Florida v. Texas A&M

by Arnaldo

It's finally here!  The SEC expansion kicks off with the Gators playing the Aggies and the Georgia visiting Mizzou.  As I've said before, the rich only get richer, and the SEC, already the unquestionably toughest conference in college football for the better part of a decade, just got tougher.  Say what you will about the unranked Aggies and Tigers, but they're both quality programs.  It wasn't very long ago when Chase Daniel led the Tigers to a 12-2 season finishing at No. 4, or even last season when Texas A&M made Arkansas earn their 4-point victory. But expansion talk is over; as soon as the ball is kicked off, they're both one of us.


Aggies 101


We all know about Rocky Top, Woo Pig Sooie, War Eagle, and Rammer Jammer, because the SEC is a close-knit conference fueled by tradition and mutual respect/hatred.  We don't, or shouldn't, know much about our new programs.  So in welcoming in Texas A&M University, let's quickly review some of their traditions


The 12th Man -  The Aggies nicknamed their stadium "Home of the 12th Man" and their fans "the 12th Man".  The significance is of course, that there are 11 players on a football team playing at once.  Similarly, terms like "sixth man" are used in basketball.  The term came from the 1922 Dixie Classic, where the Aggies suffered so many injuries that head coach, D.X. Bible, was forced to call into the stands for E. King Hill, a football player who had recently left the team.  Hill came running down and suited up to play, but wasn't needed.  His ambition and readiness to serve the team are remembered as the "spirit of the 12th man".


Corps of Cadets and the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band - Texas A&M University is one of the six Senior Military College.  They produce hundreds of military officers each year and have a total enrollment of over 2000 Cadets.  The Cadets have their own section in the stands and are prominently shown on televised games.  The Fightin' Texas Aggie Band is no regular marching band.  They're exclusively composed of Cadets.  As the largest precision military marching band, their drills are so complex the computer programs commonly used to design them often return errors, and must be written by hand.  The members all dine together, sleep together in their own dormitories, and practice up to forty hours a week on top of a full course load and regular Corps training.  Both Dub and I are former members of the Gator Band and we were known for some complaining, but we were never literally in boot camp.


Bonfire - Since 1909 Aggie students have been holding bonfires the week before the final game (until this year against Texas).  Originally just a small trash fire, the Bonfire grew to enormous heights over the years.  Traditionally held around the end of the season, serious engineering is required to build a safe fire of over 50 feet.  In 1999, while constructing the 5000-log stacks, the top collapse and the chain reaction killed 12 students while injuring 27.  The university ended its official support of Bonfire and a memorial was built in its place.  Since then, off campus Bonfires have been built successfully with design changes to prevent another collapse.


Midnight Yell Practice - Texas A&M does not have cheerleaders, and they do not have pep rallies.  Instead, they have Yell Leaders and Yell Practice.  The Yell Leaders are five males elected by the student body to lead the various yells with corresponding hand signals.  In place of a traditional pep rally, the Aggies meet up the night before each home game, or two nights before each away game, on Kyle Field at midnight to practice yelling.  At the end of the practice the lights are shut off and everyone "mugs down" and kisses their date.  The dateless hold up their cigarette lighters to better find each other in the dark ... to kiss.  This is in preparation for their best tradition, "When One Aggie Scores, All Aggies Score."  During football games, when the team scores, the students kiss their date.  Are you asking yourself why you didn't send your applications to College Station, Texas?  Me too.


The Match-Up


Enough about them; let's talk about us.  The Bowling Green game had a lot of Gator fans shaking their heads in confusion.  To whom I remind, it was more of a preseason game than anything.  Unlike most years, where a finished product is brought onto the field, the 2012 squad still needed some live practice, and that's fine.  Yes, the Falcons tied the game twice, and I know, the team seemed very undisciplined.  What should you should take out of that game is this: it was a warm-up, and it was treated as such.  It's not at all uncommon for play-calling on both sides of the ball to get extremely conservative on the first couple games.  Teams don't want a lot of footage so readily available to their conference rivals.  Play-calling on offense was all run.  Mike Gillislee on the power; Gillislee on the stretch.  If you're worried at the lack of success that produced, don't be.  He got solid yardage against a team that expected all run and stacked 8-9 guys in the box.  Against better defenses not knowing what to expect and keeping 7 in the box, results should be comparable.  Keep in mind Brent Pease is also the quarterbacks coach.  You can bet his style of offense includes plenty of passing, though we didn't see as much last Saturday, which brings me to...


Jeff Driskel - Named the starting quarterback after the Bowling Green game, Driskel was just impressive enough to edge out Brissett but wasn't asked to do much.  The majority of his game were simple bubble screens and short routes.  As a down-field passer in the SEC, he remains a question mark.  A&M should expose a lot out of him, fielding one of the SEC's weaker secondaries.


Defense - On defense, conservative was still the name of the game.  From what I could tell, there wasn't a lot of tight man coverage.  There was, however, plenty of loose zones.  This means a defensive player is given more space around an area, or his assignment, to protect.  The result is a sacrifice of big plays for sure tackles.  We allowed the Falcons to pass the ball around much more than we will any other team.  By that same token, the players were probably told to not make plays on the ball, but instead focus on the receiver and a sure tackle.  Otherwise, we may have seen more interceptions.  The potential ones that were mishandled were more "right place, right time" than aggressively going for the ball.  What worried me about this style of play was its effect on the players' discipline, which brings me to...

He looks thrilled...

Discipline - There's no doubt Will Muschamp is strict.  He's even said there's not much more he can do to motivate or discipline the team.  What worries me are the results on the field: poor tackling, lack of drive, and lots of penalties.   When Jelani Jenkins wraps his arms around a player, that player (short of a Trent Richardson) should go down immediately.  As for penalties, the Gators stacked 14 last week.  That many flags this week could make the difference in the game.




Texas A&M - For the Aggies, this is a historic game for more than being their SEC debut.  It's also their season opener; their first game was postponed due to Hurricane Isaac.  This game also marks the debut of the new coaching staff under Kevin Sumlin, replacing Mike Sherman, and the debut of their new redshirt freshman quarterback, Johnny Manziel, replacing Ryan Tannehill.  All circumstances provided, it seems the Gators have the intangibles advantage.

Jeremy Brown in 2010

Aggies Pass v. Gators Secondary - Sumlin's air raid offense has the potential to disrupt the Gators secondary, however.  The air raid is exactly what it sounds like: lots of passing, which is something the SEC in general isn't very used to.  Even Steve Spurrier, our most pass-happy coach, admits the SEC forces him to run the ball.  The Gators secondary is well equipped for the raid but still remains unproven.  The biggest challenge will be keeping fresh bodies on the field, but with four rotating cornerbacks (Roberson, Watkins, Purifoy, Riggs) and the return of the skilled and sorely-missed Jeremy Brown (8), it may be pretty feasible.  Muschamp says he's prepared to have up to six DBs in often to counter-act the up-tempo passing attack. 


Aggies Pass Rush - Texas A&M led the nation in sacks a year ago with 51.  Keep an eye on the trenches as their best pass rushers, Linebacker Sean Porter (10) and defensive end Damontre Moore (94) return attack a much improved Florida offensive line.


Arnaldo's Prediction: 

Florida wins 24 - 21