Here’s what to watch for during Texas A&M’s spring game this weekend, the first under new head coach Jimbo Fisher.
The Aggies went 7-6 last year. They beat South Carolina, Florida in Gainesville, and only lost to Alabama by one score. But they also lost in blowout fashion to Mississippi State and LSU. Their offense put up 382 yards on the ground and 89 in the air in the season opener. And they threw for 499 yards and rushed for only 115 in the Belk Bowl to close the season in a sign the offense had no real consistency.
After averaging 255 rushing yards per game over the first five games, they never ran for more than 143 the rest of the season, including five games under 100 yards. They played three different quarterbacks and their team completion percentage ranged from 33.3 to 70.4 percent in conference play.
Oh, and their defense was 87th out of 130 FBS teams.
Enter Jimbo Fisher, who is coming off a 5-6 season himself. Fisher and defensive coordinator, Mike Elko, who left Notre Dame after last season, will be implementing entirely new schemes on both sides of the ball. Elko’s defense won’t have nearly as steep of a learning curve as Fisher’s pro-style offense but each has his work cut out coaching new systems to a team that was anything but consistent a year ago.
After only a couple of weeks of practice, the spring game should be interesting. With both sides still trying to figure things out, the line between execution on offense and just benefiting from a missed assignment or miscues on defense (or vice versa) will be blurry.
Fans should have a much better idea what to expect of Texas A&M after the spring game on Saturday at 5 p.m.
You can watch along on the SEC Network or on Fubo TV if you start a free 7-day trial today.