Texas A&M’s 33-20 SEC road win over the Florida Gators was critical for many reasons, starting with the fact that the Aggies had not won a conference road game in over three seasons, while head coach Mike Elko earned his first SEC win.
In a game dominated by the Aggie offense, the quarterback drama regarding starter Conner Weigman’s shoulder injury led to backup Marcel Reed making his first career start. The redshirt freshman’s poise and athleticism helped open up the playbook for OC Collin Klein.
While Reed was excellent from the pocket, A&M’s running game dominated the day, rushing for 310 yards, including 84 from Reed. In comparison, junior running backs Le’Veon Moss and Amari Daniels accounted for 178 yards on 31 carries.
The Aggies eclipsed 300-plus yards rushing for the second straight weekend, mainly due to better run blocking and Klein’s scheme. After three weeks of play, Texas A&M’s rushing attack is ranked 9th nationally with 263 yards per game, ranked as the second SEC team behind Tennessee, ranked 3rd with 333 per contest.
Three weeks of play isn’t a large enough sample size to say that this group is elite, but compared to last season’s 90th-ranked unit, only averaging 136 yards per game, this is a huge improvement under Klein and O-line coach Adam Cushing.
So far this season, Texas A&M has run for 787 yards for 6.02 yards per rush, and seven rushing touchdowns.
Texas A&M will host Bowling Green on Saturday, Sept. 21. The game will be available to stream on ESPN+ and SEC Network+.
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