Pride or Panic: Texas A&M Aggies | College Football Enquirer
Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel, and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde and Ross Dellenger discuss the temperature of the Texas A&M landscape after the win over Arkansas in Arlington,TX, and debate if fans should have pride in their team or start to panic.
Video Transcript
DAN WETZEL: Texas A&M Aggies. Much tumult, but here we are, 3 and 1. They win whatever these guys call the knock off Red River. Off-brand Red River, the Walmart Red River.
PAT FORDE: Yeah
DAN WETZEL: Dollar Tree Red River. A&M and Arkansas in Jerry World. 23-21 with an assist from the top of the-- of the upright. Crazy game. No one-- no one can explain to me why KJ Jefferson decided to try to leap a 8-foot-tall pile, like, yards out.
PAT FORDE: Mm.
DAN WETZEL: I don't know. I don't think Texas A&M deserved to win this game. But they won it. And at this point, do you really care? Pride or panic that this is still smoke and mirrors? Ross.
ROSS DELLENGER: Yeah, I'm a little panicked. That was-- I've never seen that happen before in a game I was like watching live. People have sent me videos of it happening before, including, like, three weeks ago in a game at Wyoming, where it bounced off-- the same thing. It bounced off the top upright-- or top of the right upright. But, yeah, I'm a little panicked.
Aggies just-- now, I tell you what. The stats aren't great, but he certainly made plays when he needed to, Max Johnson, Brad's son, at quarterback. They seem to maybe have something there that they can-- they can use. But I'm still-- I'm a little panicked here. I'm concerned about the whole ship because, honestly, I think A&M for the most part was-- was outplayed and got a little-- got a little lucky, got a little opportunistic there late in the game. So I'm panicked, especially looking at my schedule, too. My remaining schedule.
DAN WETZEL: Mississippi State and then Alabama.
PAT FORDE: Yep. South Carolina. They got three in a row on the road here.
ROSS DELLENGER: Yeah.
PAT FORDE: Coming. So that-- that's-- and then you're home against Mississippi, who's pretty good. You got Florida. I mean, yeah, they got losses coming. I'd be panicked. The offense still isn't doing much.
And here's a little something. Ross and I wrote about this, actually, Sunday for Sports Illustrated, just a short story but an interesting scenario. If this game weren't played in Jerry World, if it weren't the knockoff Red River, if they were playing on campus, would the field goal have been good?
NFL stadium uprights are 35-feet tall.
DAN WETZEL: Oh.
PAT FORDE: Most college stadium uprights are 30-feet tall.
DAN WETZEL: Gasp.
PAT FORDE: The college rule is just they have to be at least 30. So I cannot say with certainty-- I have asked but have not yet gotten the answer from Arkansas, whether their uprights are 30 or 35 feet. But if they're 30 feet, that ball goes over the top.
Now, technically, that's still no good. It's got to be inside the upright. But that's a judgment call at least. You got the official looking up saying, eh, maybe that's good. Maybe it isn't.
So in an on campus game, which these probably should be, Arkansas might have won that thing. But between that and, yeah, the first down reaching the ball over the top of the pile, that's a no-no. If it's fourth down, maybe, as Sam Pittman said.
So I think Texas A&M is very lucky. That offense is still not good. They've got a long way to go that-- and I don't know how they get there because their quarterbacks are just very pedestrian. Unless they're just going to grind out wins with defense, which they have the last couple of weeks, primarily, they are-- coach 8 and 4 is heading back to 8 and 4.
DAN WETZEL: I think you got to reset expectations on A&M. So they beat two-- two teams ranked, at the time. Beat Miami. I don't know.
Yeah, I mean, if you watch-- if you beat Miami last week and then you watch Middle Tennessee run all over them and you feel very lucky about Ark-- I don't know. You got these three road games. We will see what happens the next two.
The Alabama game is the one that's going to be particularly painful because my guess is they're going to-- if it's 98 to 0, they're going for two.
ROSS DELLENGER: Yeah. Yes. Yep.
PAT FORDE: Oh yeah.