FOOTBALL 2022: Tenth Week

The season is quickly (and mercifully) reaching a conclusion for Texas A&M (3-5), and the next game is at home against an SEC East opponent, Florida, that's almost as pathetic (4-4) as the Aggies are. This one will start at 11:00 AM on ESPN, with A&M favored by three points (or 3 1/2 depending on where you look).

The Aggies threw away a win at Alabama, and were steamrolled by the Mississippi schools. Add stunning losses to Appalachian State and South Carolina, and it adds up to the kind of sustained frustration that A&M supporters last suffered when Franchione and his worthless OC, Les Koenning Jr, were pissing away QB Reggie McNeal's eligibility and skill.

Florida hasn't shown the level of proficiency expected in the preseason, so this game should be viewed as possibly A&M's last shot at a "quality win" in 2022 (assuming Auburn and LSU will roll them up as easily as the MS schools did). I didn't watch the whole game last Saturday, but some who did thought Conner Weigman was reasonably impressive in the passing offense. The main problem here is that the only thing A&M does consistently is find ways to lose games. College Football News expects that tendency will continue, and the Gators will leave the field happily after winning 30-24.

Update 2:00 PM Saturday: I originally planned to watch this debacle unfold until the Aggies were behind by 14 points. I was late getting to the game, and when I tuned in, I saw Haynes King was going to be the starting QB again. That caused me to choose against wasting three hours of precious life watching the home team bumbling around in another humiliating defeat. ESPN Scoreboard (online) shows Gators ahead 34-24 in 4th quarter.

Final update 2:58 PM Saturday: The Gators tacked on another TD to make the final score 41-24. When will anybody make this stop? Texas A&M isn't competitive in the SEC, and this is a level of total failure that should make any measurable improvement in the near future extremely difficult if not impossible. I won't be surprised if numerous blue chip recruits signed in the last two years don't transfer as soon as the season's over, while they still have value.

Unfortunately, the A&M coaching staff will still be here collecting salaries after many of the best prospects are being developed in better programs by better coaches.