This weird season is skidding toward its conclusion with another nothing opponent filling the 11th game slot: Abilene Christian University (5-5) will visit Texas A&M (6-4) tomorrow at 11:00 AM (no television coverage, but streaming on the ESPN app). What makes the situation seem weird is that with two regular season games remaining, the former highly-paid head coach is gone. His duties will be handled by an interim head coach, Elijah Robinson, who has been the assistant HC and defensive line coach until now. In Aggie circles, Robinson is respected as a recruiter and his work with the D-line has been fine this year.
What makes this situation feel even weirder to me is that in their previous game against MSU, the Aggies looked like one of the better SEC teams with a 51-10 demolition job that proved to be too little, too late for Jimbo.
There's no betting line available for the ACU game, but College Football News is predicting a 48-6 win for the Aggies. If A&M wins tomorrow, then again at LSU in the season finale, their record would be a mildly respectable 8-4, which hasn't been good enough to secure employment for the last few coaches. The only A&M coach to win more than nine games in a season since the end of R.C. Slocum's tenure was Kevin Sumlin, who had one sensational 11-2 season (2012).
Update 12:37 PM Saturday: The game has been weird so far. The Abilene Christians scored first on a pass interception returned for a TD, and their defense did a good job of keeping the overrated Bobby Petrino offense under control for most of the first half. The Aggies are ahead 17-7, but so far, nothing has come easily.
Final update 2:36 PM: The scoring in the second half was 21-3 in A&M's favor. The final score of 38-10 wasn't as one-sided as I thought it might be, but ACU's defense is saltier than I expected. I'm thankful for the free streaming that enabled me to see this game.
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