2026 Missouri Football Opponent DEEP DIVE: Texas A&M Aggies

Welcome backmost to Rock M Nation’s yearly force preview bid of nan upcoming season. Each week we will break down 1 force from nan schedule successful chronological order. Given that rosters are ever fluid - and this is done by a hobbyist alternatively than a pro - location could beryllium immoderate errors successful history and existent roster makeup. All mistakes are done connected intent and pinch sick intent because Nate Edwards doesn’t for illustration you aliases your team.

I warned you each backmost successful 2024 that Texas A&M would beryllium an actual, competent shot squad nether Mike Elko. I besides believed that A&M’s competence would mean nan punishment for immoderate squad that relied connected beating nan Aggies to motorboat themselves retired of nan mid-tier of nan SEC and into nan apical tier. And I was right.

Mike Elko’s first twelvemonth saw nan Aggies emergence to 13th successful SP+ and triumph 8 games. Year Two featured a further leap to 10th successful SP+, 11 wins, and a Playoff berth. And it doesn’t look for illustration they are slowing down anytime soon.

Well…except for 1 small problem.

Here’s what Texas A&M did past year:

How tin you triumph 11 games successful nan regular play and still walk nan offseason being furious astatine missed opportunities? Ask Texas A&M, they person a bully reply for you.

I’m not saying that nan 10th-best squad successful SP+ pinch nan 11th-best discourtesy and 14th-ranked defense that made it to nan Playoff is “overrated”. That’s a stupid point to think.

However!

The Aggies benefited from a 4-0 grounds successful 1 people games, 2 of which nan different squad had a morganatic opportunity to sound them off. One of which - South Carolina - needed a illness of epic magnitude to let A&M to bargain nan victory.

A&M was really freaking bully and worthy of their AP ranking and SP+ ranking. I’m conscionable saying they were person to a 9-win squad than an 11-win team. Semantics, I know.

But disregard each of that. Texas A&M ripped disconnected 11-straight wins successful 2025 and was classed #3 successful nan federation heading to play their arch rival that was scuffling connected discourtesy and beatable connected defense. And they mislaid by 10 points. To nan 1 squad that you can’t suffer to erstwhile you’re A&M, and 1 that you haven’t beaten since 2010!

Yes, that is simply a monolithic gut punch. But you cognize what? A&M was so bully extracurricular of that 1 crippled that nan Playoff committee decided to springiness A&M a break and slot them arsenic nan 7-seed successful nan Playoff, meaning they sewage to big a 10-seed earlier heading to nan Cotton Bowl successful Arlington to play nan wide 2-seed. Pretty bully way to a National Championship, right?

WRONG. THEY LOST TO 10-SEED MIAMI AT HOME WHILE NEVER SCORING A TOUCHDOWN.

And that’s really you tin beryllium nan astir miserable instrumentality guidelines of an 11-win assemblage shot team.

I’m a immense instrumentality of Mike Elko. I’ve made that clear successful each portion I’ve written astir A&M while he’s been successful College Station.

There’s not a existent logic for maine to wax poetic yet again astir really overmuch this feline rules. But each comic book is somebody’s first truthful let maine to mention myself successful different preview featuring Mike Elko:

Texas A&M’s coaching unit has played a batch of philharmonic chairs this cycle.

It each started pinch Collin Klein being hired arsenic Kansas State’s adjacent caput coach. His departure meant A&M needed an violative coordinator, which was a elemental capable since they took distant nan “co” from Holmon Wiggins’ domiciled and pushed him to sole violative coordinator.

But past Klein took Texas A&M’s protect coordinator, Jordan Peterson, pinch him to Manhattan, leaving a vacant DC spot. And protect statement coach Sean Spencer rejoined his aged leader James Franklin astatine Virginia Tech.

Now, A&M is 1 of those programs pinch capable money that they’ll double up position coaches, aliases break a wide position (like protect backs) into nan smallest group imaginable (corners, safeties, slots, nickels, etc) truthful they already had 2 protect statement coaches. But past d-line coach extraordinaire - Elijah Robinson - wanted to travel backmost to A&M aft a bad tally arsenic Syracuse’s DC, but was asking for measurement much money than past time.

So Elko sewage creative! He promoted A&M’s “assistant caput coach” Lyle Hemphill to DC, brought backmost Elijah Robinson arsenic a co-DC, moved Tony Jerod-Eddie to a much focused protect tackle role, and past reassigned nan full A&M protect secondary staff. He past promoted 2 analyst-level coaches connected discourtesy to capable retired nan backmost and receiver vacancies and…whew, I deliberation that’s it.

The constituent is that astir of these guys person a caller occupation but, also, nan mostly of these dudes person been connected this unit nan full clip successful immoderate different capacity. The churn looks worse than it really is, essentially.

Losing Collin Klein does hurt, though. The dude knows really to telephone an annoyingly efficeint offense.

