Baby steps might not be enough for young team
COLLEGE STATION — Seven games into the 2017 football season, Texas A&M is in a curious position with an impatient fan base. The Aggies aren’t as good and rooted as many had hoped entering coach Kevin Sumlin’s sixth season, but they are better than many had predicted for this season — at least so far. Ideally for long hopeful fans, one of Sumlin’s teams would have competed for an SEC West title by now. But except for an 11-2 showing his first season in 2012, that hasn’t come close to happening. After three consecutive 8-5 finishes, Sumlin entered this season with his job in jeopardy, and the Aggies are 5-2 overall and 2-1 in the SEC and 11 points away from being undefeated, considering they lost by a point at UCLA and by eight points at home to No. 1 Alabama.
A&M is off this Saturday, giving the Aggies more time to savor their most surprising victory to date — last Saturday’s 19-17 victory at Florida and a game they entered as slight underdogs. It was the third time they weren’t favored this season, and the first time they have won in that situation.
A&M next plays host to Mississippi State on Oct. 28, and how the Aggies close out the regular season is as much a mystery as it was in August.
They entered this season believing they had their quarterback of the present and future in redshirt freshman Nick Starkel, but he broke his ankle in the third quarter against the Bruins with UCLA in the process of overcoming a 34-point deficit.
Mond steps in and up
Sumlin inserted freshman Kellen Mond for Starkel, and the five-star recruit’s progress has been remarkable. Mond was 3-of-17 passing against the Bruins but has improved with every game, to the point that the job likely is his to lose going forward. Starkel returned quicker than expected from the injury and now is Mond’s backup.
“He’s grown, and you learn about each other, like any relationship,” Sumlin said of Mond. “As you’re around a person, they become comfortable with you and you become more comfortable and open with him. And you get a feel for him in stressful situations like we’ve been in.”
Mond kept his composure in trying to engineer a comeback against the top-ranked Crimson Tide, and he did likewise in the Aggies’ first trip to “The Swamp” since 1962. As for Starkel? “He’s been fabulous on the sideline, and fabulous with Kellen,” Sumlin said of the abbreviated starter’s demeanor as backup.
Around the same time Starkel broke his ankle at UCLA, senior safety Donovan Wilson fractured his foot. But Wilson, too, could return sooner than expected — perhaps by next week’s Mississippi State game — which would be a big boost to a still-green secondary.
“We’ll see where he is,” Sumlin said.
All in all, A&M has been for the most part healthy and will need to continue to be to make a late run at the SEC West title (although Alabama would have to lose two games for that remote possibility). The Aggies’ downfall the last few seasons has been repeated November swoons, with A&M 2-6 over the last two years against its final four SEC West opponents (Mississippi State, Auburn, Mississippi and LSU).
This season, the Aggies have cobbled together second-half comebacks in four of their five victories, and in the other game had to break open a 14-14 tie with Nicholls State in the fourth quarter. They have grown considerably since that troubling contest against the Colonels on Sept. 9 and likely will be favored in at least three of their final five regularseason games.
Nine wins a must
If they win four more games this year, that will be a step forward for a program needing as much considering the 8-5 rut of the last three seasons. If they only win half their remaining six games (including a bowl game), it still will be a small step in the right direction given the team’s youth.
Fifty-five of the 82 players on the Aggies’ travel roster for the Florida game were underclassmen (freshmen or sophomores), and six of those underclassmen started on offense and five were on defense. Should A&M be this young and inexperienced in Sumlin’s sixth season? Absolutely not, but on the flip side, there is no doubt that the future looks bright for the Aggies.
A future that includes the rest of this season and one for fans hungry for a program that actually competes for division titles.