Kyle Field may be the most unintimidating 100,000-plus seat stadium in the country. That has nothing to do with the 12th Man, who has been incredible this season setting both the NCAA student attendance record and the record for the most attended football game ever in the state, despite a football team exhibiting all of the symptoms of bipolar disorder.
The simple fact is this: it doesn’t matter how many people are in the stands, if the team they’re supporting can’t play. Unfortunately, that’s where Aggie fans have stood (quite literally) when it comes to winning at home the past decade. Home-field advantage is real for a lot of teams. Not for Texas A&M.
For all the big wins A&M has had since joining the SEC — Alabama, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Auburn — none of them have come at home. In fact, what is A&M’s best home win since switching conferences? It’s a tossup between Vanderbilt and Mississippi State in 2013, neither of which were ranked. Speaking of ranked opponents, the Aggies are 0-5 against them at home under Kevin Sumlin and just 4-6 in SEC games period. Nobody is scared to play us here. Why should they be?
The sad thing is, Kyle Field used to be one of the most feared stadiums in the country back when the Wrecking Crew kept quarterbacks on their toes and walking out of College Station with a win was a rarity for the visitors. A&M went 55-4-1 at Kyle Field during the 1990s, including a 31-game winning streak from 1990-95. After that streak fell, there was a 22-game win streak from 1996-2000. By contrast, Saturday’s loss to Missouri was A&M’s 35th at home since 2000. The standard used to be that winning at Kyle Field was first and foremost. Now, despite having a bigger stadium than all but three programs in the country and the largest in the SEC, that standard is gone for the Aggies.
Make no mistake about it, the Mizzou team that came in and rolled up 587 total yards is no juggernaut. In fact, the Tigers were averaging just 330.1 yards per game entering Saturday’s contest. Somehow they managed to put up 308 yards in the third quarter alone in front of the second-largest crowd ever present at Kyle Field. Even bad teams don’t surrender numbers like that. Especially not at home.
While the “Road Warrior” mantra has been fun the last few years, it’s unrealistic to expect that type of success to maintain itself, especially playing in the SEC West. The very best teams, the Alabamas, LSUs, and Auburns of the world, don’t make a habit of losing at home. It’s fun to celebrate a victory in someone else’s house, but it’s even nicer to win the big games inside of your own stadium, in front of your home crowd. And until that changes, maybe we should temper our expectations of what exactly we think this team should be able to accomplish. First thing’s first: take back Kyle Field.