Couldn’t beat the Ted Cruz curse after all.
The hype was flooding the campus and fanbase leading up to Saturday. GameDay on campus, with the likes of Pat McAfee, Desmond Howard, and Nick Saban all gunning for the Aggies to pull this one off. The eyes of the nation were on College Station a few nights ago. The stage was set for the Aggies, in fresh new helmets, a remodeled field, and even the return of Kanye West’s “Power”, to start the Mike Elko era off right with a big win against a College Football Playoff contender and a top-ten team.
Not everything is a fairytale in reality, though. Especially never with Texas A&M football.
Playing a tough defense led to a tough result that, despite a tough effort, led to tough scenes among the fourth-largest crowd in Kyle Field history.
Tough.
Despite a solid game for the majority of the contest, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish were able to escape Aggieland with a 23-13 win, sending the Maroon and White to an 0-1 start heading into McNeese week.
I am not here to say that everything will be okay. There are obviously a ton of questions that arose from this contest, especially on the offensive side of the ball, which I will talk about later. Obviously, the program right now isn’t where the 12th Man nor this team, I’m sure, wants it to be. The positive momentum around this program was building for eight months only to result in a bit of a dud on Saturday.
But it’s not the end of the world. The overreactions have gotta be reined in lol. Obviously, I was hoping for a win, too. A lot of people were. The fact of the matter is that it was the first game of a new era against a brutally tough opponent, with a quarterback playing jittery in his first game action in about a year and in a new system with 108,000 people expecting him to be Football Jesus against maybe the best defense he’ll see in his college career. Combine that with a bunch of new personnel on both sides of the ball as they were getting acclimated to their first game in the Maroon and White, and it’s a tough game for anyone, even at home.
I’m not making excuses and saying that everything is sunshine and rainbows. There are real, legit issues that worry me a little bit (or maybe a bit more) coming out of this one.
But Notre Dame is a damn good team. They’ll be in the playoffs more likely than not. A&M played them insanely close - it was tied - until the last two minutes. This team nor any player isn’t a failure because they lost a close one to a top-ten team. Notre Dame just played better.
It’s game one. I trust this coaching staff more than the last one to be more accountable and hopefully clean up these mistakes and issues heading into what should be a tune-up game next Saturday morning.
With that being said, let’s debrief some of the main points I took away from this game.
Conner Weigman
I think we’ve gotta start with the bad, and that’s putting it a little nicely when assessing #15’s performance on Saturday.
That was, by far, the worst game I’ve seen Weigman play in his time in College Station, and it’s not really close. The flashes he showed last season were nonexistent.
I’m not really sure what it was. Maybe it was a mix of factors. Was it uncomfortableness in a new scheme? Could it have been nerves of playing in front of an obscenely large crowd who were expecting perfection from him in his first game back from injury? Rust from said injury that sidelined him for almost a year of action? A matchup nightmare against a Notre Dame secondary that smothered the Texas A&M wide receivers all night with swarming man coverage? Incessant, out-of-control footwork in clean pockets that made him rush/err on some critical throws? (Yes. He himself admitted it.)
Regardless, it was an uncharacteristically poor showing from Weigman in 2024’s season opener. The 12-for-30, 100-yard and 2-interception stat line is very concerning, especially for someone who was considered as a top QB prospect in this year’s NFL Draft class. The two interceptions in particular - overthrowing a 6’6” leaping Noah Thomas and putting the ball way behind Theo Melin Ohrstrom - were really unlike him. Some of the worst throws I’ve seen him make.
However, I’m more interested on how he responds and performs in the next few weeks. Right now, I’m chalking it up to rust and the Notre Dame secondary just being incredibly good all evening. I also don’t think the pass-catchers gave Weigman any notable help, either. But him holding himself accountable in the pre-McNeese press conference is an encouraging first sign - now he’s gotta go out and show that he’s cleaned those issues up.
McNeese will hopefully be a tune-up for that.
Collin Klein
A lot of my focus was on the battle between the two play-callers on offense, the offensive coordinators.
I think Notre Dame’s Mike Denbrock won that battle. Not just because Notre Dame’s offense was simply better in this game, but because I thought he was able to utilize his personnel better as the game progressed while keeping things at least somewhat creative, such as successfully running the ball outside later in the halves on pin-and-pull looks. He did a good job of minimizing the impact of A&M’s pass rush and protecting their inexperienced o-line as well.
Maybe I’ll have to go back and take a second look or it was just a personnel thing, but after all I heard and said about Klein’s creativity to get the ball in playmakers’ hands, the play-calling on Saturday seemed strangely vanilla and… well, kind of boring. Even with the implementation of motion - something that has felt like it hasn’t been there in a while - I can’t say I was really impressed with some of his decisions from a play calling perspective.
Hopefully we see some more variation in play design and concepts in what should be a warm-up for a big road showdown in two weeks’ time, and I trust him to make adjustments for this McNeese game. But as someone who is regarded as one of the highly regarded offensive minds, his debut kinda fell flat on Saturday night.
The Skill Positions
This Texas A&M offense doesn’t have a playmaker, especially at wideout, that has proven themselves to change or at least significantly impact the game.
That’s a little concerning.
For as bad as Conner Weigman was on Saturday, his receivers didn’t give him really any help. I mean, there weren’t many instances where multiple guys could get any separation from the Irish secondary’s air-tight coverage.
It’s not like there were a ton of exotic looks coverage-wise. Defensive coordinator Al Golden basically just told his corners and safeties to go one on one with the wideouts, and they won that battle most of the time.
