AN OLD FOE
Confident team hoping to maintain momentum vs. old nemesis Leach
No. 11 Aggies will face former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach when A&M plays at Mississippi State today.
STARKVILLE, Miss. — Texas A&M is four quarters removed froma four-touchdown loss, but suddenly the Aggies might be in their best position to make the four-team College Football Playoff for the first time since it started six years ago.
“I love where we’re going, and I love where we’re at,” A&M third-year coach Jimbo Fisher said.“We have tons of work to do, and we’re nowhere close to where we want to be, but we’re heading in the right direction.”
TheNo. 11Aggies (2-1) play at Mississippi State (1-2) at 3 p.m. Saturday and will face former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach for the first time in 11 years.
“It’s a tough place to play,” A&M center Ryan McCollum said. “They’ve got those cowbells, and they’re really loud.”
Davis Wade Stadium will be about a quarter full because of league restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the fans on hand are still expected to tote in their infamous cowbells. Fisher was raised on a farm in West Virginia, and this week hewas asked his opinion of cowbells.
“On the farm, they’re good,” he said with a grin. “They’re unique to Mississippi State … and everybody has their thing.”
The bell seemed to toll for the Aggies — at least in terms of title hopes — following their 52-24 loss at No. 2AlabamaonOct. 3, but a forgiving schedule lined with SEC teams disappointing their fans to date has the Aggies back to believing.
“You’ve got to have a lot of confidence playing inthis league,” A&M tight end Jalen Wydermyer said, “and once you get that confidence, it’s hard to put it out.”
The Aggies’ collective conviction was buoyed by a 41-38 comeback victory over then-No. 4 Florida at Kyle Field last weekend. A&M leaped 10 spots in the Associated Press poll, from No. 21 to just outside the top 10 three games into the 10game regular season.
Fisher consistently emphasizes that no game is bigger than another, but it
was evident A&M wiping out a double-digit deficit against the Gators and winning on Seth Small’s field goal as time expired meant a little something extra to the former Florida State coach.
“People doubted them,” an exuberant Fisher told ESPN about his players moments after the kick split the uprights. “We deserved some of it, but we have a very good football teamand a heck of a program.”
For thefirst time since his arrival nearly three years ago, the Aggies’ two-deep is
comprised mostly of Fisher recruits. A&M, too, is ranked higher than all seven of its remaining opponents, and only Auburn (No. 15) and Tennessee (No. 18) among those are in the top 25.
The Aggies have put what’s likely their toughest foe behind them in the CrimsonTide, andAlabama could knock off SEC East power and No. 3 Georgia on Saturday in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Should A&M run the regular-season table and Alabama stays undefeated, the Aggies could squeeze into the playoffs for the first time.
“The easiest path to the (CFP) right now in the SEC? Texas A&M,” SEC Network analyst Peter Burns wrote this week on social media. “The Aggies (will) be favored in every single game the rest of the season, and the Alabama loss means they could go 9-1 and not have to play in the SEC championship.”
There is at least one potential big fly in the Aggies’ ointment — and that’s on Saturday in DavisWade Stadium. A&M has dreamed big before heading into Starkville, only to have the Bulldogs snuff out their title hopes.
Six years ago under-then coachKevin Sumlin, theAggies were undefeated at 5-0 and ranked sixth nationally, only to get walloped 48-31 by the Bulldogs and quarterback Dak Prescott. Four years ago, A&M entered Starkville at 7-1 and No. 4 in 2016’s initial CFP ranking that November — a first for the A&M program.
MSU and quarterback Nick Fitzgerald quickly pounced on the unsuspecting Aggies, however, to the tune of 28-7 in the first half, and the visitors limped out of Davis Wade with a 35-28 setback Sumlin never re
covered from. He was fired the next year, and two years ago Fisher’s firstA&Mteam, ranked 16th at the time, lost in Starkville 28-13.
Fisher is 3-1 against Mississippi State and Mississippi since taking over at A&M, and overall the Aggies have not prevailed in Starkville since quarterback Johnny Manziel won the Heisman Trophy in 2012, their first year in the SEC. A&M is a slight favorite Saturday against Leach’s first Bulldogs squad that opened with an upset of reigning national champion LSU before dropping their next two to Arkansas and Kentucky.
“You have to stay hungry,” Fisher said. “Every team in this league can beat you, and you have to prove yourself each and every day.”