middle against this, especially not if hurried on a windy day, as Haynes King does in clip three. Ideally you’d find a release throwing something like the slot fade they attempt in clip two. King found that one but takes a second to reset and then can’t really get the ball to the right spot with the right timing, perhaps wind was a factor but Bryce Anderson (nickel) is also not yielding much space.
I’m not sure if Johnson or Richardson is better as the boundary safety, poaching routes over the middle, but to me it would make sense to play them as your two safeties and use Bryce Anderson or Jaylon Jones in the nickel where they’d be playing a lot of man coverage. If one of those two (Johnson or Richardson) is particularly good at reading an offense or quarterback’s eyes and breaking on passes they could rack up a ton of PBUs and picks in this role.
Offensively, the Aggies were an RPO spread team on Saturday, as they were in 2021. When you have a dynamic slot like Ainias Smith and you really want to run the ball downhill with a big line and good running backs, you tend to default to at least incorporating RPOs to try and keep opponents from sneaking defenders into the box.
Now they have an additional weapon who can help them stretch the field some in the RPO game.
Overall, they were basically running 2021 plays which are already on film, as is customary for a spring game where you may not have installed a lot of new wrinkles for your team and certainly don’t want to show them even if you have.
Having Evan Stewart as a deep alert was something you can’t hide though, unless he doesn’t play or you tell the quarterback to ignore him, which you wouldn’t. I’m sure they’ll be looking to feature him heavily next season, they kinda have to because the rest of the wide receiving corps (aside from Smith) can’t really be relied on.
Last year Zach Calzada was throwing a lot of hitch routes on RPOs, they didn’t have a vertical threat to go win 1-on-1 balls down the field.
Texas A&M’s quarterbacks
Here’s the thing about running your 2021 offense in the 2022 spring game. We can compare and contrast how different players look while executing the same system.
In particular, we could gauge Haynes King, Max Johnson, and Conner Weigman against last year’s starting quarterback Zach Calzada. As of right now…you would have to say the best A&M quarterback transferred away to Auburn.
King’s ability to see the field, throw with timing, and throw with accuracy wasn’t as good as what we saw from Calzada last season. Calzada was routinely victimized by receiver drops and an ever-shuffling offensive line, but he made faster decisions and better throws than King or Johnson did in the spring game. As for Weigman, his timing was particularly poor and because of wind or some other factor he missed a ton of throws. I wouldn’t make too much of the spring game for Weigman, although I also doubt he’s ready to steer the ship in the fall.
For Johnson and King it was more concerning. Jimbo has plenty of time to design the offense around their respective strengths and maximizing Stewart, but I think there was at least some expectation that one of the quarterbacks would be better in the Calzada offense than Calzada and they were not in this scrimmage.
Much is said about King’s legs and the extra factor they bring to the equation. He pulled the ball around the edge on a zone-option play and beat the scraping linebacker before pulling away for a touchdown. No doubt King brings real value-add with those schemes, but how much would they be willing to run a 6-foot-3, 200 pounder in the SEC who’s coming off an injury? Johnson was fairly accurate in this game, I’ve always thought he’d end up being the guy but he needs more time in the offense to get the timing and reads right. He also suffered from not having the 1st team O-line or Evan Stewart. He’s the least impressive physical talent of the three (most accurate though) and without better command of the offense isn’t too exciting yet. Weigman has a lot of tools and I’ve seen him execute RPOs on quick drops in the high school game but his timing needs a lot of work in this offense. It’s likely his head is still swimming from trying to execute a ton of new progressions while reading new defenses and playing against a fierce pass-rush and much, much faster players than in high school.
Texas A&M has a really tough schedule in 2022, drawing Florida and “rival” South Carolina from the East, facing the normal SEC West gauntlet with road trips against the Alabama schools. Their non-conference is a little stouter than normal with Appalachian State, Miami, and Sam Houston State and then UMASS for their “SEC bye.”
With good quarterback play and a healthy year from Stewart, they could be very good. Most likely though we’ll see glimpses of potential but a lot of inconsistency as they build toward a future season when more of their recently recruited blue chips start to mature.
What did you make of the Texas A&M spring game? Discuss for free on the Flyover Football board!
