Texas A&M football got off to a horrid start to its 2017 season on Sunday night and here’s why they’re doomed.
In just over a quarter, Texas A&M football went from potentially huge statement win to heart-breaking loss. If you talked to any Aggie fan, they’d still tell you that they are in shock regarding the way their team lost to UCLA.
The Bruins were down 44-10 and engineered one of the best comebacks in college football history. Josh Rosen led the comeback effort and gave the Bruins a 45-44 win thanks to four second-half touchdowns.
The season seemed to go down the drain in just a quarter of play, but there are still 11 games left on the schedule. Is there still hope? Probably not.
Let’s take a look at five reasons why the Aggies are doomed this year.
5. Ailing defense
Let’s face it, losing Donovan Wilson for “a long time” won’t be any easier on a secondary that just allowed 490-plus passing yards to Josh Rosen. Although UCLA might have the best passing attack the Aggies will see all year, it was still a complete second-half meltdown.
Injuries have plagued the defense, too. Wilson is just the latest to fall victim to a long-term injury as the defense has been cursed, it seems, over the past few years.
Texas A&M is thin at linebacker, the defensive backfield took a major hit and the team’s lack of depth seemed to hurt them late in the game against UCLA. The defense was gassed and Rosen took full advantage of that, putting together a 34-point comeback.
Moreover, defensive end Michael Clemons has been nicked up and Clifford Chapman’s unspecified absence takes away depth from the secondary. This team is ailing defensively and that could hurt down the stretch.
4. Back-breaking loss to UCLA killed confidence
Going up 38-10 at halftime against UCLA raised questions in the Bruins’ fan base. Was Josh Rosen broken? Was Jim Mora on his way out of town? Would the Bruins be able to make a bowl after a 4-8 season in 2016? Then the script flipped.
Texas A&M melted down in the second half after taking a 44-10 lead. In fact, the Aggies allowed 35 consecutive second-half points, allowing the Bruins to score the go-ahead touchdown on a fake spike with about a minute left in the fourth.
The loss seemed to hurt more than a blowout would have. Heck, if the Aggies were to lose by 2-3 touchdowns, players and coaches probably wouldn’t continue to lose sleep at night. The reoccurring thought among the fan base is obvious: what went wrong?
Everyone seemed to crumble when the lights got brighter, including Kevin Sumlin. The team lacked confidence the second the Bruins started to reach the end zone. This is the type of loss that could deflate a season, and it will.
3. Grueling SEC schedule
Man, things just don’t get easier for a team that was just deflated like a balloon three weeks after a birthday party. The Aggies look like a defeated boxer seconds after getting knocked out in a heavyweight fight.
Despite the lumps and a major black eye, the Aggies must move forward and treat Week 2 like it’s the first game of the season — no matter how cliche that might be. Nicholls State is on deck and the Aggies will surely get a nice rebound victory before facing UL-Lafayette for another walk-in-the-park, on paper, in Week 3.
That’s when things get tough. Hosting Arkansas, South Carolina and Alabama in back-to-back-to-back weeks won’t yield much success. The Aggies could easily lose two of those games and fall to 3-3 on the year heading into their first SEC road game at Florida.
Mississippi State will be tough at home, Auburn will likely be a top-10 team on Nov. 4 when the annual November slide begins. They will finish the season at Ole Miss and LSU. Things will not get any easier for this team after a grueling SEC schedule.
2. Reliance on true freshman Kellen Mond
When Nick Starkel went down with an injury, the Aggie faithful knew not to expect instant success from Kellen Mond. He had been wildly inaccurate in fall camp and that may have led to Starkel winning the starting job.
Not only was Starkel the best leader on the team, which is a huge loss, but he also had the best grasp of the playbook. He knew how to lead the offense effectively, but going down with a season-ending injury in his first start was a major loss.
Don’t get me wrong, Mond is a talented kid. He was one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks in the country in the 2017 class, but he’s not quite ready. Sumlin was hoping to have him learn under Starkel and take over eventually. However, he’s being forced to grow up fast.
This season is going to be rough because of the reliance on a freshman quarterback. It has worked out for teams like Texas, Ole Miss an Ohio State in the recent past, but Mond isn’t quite at the same level of Shane Buechele, Shea Patterson or J.T. Barrett just yet.
1. Kevin Sumlin’s inevitable departure
After a season-opening loss to UCLA on the road, Texas A&M football seems to be trending in the wrong direction, and for good reason. The Aggies absolutely melted down on national TV and even a Board of Regents member called head coach Kevin Sumlin out.
More: Why Texas A&M needs to let Kevin Sumlin go
Times are tough in College Station. In fact, fans have seemed to turn on the head coach in unison, if they hadn’t already, and the “#FireSumlin” crowd has been out in full force.
It seems as if it’s only a matter of time that Sumlin is let go and if you take a look at the Aggies’ upcoming schedule, he could be gone by the end of the Florida game. He has to face Arkansas and South Carolina, two vastly improved teams, to being SEC play and then hosting Alabama could be a nightmare.
Florida on the road could be the literal final straw.
Don’t be surprised if he’s on his way out of town right before the Aggies’ bye week on Oct. 21. If that’s the case, this team will have no consistent direction.
Next: College Football: Top 50 breakout candidates for 2017
Even now, the team is constantly distraction by hot seat talk and after the meltdown loss against UCLA, it has only been ramped up. Too many distractions for success this year.