Ahead of the second home game of the season on Saturday, Oct. 3, Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher and players met with the media to discuss the matchup with No. 4 Florida.
Here’s what we learned:
Disappointment from Alabama
Although A&M was at one point tied with the Crimson Tide during its first road game of the season on Saturday, that momentum quickly faltered. The Aggies only managed to score 24 points against Alabama. A&M had 335 net passing yards and 115 total net rushing yards. This is Fisher’s third year with the team and his new recruits are going to have to step up if he wants to make a dent in this season.
Fisher said he was disappointed with how the team performed against Alabama.
“After evaluating the film from the Alabama game, we’re disappointed with the outcome and some things in which we did,” Fisher said. “Both sides had some opportunities in the game to maintain and stay in the game. In the first half we had a missed field goal and a dropped ball, that we could have scored four times in the first half. We have got to capitalize those opportunities.”
First morning game of the season
It was announced that the upcoming Saturday game against Florida will be the first morning game of the season for the Aggies, with kickoff set for 11 a.m. In addition, no tailgating will be allowed on campus for the second home game of the season. This rule was the same for the season opener against Vanderbilt and will be revisited after this weekend.
Sophomore running back Ainias Smith said morning games are better for the team.
“The 11 o’clock game is cool just because we’re in the morning and we’re fresh,” Smith said. “You wake up and you go play. And I like that better anyways.”
Preparing for Kyle Pitts
Florida junior tight end Kyle Pitts has had a dominant start to the season. Although the 2-0 Gators have only played two games, Pitts has already managed to record six touchdowns, one more than the five total touchdowns A&M has scored so far this season. The Florida tight end has also recorded 227 total offensive yards and 12 receptions.
Fisher said Pitts will be a hard match up but that there will be challenges all over the field.
“[Pitts] is so unique,” Fisher said. “He’s a tight end, but he’s a wideout because he can block and has such vertical skills and makes so many contested catches. He’s an extremely hard match up, he has such versatility. He may even have more versatility than I’ve ever had in a guy because of pure size and just outright burst speed. There’s match up problems all the way across the board.”