The defensive line looks strong once again
With spring practices being more tight-lipped than usual, it was a welcome sight to see the Aggies take to Kyle Field on Saturday for the first spring game of the Mike Elko era. In the past, depth has been sparse when it comes to the spring game. Your seniors have departed, most of your incoming freshmen are still in high school, and offseason surgeries and minor tweaks will keep players from participating in the spring game.
However, with the addition of several players from the transfer portal (and perhaps some improved roster management skills from Mike Elko) A&M was able to field two offenses and two defenses without having to dip too far into the walk-on ranks. Most notably, the starting offensive lines for both the Maroon and the White team were made up of scholarship players. It feels like we haven’t seen that in a spring game in years.
With the reminder that the spring game is a glorified scrimmage and not a leading indicator of future success, let’s jump into the good, the bad, and the incomplete.
The Good
The Aggie defensive line has the makings of a dominant unit, particularly at defensive end. Perhaps the biggest takeaway of the day was the play of Purdue transfer Nic Scourton. We did a film study on Scourton earlier, but he honestly looked even more impressive in the spring game than those clips show. His first step is more explosive than he showed in the past and he looked even quicker than before. Scourton’s effort and use of his hands were also on full display as he terrorized the White offense all day.
At the other end spot, Shemar Stewart looks to have taken the next step and is primed to breakout this fall. A 5-star prospect in the 2022 class, Stewart has always had the raw talent and has flashed it at times in his first two seasons. But on Saturday, he was virtually unblockable the entire day. If he can translate that to the fall, Stewart and Scourton could be one of the most feared pass rush duos in the country. That would also allow Elko and DC Jay Bateman to get creative with DL Shemar Turner (an All-SEC selection last year), who has the ability to play inside or outside.
Aside from Scourton and Stewart, Bowling Green transfer Cashius Howell had a nice day and should be able to bring some juice off the edge. Rylan Kennedy and Malick Sylla (who were both out on Saturday) have filled out in the offseason and should factor in to the rotation at defensive end.
Moving along, there may not be a more improved position group from 2023 to 2024 than the secondary. The Aggies struggled against the higher end passing offenses they faced last season and had very little depth on the back end. That led to Coach Elko bringing in eight transfer defensive backs.
Fast forward to Saturday, and you saw the A&M secondary suffocating receivers, breaking up passes, and playing physical. Transfers Donovan Saunders and BJ Mayes stood out the most at corner, while sophomore Dalton Brooks looked ready to take on a starting role at safety. The return of Elko’s scheme on defense was also evident, as the safeties were active in the run game and were often asked to blitz.
All-in-all, the secondary played extremely sound football. They didn’t have busts in coverage, they covered well, they tackled well. It was a breath of fresh air. To top it off, there were 3 high-level players on the sideline in Trey Jones, Dezz Ricks, and Tyreek Chappell. At full strength, the Aggie secondary should be a deep and talented unit that can hang with the best passing offenses in the SEC.
On offense, the biggest positive was the running game. A&M did not excel at running the football in 2023, especially in situations when they needed to run. On Saturday, the offensive line, running backs, and the scheme all looked improved.
The A&M offensive linemen were confident in what they were asked to do, they got up to the second level, they pulled well, and opened up some running lanes for the backs. Chase Bisontis, now at LG instead of RT, had a very nice day.
Leveon Moss, Reuben Owens, and EJ Smith all had their moments. Moss is starting to look like a bell cow, he had several chunk plays on the ground, a few explosive runs, and even caught the ball well. Owens broke a 60-yard touchdown run near the end of the game. Smith, the son of the NFL’s all-time leading rusher, showed some nice vision and pass catching ability as well.
As far as the scheme goes, the use of pulling linemen and multiple tight ends really got things going with the ground game. The Aggie defense was able to stuff the run a few times as well, but it seemed like the offense was much more consistent than last year at generating those runs of 5-10 yards. It was also nice to see Moss get in for a touchdown when the Maroon offense got down to the goal line.
Lastly, it appears that Tyler White will be the next great punter at A&M. The Aggies have been inconsistent at punter since the departure of Braden Mann, but White was booming punts on Saturday. He averaged 48.3 yards on his three punts. A&M averaged a mere 41.3 yards last season.
The Bad
When you have your starting QB on the White team and the starting WRs and OL on the Maroon team, it’s hard to gauge the performance of your passing game. Conner Weigman started the game with a perfect pass to Cyrus Allen for a big gain, but couldn’t get much going after that.
Weigman had some nice throws that were either dropped or broken up, but also had to contend with Nic Scourton blowing up the pocket every other play. Weigman is still trying to recover from his injury last fall, but we know what we can do. Quarterback should be the least of A&M’s concern.
What is a concern is the lack of depth and playmaking at receiver. Noah Thomas was the lone bright spot on Saturday, scoring a pair of touchdowns and making several nice grabs. A&M desperately needs him to stay healthy this season.
Jahdae Walker, Moose Muhammed, and Cyrus Allen all had some nice moments, but the consistency wasn’t there. With Jabre Barber’s status up in the air due to injury, receiver is a spot where the Aggies will look to the transfer portal for help. It is also possible that 5-star signee Terry Bussey starts out his career on offense once he gets on campus, especially with the newfound depth at corner.
This is where you can be critical of a spring game performance, but not overly negative. The matchups on Saturday weren’t conducive for an explosive passing game, but you still would have liked to see more out of them. Maybe the receivers and offensive line are fine and the A&M pass rush and secondary are just that good. That’s possible. But it’s also possible that the WR and OL rooms just aren’t where they need to be (yet). A&M has already landed a center from the transfer portal this window and look to be going hard after receivers.
The Incomplete
I touched on the offensive line in both the good and the bad, but incomplete is the most apt description. With the units being mixed and matched, you can’t take too much away from their performance as a whole.
However, there were signs of improvement. In addition to the run game notes above, there were some instances where the OL did a good job in handling stunts and twists in pass protection. It still wasn’t perfect, but improved from years past.
Rueben Fatheree looked more like the freshman version of himself that shut down Will Anderson and Dallas Turner, he will compete at RT with Dametrious Crownover. Bisontis looked much more comfortable at guard, he played well in the run game and pass pro. The transfer from Utah, Koli Faaui, should compete at center, and Kam Dewberry should be fully healthy for fall camp.
The offensive line will almost certainly be improved from the last few seasons, the only question is how much.
At tight end, three of A&M’s top options were sidelined (Donovan Green, Tre Watson, and Garrett Miller). Watson has looked impressive this spring, he should be a big factor this fall. Theodore Ohrstrom looked improved as a blocker and caught a pass on Saturday, while Jaden Platt had a pretty quiet day. There is a lot of talent to work with here, but the spring game offered very little insight.
Lastly, the kicking game is still TBD. Ethan Moczulski made a chip shot field goal and no one missed an extra point. There wasn’t much to take away here.