Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Finally feeling the football season coming on...

It took a trip to Aggieland, but I finally feel like it's football season. Yesterday morning I made an early drive to College Station, and got to campus in time to watch 2 hours of practice. I'm feeling pretty good about the team making some serious improvements over last year, even though I'm realistic enough to know it may not reflect much in the win column. The Dallas Morning News projects A&M to finish 5-7, with conference wins only over ISU and KSU. I am really hoping for 7-5 with a couple of upsets, but would honestly be okay with 6-6, if the wins were over the right teams.

I was very impressed with the offense. Jerrod Johnson is back at QB, with Tannehill and Fuller returning at wideout. Fuller is a beast, and will be one of the top receivers in the conference this year. I had no idea how massive JJ was until I was standing 20 feet from him. He is listed at 6'6", but I think he's taller than that. Tannehill was taking snaps at QB as well, but it seems decided that JJ will start at QB and Tannehill will play receiver.

Cyrus Gray and Bradley Stephens are both back at RB, and Gray is slotted to be the starter. He looked great in practice, but all the talk seemed to be about true freshman Christine Michael. Everyone is saying he is very special, and could be starting by October. Powerful runner with breakaway speed.

Offensive line looked good too, but maybe that was because they were blocking the Aggie defense. It's really hard to tell when it's Aggies vs. Aggies, but still, I'm ready for September 5th!!!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Joe,

So jealous that I couldn't make that trip to aggieland with you. ?In the future, this trip should be a permanent fixture on the calender.

I don't know what to think about A&M this year. Mostly, I am negative (because I am generally a negative person who likes to find faults). However, there are moments where I put on those maroon colored glasses and everything looks okay.

I feel pretty good about the offense. The WR are great and the offensive line should be much improves (they were awful last year). The running game is a question mark, but something tells me that michael will be special.

However, the defense gives me cause for concern. The cornerbacks are weak, the DL is weak, and the pass rush will be suspect as well (just like last year). Please don't tell me about Von Miller playing the "jack" position. I am so tired of reading about Von Miller. Until proven otherwise, Von Miller is a spare in my book.

I am saving my prediction post for another day, but I think the ags will go 7-5 this year. That would put us in the same neighborhood with Tech, which would be a step in the right direction.

Magnum said...

Looks like I missed on Tannehill. Today he was named backup QB only. No receiver. We'll see how long that lasts.....

Also, Ags just enrolled a highly regarded JUCO CB from Kansas.

bake said...

I think Sherman is making a colossal mistake by benching Tannehill. Arguably, he was the best player on the team last year - certainly on offense, anyway.

Take those catches away last year and aggy is winless.