10 Things for Tuesday

Yesterday, in Monday Thoughts, I gave my somewhat pessimistic look at Texas A&M football as we head into the 2025 season. Today, I’m giving you 10 reasons to be optimistic.

1. Marcel Reed looks a lot better. If you want to defer judgment on that until you see him, that’s perfectly reasonable. But I can tell you that he’s looked more confident and has been more consistent when we’ve seen him, and the coaches have been pleased with the improvement he’s made since the end of last year. If they’re right, he could be the most dangerous dual-threat quarterback Texas A&M football has had since some guy named Manziel.
2. They have six (count them) scholarship running backs. To boot, the major guys are all healthy. The Aggies have the talent to go out and batter most opponents on the ground, with All-SEC first-teamer Le’Veon Moss, a fully healthy Rueben Owens, the under-appreciated Amari Daniels and, for a change, a healthy EJ Smith. And then there’s one of the stars of training camp, Jamarion Morrow. Last year’s season fell apart when Moss went down, because Daniels and Smith were also banged up and Owens had been hurt since before the season started. They were essentially on fumes at running back by the time the Texas game rolled around. This year, they can at least start the season coming at opponents with a full stable of backs.
3. They’re a whole lot faster at wide receiver. And maybe deeper than you’d expect, too. Last year’s receiver corps was a big, fat, slow bust. Two of the really fast guys, Terry Bussey and Ashton Bethel-Roman, weren’t really ready to make a big impact. This year, they are — and they’re joined by KC Concepcion and Mario Craver. This group is a whole lot faster and Concepcion has alerady proven he’s a top-flight receiver.
4. There’s no more experienced offensive line (and only one bigger). The Aggies are on the verge of rolling out the exact same offensive line that they did for last year’s season opener: Trey Zuhn, Chase Bisontis, Mark Nabou, Ar’maj Reed-Adams and Dametrious Crownover. Three of the five members of that line were named preseason All-SEC selections by the coaches and Reed-Adams was named a first team All-American by the AP, so that tells you how highly-regarded they are. They should have their top two reserves for at least most of the season as well, so they’ve got experience and depth. And no excuses.
5. Cashius Howell gets to get busy, and he should have some help. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say the Aggies’ best pass rusher last year was Howell, who had 9 tackles for loss and 4 sacks among his 40 tackles, while also leading the team with 8 quarterback hurries. This year, he’s on the field fulltime at defensive end. On the other side of the line is Dayon Hayes, who had more sacks in a little over three games (2) than Shemar Stewart had all of last year (1.5). Add in T.J. Searcy and newcomer Marco Jones and it looks like Texas A&M has some guys who can rush the passer, even if they’re not as well-known as last year’s bunch.
6. Lots of guys can play linebacker. The starters have been obvious from the start of spring ball: Taurean York and Scooby Williams. But they also have some quality reserves in Daymion Sanford and Jordan Lockhart, and true freshman Noah Mikhail has turned heads this summer. You know that tired line, “but can he play linebacker” that got trotted out every time the Aggies got a commit? It can be put on ice for now.
7. Tyreek Chappell‘s back. It may sound odd to point out one player (who isn’t a quarterback) and say, “losing him was a disaster”, but Chappell’s loss last season was a crippling one to the defense. He’s back at nickel this year, and the Aggies went out got a capable backup in Jordan Shaw in an effort to avoid lightning striking twice. Chappell has the trust of the coaching staff and allows the defense as a whole to do a lot more.
8. There could be enough decent corners this year. Part of the domino effect from Chappell’s injury was BJ Mayes moving to nickel and Dezz Ricks being played beyond exhaustion in his first full collegiate season. Will Lee was a stud and remains so (second team preseason All-SEC), but this year he may have some help. Ricks has bulked up and had a splendid camp, and Julian Humphrey has looked really good when we’ve seen him. True freshmen Adonyss Currie and Jamar Beal-Goines have had their moments, so it’s possible the Aggies won’t be plagued by the deep ball for the first time in nearly a half-decade.
9. The nation’s best special teams group. His name is Bond. Randy Bond. And he’s a very good kicker. His (surprise) return makes life much easier for the Aggies on offense. Jared Zirkel, who also seemed like he was gone, is back to handle kickoffs (and has looked really good as a placekicker this summer). Tyler White may be the most underrated punter in the country; the lack of respect he gets is offensive. Add in Bussey returning kicks and punts and the whole crew returns — and Concepcion may be able to pitch in on punt returns as well.
10. Elko, baby. Elko. As a first year head coach (of the Aggies, at least), Mike Elko wanted to stay above the fray, operate as a CEO and not step on anyone’s toes. After seeing the defense crumble last year, he threw that idea out the window and grabbed the play sheet. He’ll be calling the defense this year, and with personnel he largely picked, odds are they’ll be getting back to the 2020-21 attacking style that was so successful.