Football 2024: Seventh Week (Open Date)

There's no A&M football game on TV this week, which gives Mike Elko and his team an opportunity to rest, recover and prepare for next week's road game against Mississippi State, a team that usually gives visiting A&M headaches. The Aggies are 9-8 against MSU all-time, but their first game against the Bulldogs in this century was the 2000 Independence Bowl in Shreveport, commonly remembered as the Snow Bowl due to the weather conditions that night. The whole game was played in a snowstorm, and Jackie Sherrill's MSU team beat R.C. Slocum's Aggies 43-41. 

Mississippi State and A&M now play each other every year as members of the SEC West. The Aggies are 4-2 in games played at Kyle Field, and MSU is 4-2 in games played in Starkville.

Since A&M isn't playing today, I've considered alternatives and decided to watch new SEC rivals Texas U. (5-0) and Oklahoma U. (4-1) in their annual meeting (on ABC at 2:30 PM Central). Texas U. is a 14.5 point favorite, and they've already beaten Michigan. I'll probably watch this game as long as the Sooners are ahead or tied, but if they get behind by ten points or more, I'll be saying, "Hasta la vista, losers."

Football 2024: Sixth Week (Mizzou)

Texas A&M plays its first 2024 SEC home game tomorrow on ABC at 11:00 AM Central. The opponent will be Missouri (4-0), a former Big 12 rival that moved to the SEC at the same time A&M did. Over the years, the Aggies have played Mizzou sixteen times, and won nine times. Since 2000, these teams have played ten games in two conferences, with Mizzou having the advantage in most of them, and the Aggie record in the 21st century being a poor 3-7.

So far in 2024, Mizzou is unbeaten, with the best wins against Boston College (27-21) and Vanderbilt (30-27). The Aggies are slightly favored at home by 2 1/2 points, and College Football News is predicting a narrow 26-23 win that will keep A&M unbeaten in conference games a while longer.

Update 12:41 PM Saturday: Texas A&M will usually have at least one game each season in which offense, defense, and special teams all perform at a highly effective level and win a game against a good opponent. At halftime, the Aggies lead #9 Mizzou 24-0, and if the second half is like the first, this could be the special game for this season. Conner Weigman is healthy and started at quarterback, and has done very well both passing and running. The defense has kept Missouri off the scoreboard so far, and the kicking game (punts and field goals) has been excellent.

Final update 2:36 PM Saturday: The Aggie defense held # 9 Mizzou to one TD and one FG, and the offense scored 17 points to produce a 41-10 blowout full of highlights.

Football 2024: Fifth Week (Hogs)

About every ten years, I need to replace my central air & heat system after it starts needing repairs every few months. That's where most of this day's been spent, and the job's nearly done. Now I have time to think about another Texas A&M football game.

This week, A&M's opponent is Arkansas (3-1) and the venue is Arlington, as it has been for most of the UA games played since 2009. Television coverage on ESPN begins at 2:30 PM Central. The Aggies are 11-1 versus the Hogs since joining the SEC in 2012, and are slight favorites at 3 1/2 points to win tomorrow. In the old SWC years, Arkansas was usually the stronger team, so watching the Aggies kick asses and take names is really enjoyable now.

According to College Football News, these teams are comparable because both have effective running games on offense, and both have defenses that can limit rushing offenses. This indicates the game could be a low-scoring slugfest. The Arkansas quarterback can create problems when he scrambles, and Mike Elko is apparently undecided about Conner Weigman returning as his starter. In my opinion, Marcel Reed seems like a bigger threat than Conner as both a runner and passer, but I'm not buying tickets. CFN prediction: Aggies gain a slight advantage in turnover margin and escape with a 27-23 win.

Update 4:15 PM Saturday: Both teams have made a few very good offensive plays and some very good defensive plays, and both have looked average the rest of the time. That's resulted in a 14-14 tie at halftime.

Final update 6:03 PM Saturday: Trailing 17-14 in the fourth quarter, the Aggies put together a few more good offensive and defensive plays and pulled out a 21-17 win. This will be the last game in Arlington for awhile. 

Football 2024: Fourth Week (Bowling Green)

Yesterday was another one of those stinkers when it seems like eight things out of ten are trying to go wrong, and enough of them did to keep me away from my laptop and the internet. That's my excuse for not finding out which team Texas A&M will play today until a few minutes ago.

Last week, A&M dominated the Florida Gators on their home field until things got messy late in the second half. Today, the Aggies (2-1) will play Bowling Green, a MAC team A&M hasn't played until now. The Falcons (1-1) were competitive against Penn State last week in a 34-27 road loss. Their game at Kyle Field will be streamed at 6:30 PM Central on SEC Network, with A&M favored by 22 1/2 points. As usual, A&M's ability to cover the spread will depend on which quarterback on the roster plays most of the offensive snaps.