Le’Veon Moss was the best playmaker on the field for A&M against the Irish, but he averaged just 3.5 yards per carry. Amari Daniels and EJ Smith flashed a little bit, but they only got 5 and 4 carries respectively. Jahdae Walker, the only notable receiver on Saturday, had six receptions but only for 37 yards.
Something’s gotta change. And someone has to emerge as a threat real soon.
This team lost a lot of their receiving production with the losses of Ainias Smith and Evan Stewart, but this team knew that was the case and that someone would have to step up in their absences. That has yet to show. And with Florida looming soon, there will have to be someone that really steps up and proves that they can be a go-to guy as the season progresses.
My money’s on Noah Thomas to be that guy, especially where there were times when he was able to get open upon a quick rewatch - Conner Weigman just didn’t find him. I’m hoping he can continue to get that separation - if he can, it’s up to #15 to find him. Would also like to see more Terry Bussey on offense as well.
The Secondary
We move onto reasons for optimism, and spoiler a lot of it is gonna be on the defensive side of the ball.
I knew the secondary would be better this season, especially with all of the new and better personnel brought in at the group throughout the offseason. But the early returns look really, really good. Looks night and day from how it was last year. No busted coverages to really note of, or balls being thrown over defensive backs’ heads anymore. Instead, we were able to see the looks of a pretty deep secondary group that has the chance to really take a leap this year.
Yes, I understand that Notre Dame didn’t really go vertical a whole lot, but I think this group really held their own in coverage and even some guys in run support. A reformed safety room was the highlight of the unit to me, with Bryce Anderson, Marcus Ratcliffe, and Trey Jones III all having really good showings.
I thought Ratcliffe and Jones had some highly valuable snaps in this game, particularly Ratcliffe, who entered the game after Dalton Brooks was ejected for targeting very early on. That dude just found ways to constantly affect the game, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the sophomore can do for this defensive backfield in the future. He likely earned some more playing time after his game.
As for the corners? There are a couple guys that I can point to and say “these Aggies had some really good showings”, and I feel like I have to start by talking about Will Lee, who I thought was arguably one of the best players on defense on Saturday.
“The Blanket” looked every bit as advertised on Saturday, flying all over the field and making plays left and right for the Aggies. Finishing with nine tackles, a half of a tackle for loss, and a pass deflection (that really should’ve been a pick-six), the Kansas State transfer cemented his status as a key part of the cornerback rotation and, in my opinion, basically locked down a starting spot while doing so. Really excited to see him progress throughout the year.
I also think Dezz Ricks showed some flashes as well in the playing time he got - for this being really his first major collegiate action, the former five-star looked impressive with his athleticism and aggressiveness shining. Jayvon Thomas earned the start and also held his own. Tyreek Chappell had a solid game at the nickel spot. This cornerback room had a good start - it’s time to keep it going.
Scooby Williams
A lot was made of the LB2 competition throughout the offseason and heading into this one. I didn’t know who was gonna win that battle between the trio of Daymion Sanford, Scooby Williams, and Solomon DeShields.
Well, Scooby basically put that to rest with his game on Saturday.
Even though he graded pretty poorly in his time at Florida, the former Gator really shined in his debut in the Maroon and White. That man was everywhere for Texas A&M, and he made his mark on Aggieland in a huge way on a huge stage. With five tackles and a tackle for loss, Williams’ impact was felt beyond the stat sheet, headlined by his ridiculous athletic traits making a notable impact on the Irish’s offense at times.
Him and Will Lee were the Aggies I were most impressed by at the conclusion of this contest.
If this is a precursor to the rest of the year, I’m really excited to see what he can bring to the table at that other linebacker spot. His athleticism is already a nice fill-in for the NFL-bound Edgerrin Cooper, and if he can continue to play at a high level him and Taurean York are gonna wreak some serious havoc.
The Offensive Line
Listen, I’m aware the bar is pretty much in hell considering how horrid the offensive line has played over the last few years.
But I think the five up front were the best part of the whole offense on Saturday. Another low bar, but they really left a good impression on me for the majority of this game.
I think especially in pass protection they were able to have a pretty good evening. Run blocking was kind of an adventure at times, especially since the Aggies weren’t able to generate much juice up front and lead to a lot of big runs. There actually wasn’t a single run for 15 or more yards (Notre Dame had four of those, for reference).
However, I saw a lot of clean pockets and time for Conner Weigman to go through his progressions. Which is great to see! I think Chase Bisontis was way more comfortable at guard than the tackle spot he played last year, and the rest of the group played pretty solidly in pass pro, which was their weakness in 2023.
Losing Mark Nabou (torn ACL, reportedly) for the rest of the season is a brutal loss, but the Aggies actually have depth now, with Koli Faaiu now projected to step in and get the bulk of reps at center. It was a heated battle between those two this offseason, and now the former Utah Ute gets the chance to show why he was thought of so highly when A&M grabbed him from the transfer portal. Being the highest-graded player on offense according to Pro Football Focus is a good start.
That’ll basically wrap up this debrief from a tough season opener. Some other quick hitters that I wanted to also say were:
Nic Scourton was as good as advertised in his A&M debut; I’m not shocked. Best player on this team.
Run defense was pretty bad but I think it was that way because the defense couldn’t stay off the field and recover a whole lot due to the offense being so bad and ending drives really quickly. I think they’ll bounce back.
I mentioned that the ceiling of this group in 2024 was the playoffs, but even I knew that was kind of a pipe dream lol. They’re not there yet; might not be this year. Hopefully it’s relatively soon.
Anyways, time to move onto McNeese. See you all for that preview which should come out in a few days.
Stay the course. The season’s not dead. Just have to keep going and move on from this.
Just be sure to blame Ted Cruz and never allow him at any A&M sporting event ever again.
-Sourav