Following the Aggies 48-10 win over the University of Louisiana-Monroe, Texas A&M is ranked in the AP top 25 poll, coming in at No. 22. This is the first time since November 2016 that the Aggies have been featured in the poll.
The ranking comes a week before A&M’s first road game of the season against No.1 Alabama.
After Saturday’s game, A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher said that while he was happy with the win, he knows his team has a few things to improve as they head into SEC play.
“We’re not where we need to be, but we’re growing in that direction,” Fisher said.
Heading into the ULM game, Fisher wanted to bring balance back to the offense. The Aggies primarily opted for pass plays against then-No. 2 Clemson as the defensive front shut down the run game.
“I wanted us to go back to having a balance,” Fisher said. “I wanted us to establish the run again, to be able to run the football to get the guys going.”
Despite getting the run game going against ULM, the A&M running backs didn’t have a run that went for more than 21 yards. A&M finished the game with 288 rushing yards, and 131 of those came from junior running back Trayveon Williams.
Williams said it was important for the offense — the running back unit in particular — to continue attempts to run the ball, even without the explosive plays.
“The run game is very essential [to us],” Williams said. “You don’t always get those long big runs, but if you are able to keep the chains moving, that’s something that is key to this offense. So glad to keep the chains moving and have a pretty successful night on the ground, so I’m glad I got that done.”
A&M had three touchdowns negated by penalties, which is something Fisher said can’t happen again moving forward.
“With these people we’re getting ready to play, we can’t have these penalties,” Fisher said. “It’s very disappointing. Right off the bat, we had two or three penalties in the game… Any penalty is too many and we can’t have that and we’ve got to get that fixed.”
Even with the flags, A&M was able to successfully score during each of their six trips to the red zone.
On the defensive side of the ball, A&M scored its first touchdown on a special teams play after senior defensive lineman Daylon Mack blocked a ULM field goal attempt, which was then picked up by junior linebacker Tyrel Dodson, who ran it into the end zone.
Dodson said the blocked field goal play was one the defense needed before heading to Alabama.
“It gives us a boost of confidence,” Dodson said. “A turnover for the defense is awesome. The fact that we haven’t had a turnover in the first two game crawled under our skin and we just had to stay patient and just eliminate the big plays.”
No. 22 Texas A&M will travel to Tuscaloosa to take on No. 1 Alabama on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. and the game will be televised on CBS.