I spent the week exploring various Texas A&M message boards to get a feel for how Aggie fanatics view their football team. As often as I spend Saturdays glued to a television, I figured that it’d be best to get a feel for Georgia’s next opponent through engaging with the people who watch all sixty minutes every Saturday.
Considering this will be the first ever conference matchup between Georgia and A&M since they joined the SEC in 2012, neither team’s fan base has a much of a point of reference of how these teams stack up outside of statistical information we have available. After all, the last time these two squads had to worry about one another was in preparation for the 2009 Independence Bowl.
Among the most shared sentiments were the following:
Their fans feel that the Aggies are a very balanced team with no overwhelming strengths and no glaring weaknesses.
Several fans did say that if one unit is better than the other, it’s the defense, but only slightly. One Ag pointed out that, between last season and this one, they’ve had to replace their most productive tailback and tight end in school history with a freshman and sophomore, respectively.
As the fan noted, “If we cannot get the ground game moving or get decent production from tight end, our offense will get crushed,” acknowledging Georgia’s “stout” 2019 defense.
Other fans believe the offensive onus will be placed squarely upon QB Kellen Mond in getting the ball moving. He’s a solid pocket passer and has thrown for the third most yards of any quarterback in the conference behind LSU’s Joe Burrow and Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa, the latter of whom won’t play again this season.
What sets him apart from other quarterbacks Georgia’s defense has seen thus far in 2019 is his ability to extend plays and throw while rolling out beyond the hash marks. The Dawgs saw a decent bit of that in the most recent win at Auburn and contained it well, setting the edge and keeping a spy linebacker focusing on the signal caller.
“The entire offense plays at the level [Mond] plays,” one fan said. “We don’t really have any game breakers that can do it themselves.”
Kellen Mond is faster on his feet and more experienced than Bo Nix, but a number of A&M fans agreed that if there is one position group of weakness, it would be their offensive line. The Aggies have given up 24 sacks on the year. Compare that to Auburn’s 16 allowed. Now compare that to Georgia’s six.
If Georgia’s front seven can adequately pressure Mond behind his pedestrian offensive line, Texas A&M fans expect doom and gloom.
Looking on the other side of the ball, the Internet’s Aggies don’t fear Georgia’s passing game nearly as much as they fear the rushing attack.
I’m sure you can imagine that I came across some toxic and blatantly non-factual posts disparaging Jake Fromm. After one poster declared everything aside from Fromm’s career completion percentage as “totally unimpressive,” several more rational A&M fans pointed out that the Dawgs don’t go long often simply because of the “monsters” the Bulldogs showcase in the backfield.
Georgia’s offense has long been based on controlling the clock with a run-first offense balanced between three or more top-self tailbacks. Any Texas A&M supporter who can recognize this has admittedly watched more Georgia football this season than I have watched Texas A&M football.