Partly Cloudy / 78° F
2012 SEC Sneak Peek: Texas A&M Aggies
Published 8:59am Tuesday, June 19, 2012“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.” – Groucho Marx
I get the feeling that new SEC member Texas A&M may feel like using that quote a lot in 2012.
The Aggies are no strangers to success or tough games, mind you; they just are not familiar with the weekly rigors of the nation’s best conference. It’s not just that A&M will be facing keg full of new, potent opponents, but they will be doing so with a rookie head coach in Kevin Sumlin as well.
For decades Texas A&M was known as a tough, defensive minded team that coaches hated to play. Back in the mid-80’s/ early 90’s, the boys form College Station would have been a perfect fit for the grind it out SEC.
Then, like so many other schools, the Aggies got caught up in the ‘high powered offense’ hoopla.
More throws led to all types of scoring and school records, but wins were harder to come by. In essence, Texas A&M lost its identity.
Well, they need to call Lifelock and get it back because ‘SEC’ doesn’t stand for the ‘Sympathetic and Emotional Conference’.
A&M’s new home is littered with decorated defensive coordinators who can’t wait to send multiple blitzes at whoever takes over for former Aggie QB Ryan Tannehill.
But Texas A&M is no slouch on defense itself.
The team returns two key cogs which helped lead the nation in sacks last year in Sean Porter and Damontre Moore. Granted, they pulled off that feat in the more pass-happy Big 12, but it is still a nice accomplishment.
The biggest hurdle for A&M will be the schedule.
The out of conferences tilts are pretty flimsy (La Tech, SMU and two other pastries), but it’s the SEC slate that will make or break them.
Florida travels to College Station September 8 and Arkansas follows September 29.
Then, on October 20, the pain begins. A&M takes on LSU at home before traveling to Auburn, Mississippi State and Alabama in four successive weeks.
Good luck with that.
I don’t see Texas A&M’s being able to hang with the Bengal Tigers or the Tide. Coversely, I can’t imagine the Aggies lose at Ole Miss Oct. 6. The other six SEC clashes are really all toss-ups, though.
But in a ‘toss-up’ situation, I’ll give the deciding edge to the long-standing SEC teams since they have been there/ done that in this league before.
Therefore, I’ll have A&M finishing sixth in the SEC behind ‘Bama, LSU, Arkansas, Miss State and Auburn.
The Outlook will feature preview columns of each SEC team leading up to the full Sportz Blitz/Outlook 2012 SEC preview in July.
Robinson os a columnist for Sportz Blitz.
