Paul Finebaum: Texas A&M remains the SEC's biggest mystery team
Texas A&M picked up their second loss of the season this weekend, a 26-20 defeat, to No. 11 Alabama. Still, for all the positives and negatives with the Aggies, Paul Finebaum still doesn’t know what to make of them.
Finebaum shared that thought on Monday on ‘McElroy and Cubelic In The Morning’. Frankly, he isn’t sure what to make of A&M because he isn’t sure where their ceiling is considering all things.
“To me, A&M remains the mystery team because I just don’t know what they’re capable of,” Finebaum said.
His main reasoning for this belief is the defense down in College Station. For all the talent that they have on that side of the ball, he isn’t exactly sure what DC DJ Durkin is doing with it.
“I mean we all know what they have defensively,” said Finebaum. “What we don’t know is whether the defensive coordinator can put everybody in the right place.”
As they sit at 4-2, Finebaum is right that we once again just don’t know what Texas A&M’s ceiling is. They handled all four of their lesser opponents on the season by an average margin of victory of nearly 30 points with coming by double digits.
However, they’ve lost to each of their two best opponents so far, Miami and the Crimson Tide, in what were their defense’s worst performances of the year.
What A&M will be over the next seven weeks is anyone’s guess. That makes them a legitimate threat, though, as they’re more than good enough to handle their business yet also erratic enough to still slip up.
Finebaum feels Jimbo Fisher is in a ‘reasonably good position’
While the Texas A&M Aggies couldn’t pull off the upset over Alabama, they came admirably close.
During an appearance on ‘McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning’, Paul Finebaum analyzed Jimbo Fisher’s standing with the program following the narrow loss.
“I really believe that Jimbo Fisher is still in a reasonably good position at A&M,” Finebaum said. “I’m two weeks removed from having spent a weekend there so some of this may be outdated. After Saturday, I didn’t feel an urgency regardless of a couple of slips along the way.”
“His real problem is, after Saturday, he goes to Knoxville and it’s really incumbent and urgent upon this program to get a big win somewhere.”
Finebaum was then critical of Texas A&M’s decision-making down the stretch against Alabama.
“I just have to question some of his decision-making?” Finebaum said. “There are two or three calls that are just screaming, a couple of decisions not to go for it…The decision to try the field goal as opposed to going for the first down? It’s going to haunt him.
“As you know, doing games every week with Greg, when you make a mistake? Tou either pay for it or you’re proven right. And he was proven wrong. I think that’s the haunting thing.”