Think of each nan teams you’ve publication astir truthful acold and really galore players they mislaid successful nan portal. The numbers you’ve seen person been 25. 39. 34. Numbers that, moreover 3 years ago, would look beyond absurd but are now overmuch much acceptable.

Texas A&M mislaid 19. And 8 of those were unranked dudes successful precocious schoolhouse and successful nan portal.

If you want a awesome logic why A&M is erstwhile again projected to perchance triumph nan SEC, this is 1 of them. They bring a ton of accumulation backmost and mislaid very small from nan portal.

Again, Elko is simply a awesome programme and civilization builder and he’s doing it astatine a schoolhouse that has nan resources to bring successful elite talent. Great for them. Terrible for everyone else.

Oh, and arsenic if losing very small successful nan portal wasn’t a large capable problem, they besides brought successful nan 12th-best portal people successful nan state to upgrade their roster. The main attraction was some lines and, man, they really nailed it successful this cycle. The sewage a awesome violative tackle and receiver from Alabama, 2 big-time o-line talents from LSU, a brace of slayer separator rushers, positive a bumper harvest of interior linemen from Colorado, Illinois, and North Carolina. Throwing successful nan productive tight ends and linebackers from nan G6, and nan 2 talented protect backs, and you could spot this squad not missing a hit from past year’s group.

Assuming each these guys play good together, anyway.

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd A&M brought successful nan 10th-best precocious schoolhouse recruiting people successful nan country, 5th-best successful nan SEC. Ho hum, conscionable different tube of 22 blue-chippers fresh to beryllium coached by 1 of nan champion guys successful nan industry. Yawn.

Bill Snyder’s Kansas State offenses were incredibly frustrating to spell against because they prioritized simple, ratio plays that kept nan shot moving. Sitting successful nan stands you’d spot a play create and spell “oh, yeah, they’re moving correct done nan B spread and we person a feline there, cool” and past it was each blocked perfectly and nan feline was tackled 4 yards later. Or, moreover worse, it would beryllium 3rd-and-6 and nan backmost would beryllium successful nan shotgun and you’d beryllium yelling “THEY’RE RUNNING THE QUARTERBACK RIGHT UP THE MIDDLE” and past they’d do precisely that and it would beryllium blocked perfectly for precisely 6 yards and a 1st-down. It was ne'er capable to pain you, ever capable to clasp nan ball, and elemental capable that you wondered why nary 1 could extremity it.

That’s nan style of discourtesy that Collin Klein played arsenic a tight end-turned-quarterback successful K-State’s precocious aughts tally pinch Bill Snyder Vol. 2. And it’s what Klein has utilized arsenic an violative coordinator.

The other rub, then, was that Texas A&M had elite athletes that besides offered speed, and explosive plays were besides commonplace pinch A&M’s discourtesy nether Klein’s tutelage. So nan 32nd-best ratio squad was besides nan 33rd-best explosiveness team. The 35th-best rushing onslaught besides had nan 30th-best passing attack, and nan Aggies simply kept successful Standard Down scenarios up and down nan section pinch very small issue.

But you saw their weakness against Texas and Miami: passing downs. Despite nan coagulated rankings crossed nan board, nan Aggies were 77th successful evident passing downs and struggled to convert, particularly successful nan past 2 games of nan season.

How overmuch does this discourtesy alteration nether erstwhile co-coordinator/current only coordinator Holmon Wiggins? Can he amended passing downs? Can he thief Marcel Reed’s completion percent tick up a fewer points? Or is this a elemental lawsuit of “two bad games do not specify a season” and they support going nan nonstop measurement they were?

At this constituent we person a bully thought of what Marcel Reed is: a supremely talented jock who tin run this discourtesy good and beryllium a positive successful nan moving crippled and is simply a beautiful bully passer.

Yes, throwing for much than 3,000 yards is very good, particularly successful our existent era wherever that is little frequent. Yes, a 2:1 TD:INT ratio is manageable. But his 7.7 ANY/A belies nan issue: nan interceptions and completion percent is holding him back.

NFL-wonks are speedy to knock his inability to efficaciously publication nan field, nan slowness of said reads, and nan lackadaisical billowing of his sideline passes. I personally judge it’s a small harsh but, hey, NFL-analyst types are not really nan forgiving type.

I deliberation Reed is nan cleanable assemblage backmost - sloppy of what his NFL prospects are - and that he’s going to return A&M very acold erstwhile again, moreover pinch nan evident drawbacks to his game.

I had to double cheque these numbers because I couldn’t judge that a.) Reuben Owens only sewage 119 carries, and b.) didn’t eclipse 1,000 yards. But, yeah, that’s accurate. What’s absorbing is that Owens was seemingly billed arsenic THE GUY among nan moving backs but he had nan second-worst rushing occurrence complaint of nan 9 guys who ran nan shot much than 10 times (Jamarion Marrow was nan worst) and had nan lowest 1st-down conversion complaint arsenic well.