College Football News predicts the Aggie advantage in the running game will produce a 38-16 win tonight.

Update 9:48 AM Sunday: Too many promising A&M drives ended in field goal attempts (four of which were scores), and Bowling Green never considered a premature surrender. When those two factors are combined, the result is a game that was more suspenseful than most of us were prepared to watch. The Aggies survived the struggle with a 26-20 win. Marcel Reed played well at quarterback, but wasn't perfect.

Football 2024: Third Week (Gators)

 I spent most of Friday the 13th (yesterday) being seen by (or waiting to be seen by) medical specialists (audiology and ENT). That kept me away from my computer and the internet, so I'm getting a really late start on this week's statement of personal opinions regarding A&M football.

This afternoon (2:30 PM Central on ABC), Texas A&M begins playing conference games on the road at Florida as a four-point favorite. The Aggies and Florida are both 1-1 so far. Both lost their hard game and won their easy one.

Conner Weigman, the starting QB for the Aggies, is apparently on the Injured, Probably Won't Play list. Based on his performance at Kyle Field against Notre Dame, having Weigman miss this game might not be such a bad thing. The Aggies have two other quarterbacks (Jaylen Henderson and Marcel Reed) who've looked capable when they've had an opportunity to play.

College Football News thinks Florida's defense could be tested by the A&M running game and predicts a 30-17 road win for Mike Elko's team.

Update 5:13 PM Saturday: There was a 47-minute game delay due to bad weather, but Texas A&M has played pretty well on offense and defense, and leads 20-0 at the half. Marcel Reed is handling QB duties efficiently with Conner Weigman on the bench. 

Final update 7:16 PM Saturday: The game on TV kept moving from channel to channel for various reasons, and I didn't see the last few minutes of the 4th quarter. A&M let a big lead get away near the end, but still won 33-20.

Football 2024: Second Week (Nothingburger)

 Every season, Texas A&M has at least one of these nothing-burger home games on the schedule, a plan that keeps the Aggies from having any winless seasons.Today, the visiting victim is McNeese State University (1-1), and the game is supposed to be televised on SEC Network at 11:45 AM Central. I couldn't locate a published line for this presumed mismatch, and A&M couldn't achieve a blowout in their only previous McNeese game (2001 season, Aggies won 38-24).

I didn't watch every minute of last week's opener against Notre Dame, but in the parts I saw, the Aggie offense was dismal, and I missed seeing the only touchdown they scored. The College Football News prediction this week is a 52-0 win for the home team. A rout like that could be possible, but it wouldn't prove much, if anything.

Updated 4:31 PM Saturday: The CFN prediction was close, since the final score was 52-10 after McNeese scored one TD and one FG in the fourth quarter. The Aggies performed efficiently on offense, defense and special teams. Can they repeat that against Florida in their first road game?

Football 2024: First Week (Irish)

The 2023 season was a minor disaster that meant the end of the disappointing Jimbo Fisher era at Texas A&M. Fisher's first few seasons suggested potential good things ahead, but the whole house of cards finally collapsed in the kind of mess that was common under Dennis Franchione. 

Jimbo is gone now, taking millions of dollars with him, and has been replaced by Mike Elko, who was a successful defensive coordinator on Jimbo's staff for awhile. Maybe he can produce better results than Sumlin and Fisher despite his smaller salary.

Mike and his team open the new season at home against Notre Dame tomorrow at 6:30 PM Central on ABC. The Aggies are favored by a field goal against a solid team that finished last season 10-3, and A&M is 2-3 against the Irish overall.

The first game against Notre Dame was easily the best one, a 35-10 win in the 1988 Cotton Bowl. The most recent game was a 24-3 Aggie win at Kyle Field in 2001. Between those defeats, the Irish won two Cotton Bowls (1993-1994) and a 2000 home game.

College Football News is predicting a slugfest between two capable defensive units, and the Aggies covering the spread with a 24-20 victory, getting Elko's tenure as head coach off to a pleasant start. 

Updated 8:30 PM Saturday: This game is being dominated by both defenses, special teams (two field goals for each team, tied 6-6 at halftime), and the officials (lots of penalties). 

Updated 10:25 PM Saturday: Well, there goes the undefeated national championship season in a boring 23-13 loss to Notre Dame.

Another Monday Fun Day

 Okay, here we go again. The waste of shit (SS code name Dinky Tinky) is once again dangling the possibility that he won't participate in the scheduled debate with MVP because he's miffed at the ABC network host. We've been watching the narciss-sissy repeat the same behavior pattern for about nine years because of his psychological need for hourly media attention. Sorry, Dinky Tinky, but you need the debate exposure much more than Kamala Harris does.