Texas A&M Football: 5 reasons to be optimistic about 2019

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JACKSONVILLE, FL – DECEMBER 31: Kellen Mond #11 of the Texas A&M Aggies looks to pass against the North Carolina State Wolfpack in the first half of the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl at TIAA Bank Field on December 31, 2018 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

4. Kellen Mond has continued to grow and mature

Go ahead and argue with me on this one. There are many people who are not yet sold on Kellen Mond after a bit of an up and down season in 2018. He struggled against Auburn and Mississippi State, yet looked like a stud against Clemson and at points against Alabama.

However, looking at the entire season — from beginning to end — I see a Kellen Mond that has grown leaps and bounds from the true freshman who was forced into the starting role when Nick Starkel went down against UCLA in 2017.

We are starting to see a Mond who has confidence in his offensive line (most of the time) and in his receivers and tight end. It helps that each of his wide outs — who we will discuss shortly — were intent on making the play each and every time and he had a tight end in Jace Sternberger who was absolutely a diamond in the rough that is the junior college level.

For me, it comes down to this. How different is the Mond we saw against Clemson and Alabama from the one we saw against LSU and NC State? The answer is simple, he is an extremely different quarterback. The Aggies came one two point conversion away from forcing overtime against the future national champion Clemson Tigers. Then, they beat LSU in seven overtimes and blew out NC State behind strong performances from the quarterback.

Surely 2019 will be an even better year for Mond and his team, book it now.