Texas A&M football is hitting the road for the first time this season.
Aside from the usual challenges that come with away games, A&M will face the number one team in the nation this Saturday, hoping the experience of starting sophomore quarterback Kellen Mond and sophomore wide receiver Jhamon Ausbon will give the team an edge against the Alabama defense.
Both sophomores played against the Crimson Tide as true freshmen last year in their 27-19 loss. Ausbon said simply having experience against Alabama is the advantage both players bring to the matchup.
“You kind of have some experience on what they’ve thrown at [Mond] last year,” Ausbon said. “With the blitzes and the personnel packages… just the experience of knowing what they’re going to bring towards him because they’re a team that have the traditional defense that they always come with every year. … If you play them one or two years, you kind of get used to how they play.”
Going up against the No. 1 defense proved to be a challenge last year for the Aggie offense. Mond finished with 237 passing yards and one touchdown, but connected with the Alabama defense four times and threw for one interception. Ausbon experienced similar challenges, only securing three receptions for 23 yards in the game.
“[They’re] very physical guys, guys that can compete, guys that are well-coached,” Ausbon said. “They make minor mistakes and they capitalize off mistakes. The biggest thing is to just make sure we give them less opportunity to capitalize off of those mistakes.”
Despite the setbacks they faced in the last meeting, the A&M offense and its leaders are learning from past experiences and remaining confident in their ability to make plays.
“Every play matters,” Mond said. “With their defense, they try to force you to make mistakes, and that’s something that we’ll have to do — minimize mistakes, minimize negative plays. I always feel confident in the offensive line, the running backs and the receivers to make plays. I feel like we’ll be fine going in there.”
With a new set of coaches this year, both Ausbon and Mond have experienced changes on the offense and in their positions.
“I feel like Coach Fisher does a really good job of putting everybody in different formations,” Mond said. “Jhamon [Ausbon] might be in the slot a lot and last year he was basically in the boundary all the time. Being able to move around guys — Trayveon [Williams] being out there and the receivers catching the ball more this year. Being able to utilize more guys is really our biggest thing.”