Texas A&M Aggies Must Avoid Road Game Mishaps Against Tennessee
The sky is not falling in College Station, but Texas A&M's hopes of making a prominent bowl game this winter could be with another loss.
It's one thing for the Aggies to struggle after a physically and mentally draining performance in a 26-20 loss to Alabama last weekend, but now comes another harsh reality based on history.
Road game struggles under Jimbo Fisher. And few places are more daunting to play on Saturdays than Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn.
“I think you’ve got to understand communication No. 1,” Fisher said this past week. “I don’t care if because the noise factor you saw there, you think of just cadence or playcalls, hand signals, checks. You say the things you’re able to do sometimes offensively, things you can do at home are a lot easier because of the noise. You’re quiet. You can put a lot of checks in.”
Even in the dark times of Volunteer football, Tennessee fans have packed Neyland Stadium to its 100,000-plus brim to cheer on their hometown team. Noise has always benefitted the No. 19 Volunteers (4-1, 1-1 SEC) and certainly has played into their recent success.
Tennessee enters Saturday with the fourth-longest home win streak in the nation at 12 victories. Prior to their bye week, the Volunteers bested South Carolina 41-20 while totaling 477 yards.
Fisher, who's 3-13 in true road games with the Aggies, excluding the 2020 COVID-19 season where seating was limited for games, mentioned experience should benefit the Aggies while being tested. A&M already played away from Kyle Field this season in its Week 2 loss against Miami.
SEC road wins are scarce, even for programs built to win national titles. For the Aggies, last week's loss might actually come as a blessing in disguise despite the situation of playing in Rocky Top.
Texas A&M Aggies defensive lineman Walter Nolen (No. 0) celebrates at sack against the Alabama Crimson Tide at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas
© Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Since joining the SEC in 2012, A&M is 9-2 in games after playing the Crimson Tide. Under Fisher, the Aggies are 4-1, with three wins coming on the road.
Even before Fisher's arrival, A&M never seemed rattled by the "Alabama hangover." The Aggies went 4-0 in nonconference games and 5-2 against SEC opponents. And the only significant loss came in 2015 when A&M could only muster 192 yards of total offense in a 23-3 loss against Ole Miss in Oxford.
Even if all goes according to plan on Saturday from a personnel standpoint, the Volunteers still have more than enough star power to control the time of possession and pressure the Aggies into making mental mistakes.
A&M is still trying to recover from last week's mishaps. The Vols are fresh off a week of rest and have had two weekends to game-plan for Saturday's showdown. And like last week at Kyle Field, expect noise to play a major factor in the game's outlook.
“When you get to have a really good team and you’re going into somewhere and getting them quiet and doing that, the maturity that comes in there, you take pride in that,” Fisher said. “It’s hard to do.”
Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. EST.
