The Texas A&M football team hit the daily double Saturday. The Aggies were dominating in a 28-14 victory at Mississippi State. That in itself was quite an accomplishment, considering how much frustration the Aggies had endured in their last three losses in Starkville. And while A&M was winning its first true road game in almost a year, what happened elsewhere in the Southeastern Conference made its day even better.
Tennessee and Auburn, the only ranked teams left on A&M’s schedule both lost. South Carolina beat 14th-ranked Auburn, 30-22, knocking the Tigers out of the poll and Kentucky defeated 18th-ranked Tennessee, 34-7, dropping the Vols from the Top 25.
The Aggies (3-1) are all alone in second place in the SEC West heading into their bye week. Second-ranked Alabama also helped the Aggies with a 41-24 victory over third-ranked Georgia. Alabama could continue to be A&M’s best friend by beating Tennessee, LSU and Auburn.
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A&M with a strong finish could make a New Year’s Six bowl or possibly the College Football Playoff if it were to win out.
Georgia (3-1) and Florida (2-1) are scheduled to meet Nov. 7 with the winner having the inside track on reaching the SEC championship game against Alabama, which would have to lose two games to open the door for someone else. That’s highly unlikely. Actually, the best thing for A&M would be for Alabama to keep winning.
People are going to look closer at A&M’s 52-24 loss at Alabama after Saturday’s results. They’ll realize the game was closer than the score indicated. A&M rolled up 450 yards on Alabama by converting 10 of 17 third downs. Georgia, by comparison against Alabama, had 414 yards and was 7 of 16 on third downs. Georgia also had three turnovers, one more than A&M.
A&M’s stock will continue to rise as long as it wins, which seems more likely than it did two weeks ago. A&M doesn’t have a ranked team left on the schedule. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy, just easier. It’s the SEC, all road games are tough and A&M has to travel to South Carolina, Tennessee and Auburn. Each team is 2-2 and in need of a win or two over ranked teams to make its season a success. That kind of was A&M before it defeated fourth-ranked Florida and exorcised the Starkville demons.
There were many things impressive about A&M’s victory over Mississippi State, starting with how it dominated the line of scrimmage. Scoring and yards are up in the SEC, but you still have to be able to run the football and stop the run, and the Aggies were great at both. A&M rushed for 186 yards, several times just gashing a good defense. On the flip side, the Aggies were able to consistently rush three and still pressure the quarterback because they could fight through five offensive linemen. A&M also did a great job of bringing timely pressure, leading to six sacks.
A&M’s passing attack, which was coming off back-to-back 330-yard plus games, wasn’t spectacular, but it was effective, including a 51-yard touchdown catch and run by redshirt freshman Chase Lane four plays after Mississippi State got back in the game on a 60-yard interception return. Just like that, A&M regained its two-touchdown lead and the Bulldogs really didn’t have a chance.
A&M’s kicking game, which has been pretty average this season other than a short game-winning field goal against Florida, came up with a blocked punt that led to a touchdown and all-everything performer Ainias Smith had a 22-yard punt return.
A&M’s solid play in all three phases was the biggest story Saturday. All those other developments in the SEC benefited the Aggies, but they would have meant nothing had A&M not taken care of business. That will be A&M’s challenge moving forward, just taking care of business.
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A&M climbed four spots to seventh in the Associated Press Top 25 college football poll on Sunday.
The Aggies are ranked ninth in the USA Today coaches’ poll.
It is the highest A&M has been ranked since it was seventh in Week 10 of the 2016 season by both AP and the coaches. The Aggies were ranked fourth that week in the initial College Football Playoff poll. The Aggies lost that week at Mississippi State, falling to 10th by AP and eighth by the CFP.
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The last time A&M didn’t play a ranked team in its last six regular season games was in 1994 when the Aggies were 5-0-1 and finished 10-0-1 with the blemish a 21-21 tie with SMU. A&M was on NCAA probation that year and was ineligible for the Southwest Conference championship and a bowl game. Along with the tie in the eighth game against SMU, which finished 1-9-1 and didn’t win a league game, the Aggies struggled to beat Rice 7-0 in the seventh game. Rice was 5-6 that year.