San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Aggies roll
» A&M has no trouble with South Carolina.
Texas A&M started the second half of its regular season much like it finished the first — on a big-time roll and with the College Football Playoff never far from the Aggies’ minds.
The No. 7 Aggies steamrollered South Carolina 48-3 on Saturday night in Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, S.C., in winning their seventh consecutive game against their annual SEC cross-division foe.
“Not meaning to be cocky or anything or come off that way, but it was expected,” A&M defensive tackle Bobby Brown said of the lopsided victory. “We prepared to win, and we prepared to dominate the game.”
A&M (5-1) won its fourth straight game this season by blasting to a 21-0 halftime lead, thanks to an oppressive defense and some offensive wizardry performed by senior quarterback Kellen Mond, who has quietly worked his way into Heisman Trophy consideration six games into the season.
The Aggies almost pitched their first shutout since 2016 against Ball State, but South Carolina coach Will Muschamp chose to kick a 48-yard field goal with 5:55 remaining and the Aggies leading 41-0 at the time.
Muschamp said afterward he was simply trying to give kicker Parker White confidence following a miss from 45 yards earlier in the game. South Carolina (2-4) suffered its worst loss in SEC play since 2008 when falling 56-6 to Florida.
In the decisive first half Mond executed perfect fake handoffs in fooling the Gamecocks defense and finding a wide-open tight end Jalen Wyderymyer, who collected two touchdown catches on the plays from 15 yards and seven yards.
“When you have Isaiah (Spiller) and Ainias (Smith) and Devon (Achane) running the ball like they do, the linebackers have no choice but to step up,” Wydermyer said. “Everybody gets their eyes in the backfield, and that’s kind of when I slip out, and plays like that happen.”
As for the 45-point victory and holding South Carolina to 150 yards, the Aggies’ lowest by a league foe in five years?
“Our offensive and defensive lines came to play,” A&M coach Jimbo Fisher said.
The Aggies offense suffered a bit of a blow early in the third quarter when Spiller, who had 131 yards on the ground and another 46 through the air at the time, exited the game with what appeared to be a right leg injury.
While Spiller did not return, he was back on the bench later in the third quarter and Fisher said he should be OK moving forward. Achane replaced Spiller and finished with 65 yards on 13 carries and two catches for 70 yards, including a 52-yard touchdown catch up the middle midway through the third.
That play in particular left the beleaguered Muschamp, the former Florida coach and fellow LSU assistant with the Aggies’ Fisher in the early 2000s, rubbing his head and searching for answers. A&M won by its largest margin in an SEC game since beating Arkansas 58-10 in 2012, the Aggies’ first year in the league.
Mond along the way threw four touchdown passes, giving him 68 in his career and snapping the school record of 67 set by Jerrod Johnson from 2007-10. Mond, a four-year starter under two different coaching staffs, is now the program record holder in touchdown passes, overall yards, passing yards and completions.
The Aggies also played without starting safety Demani Richardson, who Fisher said tested positive for the COVID-19 virus on Thursday and stayed back in College Station. Reliable senior Keldrick Carper started in place of Richardson and pulled down an interception in the second quarter on the Gamecocks’ fifth drive that again resulted in no points.
The Aggies go back on the road in the SEC at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Tennessee, where they’ve never played. The Volunteers hold a 2-1 advantage in the all-time series, with the last meeting a 45-38 Aggies victory in 2016 at Kyle Field.
This year’s Tennessee game was one of two added to the Aggies’ schedule when the SEC opted to go to a 10-game regular season schedule, all within the league, because of the pandemic.
A&M’s remaining schedule sets up favorably down the stretch, with onlyNo. 24 Auburn ranked among the final four opponents. The Aggies play at Tennessee and then return to Kyle Field for games against Mississippi and LSU before finishing the regular season at Auburn.