A&M: Aggies are eager to take on the top dogs
HOOVER, Ala. — Former Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin once urged A&M fans to “get a dog” if they feared competing in the SEC West.
Sumlin’s successor, Jimbo Fisher, on Tuesday also summoned the canine kingdom in talking about A&M facing one of the nation’s toughest schedules this season.
“Like they say, if a dog doesn’t bite when he’s a pup, that dog doesn’t bite when he’s a dog,” Fisher said in promising the Aggies will attack their challenges head-on.
Fisher uttered the doggy decree while he and three A&M players attended the second of four SEC Media Days, and back in Texas some fans already were chatting about making Tshirts with Fisher’s fur-and-fang influenced declaration.
Like Fisher, the A&M faithful is hungry for some football — even if that football includes what might be the nation’s top three teams entering the season.
“It makes for a better offseason,” Fisher said
of A&M facing reigning national champion Clemson, previous national champion Alabama and Georgia, the other team that has played for a national title in the past two years. “We’ll have great opportunities to fail or succeed. The key is laying the foundation for the future of our organization — which can be right now.
“I’m looking to the future, but I’m also looking to the now, and living for the now, and understanding and embracing the tough games. And in this league, when is it not going to be tough?”
The Aggies play at nonconference foe Clemson on Sept. 7, host division opponent Alabama on Oct. 12, and visit SEC East power Georgia on Nov. 23. After A&M’s first game against the Bulldogs since joining the SEC in 2012, the Aggies play at LSU, which finished sixth nationally last year.
“That’s the first thing everyone talks about — our schedule and how it’s going to be borderline impossible,” said A&M punter Braden Mann, who set the NCAA single-season record last year by averaging 51.1 yards per punt. “We just haven’t really been affected by that. It’s not like our schedule is ever going to be easy — we play in the SEC West.”
The Aggies, who return seven starters on offense and six on defense, are optimistic based on how last season wrapped up. They finished 9-4 and won their last four games, including a seven-overtime home victory over LSU and a Gator Bowl thrashing of North Carolina State, for their first nine-win season since 2013.
Fisher, entering his second season at A&M, finished 10-4 in his first year at Florida State in 2010 and followed that with a 9-4
record. In his fourth season at FSU, the Seminoles finished 14-0 and won the national title.
A USA Today preseason poll has Clemson at No. 1, Alabama second, Georgia third and LSU seventh. The Aggies check in at No. 8, which is why Fisher said he takes offense to anyone suggesting A&M is trying to play the role of “spoiler” this season.
“We don’t want to spoil anything,” he said. “We want to take care of our own (schedule). They’re great teams, but we expect to play with them and compete with them and win those games. That’s why we’re here.
“They’re great programs, but Texas A&M can be the same way. We have to prove ourselves and do the things that we have to do, but I definitely think we’re on that track.”
In beating LSU for the first time since joining the SEC seven years ago, the Aggies finished as high as second in the division for the first time. (They had the tiebreaker over the Tigers behind Alabama.)
Last year’s experience, especially with the way the season closed out, has the Aggies thinking big this year.
“Everybody says we have juggernauts on our schedule, but at the same time I feel like that’s the type of team that we are,” A&M quarterback Kellen Mond said. “We can always talk about it — but we’ve got to go out and prove it.”
Aggies defensive lineman Justin Madubuike joked that “our schedule is the easiest in the country” before growing serious.
“Every game is an opportunity for us to showcase what we can do,” Madubuike said. “And to show the SEC and the college football world that, hey, we’re in this to win it.”