Texas A&M insider confirms Max Johnson starting vs Miami, details how he won QB battle

Texas A&M’s season is not off to the start they hoped. Certainly, no Aggie fans, or college football fans at large, could have anticipated Appalachian State downing A&M on Kyle Field. So that loss led to a total rethink of the offense for head coach Jimbo Fisher. Starting at the quarterback position, where Texas A&M insider Billy Liucci confirmed Friday that LSU import Max Johnson usurped the position from redshirt sophomore Haynes King.

Liucci joined McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning recently to talk all things Aggies football. But the first question Liucci was asked, point blank, was who would start for Texas A&M on Saturday as they host No. 13 Miami. Here was Liucci’s answer:

“Well, barring something changing between now and then, that’s going to be Max Johnson. I think Jimbo opened it up from the start of this week,” Liucci said. “I know on Monday, the first-team reps were split evenly between those two (Johnson and King). But then, what happened with Max, on Tuesday, he started to get more of the first-team reps, kinda noticeably. And then, I believe it was sometime after Tuesday that Jimbo let them know. Because Wednesday-Thursday, [Johnson] had the first-team reps throughout practice.”

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So an unsure Fisher entered the week with a re-opened quarterback competition and, this time around, was swayed by the junior, Johnson, who threw for 2800 yards and 27 touchdowns in Purple and Gold a year ago.

However, Billy Liucci also told folks not to forget about five-star true freshman Conner Wygman, who could enter the mix if Johnson doesn’t work out either.

“You have Connor Wygman, who hasn’t played yet, who I think is the most gifted of the three,” Liucci added. “But, you know, he’s really really young. Maybe that’s a conversation we have later int he season, if QB2-turned-QB1 doesn’t work out.”

So plenty of options for A&M at quarterback for the rest of this season and going forward. The positive is that King, Johnson and Wygman all have eligibility beyond this season. And Wygman and King have multiple years still in their back pocket down the road.