The Texas A&M football team could not turn its season around in Columbia, S.C., on Saturday. South Carolina beat A&M for the first time in school history, 30-24. The Aggies’ first ever loss to the Gamecocks added insult to injury in what was already a painful 2022 season for the Aggies.
Sloppy play and a slow start are common for this A&M team, but there is still a remaining season to finish.
The Aggies are now 3-4, and it is unknown how they will respond from the early adversity. The Aggies will play Ole Miss in Kyle Field on Saturday, Oct. 29.
On Monday, Oct. 24, senior tight end Max Wright and safety Demani Richardson, sophomore kicker Randy Bond and head coach Jimbo Fisher met with the media.
Here are three takeaways from Monday’s press conference:
The team is still fully invested
It is easy for a team to give in when there is a lack of success. It has been a disappointing season thus far, and the players are more disappointed than the fans. There is frustration surrounding the team. However, those in the program still believe that the team is together and that there will not be a loss of effort in the rest of the year.
“I’m very confident that this team hasn’t checked out … As frustrating as the season has been, there’s still a lot of ball left to play,” Wright said. “You’re going to have frustration, you’re going to have difficult times in a season, it’s important to us to really lean on each other and rally into each other, rather than to turn it into an individual thing.”
“Our team can win, and I can have a future. That’s what you tell them,” Fisher said. “I don’t see guys wanting to bail … Guys continue to practice hard and play hard.”
“We’re definitely together,” Richardson said. “We just got to keep going and keep wanting to fight hard and win.”
Control the Ole Miss running attack
The Rebels’ coach Lane Kiffin has the Ole Miss offense playing well on the backs of running backs freshman Quinshon Judkins and junior Zach Evans.
“[Evans is] a heck of a player,” Fisher said. “I thought the world of Zach [Evans], and he’s a heck of a football player … The key to them is, you watch it, and it always has been, it’s running the ball.”
The Rebels have run for over 300 yards in multiple games thus far, and if the Aggies want to stay in this game, they will need to stop the run. For a defense that has struggled against the run, this will be a challenge.
“They have three good backs,” Richardson said. “They all rotate, they all can do it all, so I feel like that will definitely be one of our key points.”
Return to Kyle Field
Saturday, Oct. 29 will mark A&M’s first home game since Sept. 17. The return to Kyle could be a possible spark to a squad who desperately needs one. After eight false starts against South Carolina, having the noise on their side should be big for the Aggies.
“I’m very excited, I see the fans, I love them so much,” Richardson said. “I’m very excited, can’t wait to play in front of them and I can’t wait to be back home … I feel like home field advantage is big.”
“I think that excited is an understatement. We’ve all been talking about [getting back to Kyle Field],” Wright said. “Playing on the road is hard, especially whenever you do it for continuous weeks in a row. That feeling of being able to prep for playing in Kyle Field all week and then getting to be at home and play in front of the fans is huge.”
“I’m very excited. It feels weird that we had five weeks in between now and our last home game,” Bond said. “I’m looking forward to the 12th Man being behind us again and just going out there and showing them what we can do.”