The Texas A&M football team is no longer in contention for a bowl game after incurring its sixth straight loss to the Auburn Tigers. Students enlist their opinions on the state of our football team.
As of Nov. 12, the Aggies have the worst conference record among any SEC football teams in the East or West division. Students commonly summed up the season with the same one word: disappointment.
The Aggies started off the season with a domineering win over Sam Houston State. However, the win was followed by a shocking loss to Appalachian State. Biomedical sciences junior Anna Schneider said she thought the Aggies would bounce back after the loss.
“I thought we would have made serious adjustments early on in all aspects of the [season] because that loss was so embarrassing,” Schneider said.
Psychology sophomore Justice Jenson said despite the hiccup against Appalachian State, the loss to Alabama felt worse.
“The Alabama loss hit the hardest because we were two yards away from victory,” Jenson said. “I believe we could have won that game by a solid amount if Jimbo had an offensive coordinator. I think he is a good coach, but he has too much on his plate.”
Although the Aggies won’t see a bowl game for the first time in over 10 years, there is still faith to be had in Fisher, Jenson said.
“I believe [Jimbo Fisher] is a good head coach who needs to hire an offensive coordinator,” Jenson said. “Frankly, he is not a very good offensive coordinator. As a leader, organizer, recruiter and developer, I absolutely still have faith.”
Schneider said she felt the complete opposite.
“It’s hard to still have faith in him when his post-game comments and promises are not being kept,” Schneider said. “I have seen almost no improvement throughout the entire season.”
While there are mixed feelings about Fisher as a head coach, there is work to be done about the team overall. With our pass protection statistic ranking 14th in the SEC this year, Jenson said the offensive line needs to improve in order to win.
“The loss of sophomore center Bryce Foster has obviously been devastating,” Jenson said. “We have got to keep our young [quarterbacks] with good developmental traits, and it’s hard to fast track their development with a bad [offensive line].”
Schneider said this improvement needs to start on the other side of the ball.
“A couple of our losses were by small margins,” Schneider said. “Those could have been completely different if we were able to stop the other teams’ offense consistently. We have seen a fluctuation in our offense abilities with different quarterbacks, but our defense has had little improvement.”
It is apparent that A&M’s losing record affects the future of Aggie football. The team has already experienced a decommitment from the No. 1 five-star linebacker Anthony Hill Jr., with Jenson saying this may not be a bad thing.
“We will likely see some transfers this offseason, but maybe that is for the best,” Jenson said. “We can weed out the players that do not really love Aggie football. This allows us to keep more closely to our identity.”
It has been a tough season for the 12th Man. Nevertheless, the spirit of Aggieland prevails. Schneider said she went to all of the games because of the tight-knit community of A&M.
“I will always be proud to be an Aggie,” Schneider said. “Although it is more fun to be a part of a winning football organization, there are plenty of other reasons to feel proud that we are at A&M.”
