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Texas A&M Football: Get excited to see freshmen in big roles in 2015

By Michael Taglienti

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The Texas A&M football team no longer needs to rely on freshmen to come in and start immediately to be competitive in the SEC.

The 2015 season will mark the fourth year that Kevin Sumlin has been the head coach of the Texas A&M Aggies. With four recruiting classes under his belt, Aggie fans should be excited to see true freshmen in the starting lineup against Arizona State on September 5.

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Sumlin has done a tremendous job of bringing talent into the Aggie program and turning over the roster. The previous roster was built to compete in the Big 12.

Former Texas A&M head coach Mike Sherman used a 3-4 defense which featured, long, athletic outside linebackers like Von Miller to defend in space against the spread offenses in the Big 12. When Sumlin took over the program in 2012, he recognized that the Aggies needed more size and depth in the trenches.

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The Aggies were moving from the Big 12 to the SEC. Sumlin knew that most SEC games were physical wars of attrition that were won and lost at the line of scrimmage.

Sumlin wanted to move to a 4-3 defense and to do that, he needed to bring more defensive linemen to A&M. He signed 20 defensive linemen in his first four recruiting classes. Those four classes have contributed to the Aggies having quality depth along the defensive line for the first time during Sumlin’s tenure.

The Aggies have signed 16 offensive linemen in their last four recruiting classes. Sherman recruited arguably the best offensive line class in NCAA history to A&M in 2010. All six offensive linemen signed in the 2010 class started at least one game for the Aggies.

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Three of the linemen became All-Americans and four of them were drafted by NFL teams. Sherman signed a class that had three left tackles who were first-round draft picks in it. It is doubtful that Sumlin, or anyone else, will experience that kind of success rate when recruiting the offensive line.

In senior Mike Matthews and redshirt junior Germain Ifedi, the Aggies have All-SEC caliber players on the offensive line that came from Sumlin’s first recruiting class. The Aggies began fall camp before the 2015 season with the prospect of fielding an offensive line made up entirely of upperclassmen. That would have been a first under Sumlin at A&M.

The Aggies will likely start three true freshmen in 2015 with a number of others expected to see significant playing time. During his first few years in Aggieland, Sumlin was forced to start true freshmen because there were no other options at the position.

In 2015 he has plenty of options, but some freshmen  will  start because they are simply better than the upperclassmen. The Aggies now have the luxury of only starting freshmen who are elite football players instead of because of need at a position.

Daylon Mack is expected to start at nose tackle against ASU. Mack is a 5-star prospect who was ranked as the No. 14 overall recruit in the nation by 247Sports.com.

He has been strong enough to play in college since his sophomore year of high school. Mack possesses a very rare blend of strength and explosive quickness. He dominated some of the best offensive line recruits in the country at the Under Armour All-Star game. Mack is the most talented defensive tackle to suit up for the Aggies since Ty Warren. He should give the Aggies and immediate boost to their run defense.

Christian Kirk is another five-star member of the Aggies 2015 recruiting class. He is expected to start in the slot for the Aggies. Kirk was ranked as the No. 1 recruit in Arizona and the No. 4 receiver in the nation.

He enrolled at A&M in January and participated in spring practices. The Aggies return four receivers who caught at least 29 passes in 2014, but Kirk was too talented to sit on the sidelines. He is a dynamic play-maker who is a threat to score every time he touches the ball. In addition to starting at slot receiver in 2015, Kirk may also return punts.

The surprise starter among the freshmen is offensive guard Keaton Sutherland. The four-star recruit from Flower Mound (TX) High School was expected to redshirt in 2015 while veterans like Junior Eluemunor and Jeremiah Stuckey started at offensive guard.

Like Kirk, Sutherland enrolled at A&M in January and participated in spring practice. He impressed the coaches and his teammates enough where he is expected to start at left guard against ASU.

These three freshmen will start for the Aggies in 2015 but plenty of their classmates are expected to see extensive playing time. Justin Dunning, Kyler Murray, Jordan Davis and Richard Moore are all true freshmen who will see the field a lot in 2015.

When Sumlin arrived at A&M in 2012 he was forced by necessity to play some true freshmen before they were really ready for college football. In his fourth year with the Aggies,  Sumlin can now play true freshmen because they are simply too good to keep off the field.

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