Part of that is having nan mobile Marcel Reed arsenic quarterback, arsenic good arsenic Le’Veon Moss and E.J. Smith sharing nan backfield. But Moss (lol “butt moss”) is now a Miami Dolphin and Smith is pinch nan Kansas City Chiefs truthful Owens could beryllium asked to transportation a heavier load this clip around.

Also, look astatine nan 4th sanction successful this list. TIGER RIDEN JR GET YOUR ASS OUT OF COLLEGE STATION AND OVER TO COLUMBIA MO. SON WHAT ARE YOU DOING PLAYING FOR THE AGGIES WHEN YOUR NAME IS TIGER RIDEN?

Last twelvemonth A&M was capable to thin heavy connected K.C. Concepcion, Mario Craver, and Ashton Bethel-Roman successful their passing game. Those 3 represented 240 of nan 406 passes thrown successful 2025, conscionable a small complete 59%. Concepcion plays for nan Browns now but Craver and Bethel-Roman return. While Concepcion was nan touchdown and 1st-down creating receiver, Craver was overmuch much sure-handed (higher drawback rate, less drops) while Bethel-Roman averaged 21 yards per drawback pinch a 71% 1st-down creation complaint per catch. I’m not saying they were amended than nan 1st Round NFL Draft Pick, I’m conscionable saying Craver was much reliable and Bethel-Roman much explosive.

Now A&M adds a overmuch bigger type of Concepcion successful Isaiah Horton, a feline pinch overmuch amended drawback rates and yards per target , positive 2 high-performing tight ends from UTSA and Fresno State. The highly regarded Terry Bussey is still around, fresh to break done astatine immoderate time, positive nan accustomed bevy of bluish spot backups that litter nan A&M roster.

Last year’s violative statement was fantabulous and, much importantly, stuck pinch nan aforesaid 5 starters nan full season. Yes, they rotated successful different guys, but nan adjacent astir utilized feline saw 222 snaps, while nan “least used” starter had 654.

There was a clear group of guys nan coaching unit trusted and that was it.

From near to correct A&M’s violative statement successful 2025 was:

What is that statement successful 2026? Glad you asked:

How do you switch 4 NFL draught picks connected 1 violative line? Well, you do truthful by grabbing Alabama’s starting Right Tackle, nan full near broadside of LSU’s violative line, and South Carolina’s starting Right Guard.

Building a shot roster is easy!

Texas A&M’s defense was truthful incredibly bully past year, they were almost arsenic bully arsenic Mizzou!

14th overall, 5th successful occurrence complaint allowed, 7th successful 3-and-out percentage, 9th against nan run, 3rd against nan pass, 10th successful Standard Downs, 2nd successful Passing Downs, 1st successful wide 3rd-down occurrence rate…it was an elite defense, that’s nan point.

They did person immoderate overseas weaknesses, though. First off, they only turned opponents complete 10 times, 116th successful nan nation. Their expected turnover number wasn’t overmuch higher astatine 17, but that’s little than a turnover per game! Also, if opponents managed to transverse nan 40 gait line, they were stepping distant pinch points acknowledgment to A&M’s 91st ranking points per scoring opportunity.

Also! 135th successful explosiveness allowed. Reminder: location were 136 FBS teams past year.

For arsenic bully arsenic this defense was they either blew up a play successful nan backfield aliases fto nan play spell for 12 yards. That tends to hint astatine really tight sum and playing adjacent to nan line, but I find it difficult to judge that this unit didn’t admit that and make adjustments. So possibly they’re conscionable bad astatine stopping large plays?

A&M mislaid very small connected defense but brought successful nan fantabulous Tulsa linebacker Ray Coney, arsenic good arsenic ace disruptive Colorado information Tafiq Byard to thief statement up nan walk defense. This is simply a portion that didn’t request overmuch thief and it looks for illustration nan sewage precisely what they needed.

This is 1 of those uncommon teams wherever nan unit is much jumbled than nan roster but it’s difficult not to spot this squad arsenic an easy Playoff contender. They aren’t without questions - a wholly rebuilt violative line, needing to amended nan explosive allowance connected defense - but successful an era of assemblage shot wherever everyone has questions because everyone’s roster gets detonated annually, A&M has immoderate of nan astir proven and knowledgeable quantities, not only successful nan SEC but successful nan country.

With nan caveat that our Tigers tin perfectly suffer immoderate crippled that occurs earlier this one, successful my eyes, nan Texas A&M matchup is Missouri’s first existent test, and an parameter of what this play tin be. You ne'er want to place a rivalry crippled aliases 2 convention foes - particularly a tricky 1 connected nan roadworthy - but if Mizzou is anyplace adjacent nan caliber of squad that its loudest supporters deliberation it will be, this is nan crippled that will beryllium it.

Win (or suffer close) and nan Tigers person a bully chance of making nan 12-team Playoff. Lose by a large separator - for illustration Drinkwitz has done each clip he’s gone up against A&M - and expectations should beryllium adjusted accordingly.