'We Are Still A 5-7 Team': Aggies Look To Turn Page Before SEC Play
One loss won't ruin a season and a win won't mean a program is postseason-bound. Ainias Smith knows both options far too well.
In 2020, Texas A&M suffered a 52-24 loss to Alabama in Bryant-Denny Stadium in Week 2. Most seasons, an early defeat just puts pressure on a team to recover in time to make a push for the College Football Playoff, but with COVID-19 derailing plans, the Aggies were in win-now mode the rest of the way.
Spoiler alert: mission accomplished. The Aggies rattled off eight straight wins, including a 41-27 win over North Carolina in the Orange Bowl to finish fifth in the country. Perhaps a lower score and A&M punches its ticket to the College Football Playoff over Notre Dame or Ohio State.
Smith was also on the roster a season later when the Aggies dropped back-to-back matchups against Arkansas and Mississippi State. Hope was bleak in College Station, but a performance to remember from Zach Calzada led A&M to a 41-38 win over then-No. 1 Alabama at Kyle Field.
No, the playoffs were out of the picture, but a New Year's Six Bowl still was within reach. All the Aggies needed to do was win out to finish 10-2 and set up a date with the Sugar Bowl.
Spoiler alert: that didn't happen either. A&M lost two of its final three games to Ole Miss and LSU on the road, resulting in an 8-4 finish.
Fans would salivate knowing 8-4 was a possibility after a 5-7 finish last season. Perhaps it is, but hope has dwindled after A&M (1-1) allowed 451 yards of offense in a 48-33 loss to Miami. Tyler Van Dyke pierced a hole in the armor of the Aggies' secondary and dug deep, connecting for five scores through the air and over 370 passing yards.
But again, Smith knows that a hot start means nothing. A cold start simply proves the only place to go is up, but it starts with a bounce-back performance.
It ends with correcting the same mental mistakes.
“Coach ( Jimbo Fisher) always talks about how we are still a 5-7 team until we change it. So my whole thing to the team is, let’s not be stuck. Let’s move forward. We have to get past this. It all starts today.”
The Aggies return home Saturday to take on Louisiana-Monroe. After that, games are dialed up to one thousand with a stretch of matchups that could decide the remainder of the season.
Auburn arrives next Saturday to kick off conference play. That's followed up with a trip to Arlington to take on Arkansas. Then comes Alabama seeking revenge for the 2021 debacle, followed by a visit to Knoxville to take on Tennessee.
“We know we’ve got a long season,” said defensive tackle McKinley Jackson. “Hey, why not win them all? As a defense, we’ve just got to come together and be on the same page. We control most games. We’ve got to lock into the game plan, hold each other accountable and just worry about the next week.”
Defense remains the concern entering games that factor into conference standings. Van Dyke's 374-yard outing is one thing, but A&M's inability to tackle factored into his numbers. Of the passing yards, 241 came after the catch. Two scoring drives also were benefitted by pass interference calls in coverage downfield.
Fisher, who's entering Year 6 on campus, said players have responded well to the loss and haven't missed a beat since returning from Miami. That will go far in producing a win over the Warhawks (2-0), but it must go further in defeating the Tigers.
Then Hogs.
Then Tide and so on.
“This loss is going to make us stronger,” safety Demani Richardson said. “I know we’ll bounce back. We’re going to learn from this and we’re going to do our thing — we’re coming, we’re not done yet.”
If looking for positives, no one in the SEC has surfaced as a vehement threat to win the conference. Alabama, LSU, South Carolina and Florida all lost by double-digits to fellow Power Five contenders. Auburn needed a fourth-quarter comeback to defeat Cal on the road, while Mississippi State forced Arizona into overtime before claiming its second win.
Other schools like Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee saw their fair share of struggles last Saturday against programs either from the Group of Five or FCS level. Even Ole Miss and Georgia have struggled at times in double-digit victories to start the year off 2-0.
Again, it's still early and no one has separated themselves from being a perennial contender yet, so a loss means little in the grand schemes. At least for the time being it does.
Smith knows A&M can recover. He's watched it before. It's all about how one responds following defeat.
It starts Saturday when A&M takes Kyle Field once more.
Said Smith: "The only thing that can take that tension out of the locker room is going out there, practicing and making sure that we go hard, releasing all of that negative energy.”
Kickoff Saturday is scheduled for 3 p.m.
