10 Things for Tuesday

The SEC coaches and ADs are in Destin, Fla., this week to discuss a bunch of different things. NIL will certainly be one of them, but the big issue is how to alter the schedule once Texas and Oklahoma join the conference in 2025.

One thing that won’t be on the table is the idea of “pods” with four teams playing the other permanently while the rest of the schedule is built around that. I said a couple weeks back that the idea seemed to be unpopular in comparison to alternatives, and that may have been an understatement. Pods are, in fact, DOA.

So much for the stupid statement from someone about A&M trying to avoid being in Texas' pod.

What the league’s members are looking at now are whether to go to a 1-7 format, with one permanent rival and seven rotating games, or a 3-6 model, with three permanent opponents (but, unlike pods, the same three for a group) and six rotating games.

Yes, that means they’re looking at both eight and nine game schedules, and it looks like there’s a split among member programs on which way to go.

In the case of A&M, it seems almost certain they’d be in favor of the 3-6. If you go 1-7, then A&M might not play Texas annually (you’re not going to split up Texas and OU), and they may not even get LSU every year. And, I know it would break your hearts, but it would split up the Aggies and hated rival South Carolina.

Texas, likewise, would be on the 3-6 bandwagon. Likewise for Alabama, who wouldn’t want to see either Auburn or Tennessee dropped from their schedules. Georgia would want Auburn and Florida on theirs. Arkansas would want the Aggies, Texas, Missouri…heck, they’d want everyone.

Other schools are more ambivalent. Ole Miss and Mississippi State don’t care as long as they get each other. Vandy won’t care. South Carolina probably won’t either (traitors!). And they’d probably like the idea of one extra non-conference game where they can steamroll a lesser, non-SEC program to improve their bowl standing.

One of the first coaches to meet with the media this morning was Alabama’s Nick Saban. Being that Destin is right on the Gulf Coast, there’s a lot of fishing there and some whoppers told. But St. Nick definitely gave the best deepsea fisherman a run for his money.

"I didn't really say that anybody did anything wrong,” he told reporters.

Wait a second! He said A&M “bought” every player on their team. Not just in the 2022 class, every single one of them. Both are total crap and outright lies, which drew the ire of Jimbo Fisher.

Also, when you say “bought”, that means a program exchanged money directly with a recruit in order to get them to come to their school and play. That is obviously against NCAA rules, even with NIL. In other words, Saban said A&M did something very wrong. It’s also illegal in the state of Texas, so yes, very wrong.

So cut the crap, Nick. You said what you said. Either apologize or own it. Don’t try to weasel your way to some middle ground that doesn’t exist.

Saban went on to say that he has “No problem with Jimbo.” Well, that’s nice, but irrelevant. The issue is that Saban accused A&M of paying recruits, directly – and he did it while talking to potential NIL donors. That’s not only potentially defamatory, but incredibly hypocritical. So while Saban may not have a problem with Jimbo, Jimbo has a problem with him.

When I put together the breakdown of the 2022 Aggie roster by class, I mentioned there were four juniors that I could see going into the draft next year – RB Devon Achane, S Antonio Johnson, OL Layden Robinson and LB Edgerrin Cooper. What I didn’t know is Mel Kiper Jr. of ESPN had put out his first big board for the 2023 draft at about the same time. Love him or hate him, Kiper does tend to hit on popular sentiment on players from about 35,000 feet. In other words, he can be fairly general in his analysis but be in the neighborhood.

Anyway, Kiper mentioned three of those juniors in his column. He has Johnson rated as his top safety, Robinson as his top guard and Achane has the #3 running back. Of course, all of that means squat right now – in June 2021, Oklahoma’s Spencer Rattler was going to be the first overall pick and you see how that went. But what it does indicate is that these three Aggies are already on the NFL’s radar and a good season could mean they’re outta here.

The Aggies have the first of their two primary targets at quarterback coming to visit this weekend. Pittsburgh, Calif. 4-star Jaden Rashada will be in town this weekend, with a pair of potential future bookends – offensive linemen Miles McVay and Chase Bisonitis. Five-star Donte Moore from Detroit should also be in town fairly soon. I think he’s still trying to figure out when, but it definitely appears like he’s going to visit A&M.

A&M will also get a day-tripper early next week. Four-star OLB Tausili Akana, who has been to College Station before, will return for another look next Monday as he makes a quick run through several different schools. Akana is an aggressive edge rusher, so he’d get a lot of work in DJ Durkin’s scheme.

Another Philly area product is making his way down to visit Aggieland. This time, it's 4-star DT Sydir Mitchell, who is massive at 6-foot-6 and 340 pounds. He's also in heavy demand, so the Aggies will have a lot of work to do to land him. But Elijah Robinson has been in that position before.

Tampa, Fla. Gaither ATH Eugene Wilson is likely a wideout at the next level, and the Aggies need a few of those in the 2023 class. This could be more of a get to know you better kind of deal than a real serious pitch for him at this point, but his offer list certainly indicates he's a player.

Not that it means a whole lot, you've still got to win the games you play, but A&M's draw is pretty good.

The Aggies start with No. 4 Oral Roberts (37-17). The two teams had two common opponents, Ole Miss and Dallas Baptist. Oral Roberts went 1-5 against them, while A&M went 3-1. ORU will likely starter their ace, Ledgend Smith (7-4, 2.41 ERA), but he hasn't seen an offense like the Aggies have.

No. 3 in the A&M bracket is Louisiana, who played several teams A&M did -- Arkansas, Texas State, Rice and LSU. They beat Rice twice and lost the other five. A&M beat Rice and Texas State and took 2 of 3 from Arkansas and LSU.

No. 2 is the arch-nemesis: TCU. Coach Jim Schlossnagle's former team ended up 36-20, but was only 11-10 on the road. They also went 1-2 in the Big 12 tournament, beating Baylor before being bounced by Texas and Oklahoma State. They lost 3 of 4 to Texas this year, a team A&M blitzed in Austin. They were swept by Dallas Baptist and lost 2 of 3 to Kentucky. SS Tommy Sacco (.350, 12 HR) is a beast, but the rest of their lineup is average and they've had a lot of trouble with their starting pitching. This team hasn't played like TCU squads of recent years.

If the Aggies advance, they'll probably play #12 national seed Louisville (38-18-1). The Cardinals were 2 and barbecue in the ACC Tournament and were 8-9-1 on the road this year.

Over the long weekend, we went and saw Top Gun: Maverick. If you're an American male of my age, this awesome stuff. After all, we were kids when the original came out. When it starts with the same intro as the original, then busts into "Danger Zone" as the F-18s and F-35s are revving up, it's a quality flashback to years gone by.

Tom Cruise may be a weirdo, but he nails the Maverick character. He's gone from doing reckless stuff just because to doing reckless stuff to prove a point or stop others from doing it. The aviation photography is amazing. It has a nameless, but clearly bad, nemesis and the prototype stick-up-the-ass superior officer doing his best to screw things up.

But Maverick isn't just a pilot, he's a father figure trying to protect Goose's son. That adds an extra element, as does Jennifer Connelly's character (Penny Benjamin of the original flyby "two flight control towers and one admiral's daughter"). He's fearless, but he's matured and values the people around him.

But he's still a badass pilot, and that's what we came to see.

There's some significantly cheesy moments, an opponent that you wouldn't see in reality (and would be smoked by any decent US pilot in an F-35, F-22, F-15 or F-18), a mission that screams for a B-2 in the dead of night and a final scene that strains credulity. But who cares? It's fun, it's exciting and it's funnier than the original. And the Navy just got themselves another generation of pilots.