Alabama Football: Game-by-game predictions for the defending champions
4. Texas A&M (Sept. 22)
The Texas A&M Aggies have potential to be very good…in a couple years. With Kellen Mond potentially beating out Nick Starkel at quarterback, a huge recruiting success this offseason, and Jimbo Fisher taking over the program, the Aggies are doing everything right working towards building their program. However, it will indeed take a few years.
Position battles are often a very good thing for programs, especially if both players are already exceptional and the team is not solely dependent on the position (for example, Hurts vs Tagovailoa with Alabama). In this case, it would benefit Texas A&M if they had a defined starting quarterback to build around and can take the majority of first team reps in practice. Splitting reps between Mond and Starkel will likely only slow the progress of whoever ends up winning the spot.
More: Who wins the starting quarterback job at Texas A&M?
This game would be on the upset watch if it were at Kyle Field. But playing in Tuscaloosa will make it significantly more difficult for the Aggies to gain any momentum at any point throughout the game. Texas A&M will give Alabama its biggest test thus far in the season, but not enough to make a close game out of it.