Texas A&M Aggies moving on after last season's wild ride

Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin speaks to the media at the Southeastern Conference NCAA college football media days Tuesday, July 14, 2015, in Hoover, Ala.
Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin speaks to the media at the Southeastern Conference NCAA college football media days Tuesday, July 14, 2015, in Hoover, Ala.

HOOVER, Ala. -- How good was Texas A&M last year?

It depends on the stage of the season.

Texas A&M had the nation's most impressive opener, traveling to South Carolina and thumping the No. 9 Gamecocks 52-28. Quarterback Kenny Hill catapulted himself into the Heisman Trophy race as the Aggies raced out to a 5-0 record, with the fifth triumph being a 35-28 overtime escape of Arkansas.

Then the bottom dropped out, as Texas A&M lost handily to Mississippi State (48-31), Ole Miss (35-20) and Alabama (59-0). A November upset of No. 3 Auburn and a Liberty Bowl triumph over West Virginia left the Aggies with an 8-5 record and a feeling of "What just happened?"

"Obviously we sputtered out a little bit, but you learn from your mistakes," Aggies senior center Mike Matthews said Tuesday at SEC Media Days. "We started on a high and faded off, and we didn't have the season go the way we wanted to, but you have to expect that playing in the SEC. We still have our minds set on making the playoff and winning a national championship, but we know it will be a grind with all these great teams."

Texas A&M addressed its defensive woes from a year ago by swiping defensive coordinator John Chavis away from LSU. Hill was replaced by Kyle Allen and is no longer in the program, as Allen seized the role by completing 118 of 192 passes for 1,322 yards with 16 touchdowns and seven interceptions.

Eight starters return on each side of the ball, giving the Aggies the opportunity to be better across the board compared to a year ago.

"We won eight games, so it wasn't a complete flop," head coach Kevin Sumlin said.

The first was worst

Mississippi State raced out to a 9-0 record and the first No. 1 ranking in program history last season before losing three of its final four games, including double-digit losses to Ole Miss (31-17) and to Georgia Tech (49-34) in the Orange Bowl.

Yet it was the first loss, a 25-20 setback at No. 4 Alabama, that continues to gnaw most at MSU coach Dan Mullen.

"The big one was the Alabama loss, because I think that was the one that set it off for us," Mullen said. "Obviously losing a bowl hurts because that's the last game of the season, and you've got nine months before you can recover from that one, but the Alabama game was the big fueling.

"It was the stage that game was on. We want another shot at a game on that big a stage and find a way to go win it."

One-strike policy

With incidents of domestic violence continuing to surface both in pro and college football, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said Tuesday that his discipline has never wavered.

"I've always had a rule as a coach that if you ever hit a girl, you're finished," Spurrier said. "We've lost two at South Carolina. Fortunately they were not star players, because if they were star players, it would have gone all over the country.

"So quietly we got them to transfer or leave."

New 'Uga' coming

Georgia will introduce a new English Bulldog mascot during the 2015 season, though a specific date has not been determined.

The current mascot is "Russ," who is "Uga IX." Russ recently turned 11 years old, and Georgia has a 44-19 record during his time as Bulldogs mascot.

Odds and ends

Sumlin on Texas A&M's cell-phone-friendly Kyle Field: "They say you can make 100,000 phone calls at one time." South Carolina junior kicker Elliott Fry will enter this season with a 33-for-43 career mark (76.7 percent) on field-goal attempts and having made 99 straight extra-point attempts. Mississippi State defensive end Ryan Brown on playing an ESPN-televised Thursday night game at Missouri on Nov. 5: "I've always wanted to play at Missouri. I don't know why."

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.

Upcoming Events