How big of a threat is Texas A&M football going forward?

Another year, another Texas A&M football team that has vastly underachieved due to delusional expectations set by no one but themselves. It sounds harsh but it’s the truth, and a home loss to Appalachian State will never fail to play a role in confirming such a statement.

I don’t want that to come off as if App State is not a threat, as the Mountaineers are one of the Group of Five’s most intimidating powers every single season. However, they are not so large of an obstacle that a top-6 SEC team should lose to them on its own field — that is nonetheless what happened when App State visited the Aggies, though.

To see all of the hype wasted on Texas A&M is hard to ignore, with many feeling disappointed, making jokes, or both as a result. While I am no athlete, I find it hard to imagine that many Aggies would be able to easily shrug all of that stuff off as they headed into their battle with a ranked Miami squad.

But, that seems to be exactly what they did.

Does Texas A&M football have what it takes to win the SEC?

On Saturday, A&M welcomed the Hurricanes into College Station and absolutely shut them down in a 17-9 win. The loss was Miami’s first of the season, and to see its offense fail to reach the end zone was rather shocking (especially when considering that it had been averaging 50 points per game up until then).

A victory of this magnitude should obviously be enough for people to put their eyes back on the Aggies until further notice, but just how threatening does it make them look when they’re compared to some of the other SEC menaces that await them?

Of their nine remaining games, four include opponents that are currently ranked in the AP Top 25: Arkansas (10th), Alabama (2nd), Ole Miss (16th) and Florida (20th). While they are set to face the Razorbacks in Arlington and host both the Rebels and Gators, they have to head into Tuscaloosa to take on the Crimson Tide.

Upon looking at that nightmarish quartet, it feels as if we will fail to see Texas A&M’s true ceiling for 2022, as the Aggies losing at least three of those games seems like a very real possibility.

With that said, anticipate yet another decent season from what is, on paper, a great team. However, being decent is still far from being bad, so the last thing that one should do is overlook A&M — and the response to its latest loss is a strong example as to why.