Cole Cubelic says Texas A&M needs 'maturity and leadership' in 2023

This year is a big one for Jimbo Fisher and Texas A&M. After going 5-7 on the field and seeing multiple off-field issues come up, the Aggies are looking to bounce back in a big way in 2023.

Still, SEC Network analyst Cole Cubelic has some questions amid an offseason of turnover.

Texas A&M saw 28 players transfer out, including seven members of its No. 1-ranked 2022 recruiting class. That’s a lot of turnover and, add in multiple coaching changes, and there are a lot of new faces in College Station this year.

In addition, he called on more leadership to help avoid some of the issues from last year.

“I think Texas A&M needs leadership more than anything else,” Cubelic said on The Paul Finebaum Show Wednesday. “They need maturity and leadership, and that’s why guys like Max Wright, who most people aren’t going to talk about, are super valuable on that roster, but they need more of it. They relied on a lot of young players last year, but they need players to step up that can go grab a guy in the locker room and say, ‘You aren’t going to act this way’ or just tell a guy to just beat it. Just get out of here, kick rocks, go play somewhere else, we don’t need you.

“And it’s not that I don’t think Jimbo can help provide that. It’s just they’ve been so young and relied on so many guys that have come in and played immediately that they haven’t had to develop it over time. So if they find leaders, then they can be OK. But there are so many questions past the roster and the depth chart that I don’t know the answers to right now. That will probably be the one that gives me a lot of concern because I actually think they can be a really good football team this year.”

Cole Cubelic on Texas A&M: ‘I don’t know what the mentality is in that building right now’

Because of all the turnover, Cubelic said he’s not sure where Texas A&M is at mentally. That doesn’t mean the Aggies have a bad mentality, though. It just means he’s curious to see how they respond to last season, especially since they still have some question marks on the depth chart.

“Paul, I don’t know what what the mentality is in that building right now,” Cubelic said. “And that doesn’t mean it’s bad. That doesn’t mean it’s negative. I just don’t know. There’s so much turnover. You’ve got a couple of new coaches coming in. You have some guys that were obviously not dialed in to being college football players last year and I think most of those guys have moved on, and there will be some addition by subtraction on that A&M roster with those fellows.

“But you also have some players that couldn’t stay healthy last year, you have some depth concerns in certain spots. I think offensive line, I think linebacker. Those are spots that concern me from a depth perspective a little bit. So I guess the overall mentality, the overall ideology in the building of what it’s going to be and what it is and who’s gonna step up and be a leader?”