Texas A&M vs South Carolina Game Thread

[NoALtiger 3,865]

I think most people have underestimated the coaching abilities of Coach Sumlin.

Some folks on this board for sure.

[OnthePlains 2,014]

I saw a shell shocked Gamecock defense with no answers, a confident young QB for A&M who really had no pressure on him all night. USCe had zero pass rush and the kid could sit there and pick and choose his receivers. I doubt he will have that luxury against AU, bama and LSU. The Aggie D looked markedly better but still prone to give up the big play and I have little doubt that AU can move the ball on them effectively. Sumlin is a highly underrated coach and should keep them competitive but he is going to need to win the West before everyone will really give him that respect.

[Strychnine 1,802]

Back to what Strychnine said:

TAMU hit 12 different receivers if i heard right on the SECN. 12!

That is throwing the ball around. That is Offensive execution on the highest level. The TAMU Receivers ran great basic routs, and the SCAR DBs were giving them room all night.

The SCAR D was winded late in the 3rd Quarter if you listened all game to the play by play folks.

SCAR looked completely helpless on D. Lorenzo Ward may be gone by mid-season if they dont get it under control and fast.

TAMU is thriving now with Sumlin. They are going to sell tickets, make money, and be a STRONG part of the SEC West.

I was watching Sumlin as a OC at OU back several years ago. He has coached for Mike Price, Dennis Erickson, Bob Stoops.

When he was OC at OU, he averaged 40+ PPG and was the engineer of some epic beatdowns of Big 12 Opponents.

If anything, i welcome him to the SEC. It is going to be high wire excitement for the foreseeable future with him around.

The real hallmark of an Air Raid is distribution, between multiple receivers and backs. Most Air Raid teams will not produce 1000-yard backs consistently, but they are likely to have a pair of them that combine for over 1000 yards. The same will be the case for receivers, except there will simply be more of them. I have always considered much of the criticism of the Air Raid to be as unfounded as similar criticism directed at Malzahn. Oklahoma has used a flavor of it extremely successfully for quite some time, and Texas A&M has shown that it works in our conference as well.

[BamaGrad03 0]

- Carolina lost everyone on their defense who had more than one sack from last year

- Three new DLs (in a 3-4)

- Two new corners (against giant 5 star WRs)

- No Mike Davis

- No Skai Moore (he came in for like one play, got a sack, and reinjured himself)

- SC hasn't faced an offense of that style at all really

That was a recipe for disaster. The talking heads who didn't do their homework will now overcorrect and put Hill on the Heisman shortlist and overrank A&M. A&M won't find the rest of their SEC slate as easy. Though I fear for Carolina, they're in for a lot of the same when they play Auburn. SC just isn't equipped to stop it.

[Strychnine 1,802]

- Carolina lost everyone on their defense who had more than one sack from last year

- Three new DLs (in a 3-4)

- Two new corners (against giant 5 star WRs)

- No Mike Davis

- No Skai Moore (he came in for like one play, got a sack, and reinjured himself)

- SC hasn't faced an offense of that style at all really

That was a recipe for disaster. The talking heads who didn't do their homework will now overcorrect and put Hill on the Heisman shortlist and overrank A&M. A&M won't find the rest of their SEC slate as easy. Though I fear for Carolina, they're in for a lot of the same when they play Auburn. SC just isn't equipped to stop it.

Oh, I was far from sold on South Carolina. My main annoyance was the disrespect of A&M heading in to the season. All anyone saw of A&M the last two years was Manziel and Evans, but that's because it was all they wanted to see. As you said previously about Sumlin looking forward to the non-Manziel era, I was too.

[DKW 86 7,426]

Just a thought, you know really needs Kevin Sumlin? The Gators...

[BamaGrad03 0]

Just a thought, you know really needs Kevin Sumlin? The Gators...

I think the NFL needs him. Like now.

[Auburn4Winners 0]

I was one that was pretty sold on SC being really good this year. Clearly I was wrong. The game I saw last night was not even remotely what I expected. aTm played with a purpose and a fire on both sides of the ball. SC played like they were lost, confused and just drawing plays in the dirt on offense. I know aTm's offense was on fire but that SC defense was just pathetic and weak. The worst tackling I've seen since Auburn 2012. On offense they just looked slow and uninterested. I'll reserve judgement on both teams until I see them play another good team.

[Strychnine 1,802]

I was one that was pretty sold on SC being really good this year. Clearly I was wrong. The game I saw last night was not even remotely what I expected. aTm played with a purpose and a fire on both sides of the ball. SC played like they were lost, confused and just drawing plays in the dirt on offense. I know aTm's offense was on fire but that SC defense was just pathetic and weak. The worst tackling I've seen since Auburn 2012. On offense they just looked slow and uninterested. I'll reserve judgement on both teams until I see them play another good team.

I definitely saw more than one 3rd down stop turned into a first down by South Carolina's tackling, or lack thereof.

[WFE12 9,191]

Eating humble pie here, expected SCAR to have this in the bag. On the bright side, think aTm will hand Bama their backsides on a plate.

yep, imma have to have a slice of that pie too,hate that others led me to believe that texas a&m would get demolished,i believed that they could win at first. I hate it cuz that's what alot of people did to auburn and still do..underestimate them and i resented people for that and now i did it...

[WFE12 9,191]

SC has a lot of improving to do on D it they want to have another ten win season. I hope AU doesn't have the big head and come out and lay an egg like that.

oh no...best believe gus has them in the right mindset, takin it one game at a time,he won't let them get a big head,how can they anyway...i hate to use this cliche but they have a huge chip on their shoulder

[WFE12 9,191]

Manziel, Evans & co. amassed a lot of offense the last two seasons, that was a huge percentage of offensive production lost. No one expected unknown upstarts to lamblaste SC at home.

I always felt that Manziel and Evans were an understatement of A&M's offense, and more specifically the goals of an Air Raid offense. The Air Raid does not necessarily operate in terms of "go-to player", it seeks to spread the ball across multiple receivers and backs. Sumlin recognized a good thing when he saw it and let Manziel/Evans do their thing, but the Air Raid backbone was still there and it is HIS thing. Mike Leach has outlined the theory behind it on a few occasions, and it makes for interesting reading.

What surprised me more in the game was the effort of A&M's defense through most of the game. South Carolina had their moments, but A&M kept them largely in check. I was not on the South Carolina bandwagon heading into this season, and I certainly saw nothing to be impressed with in their opening game. They are extremely beatable, and A&M illustrated it. A&M is quite beatable too.

our secondary definitely has to be on their a-game when we play them for sure

[Ber798297 241]

Just a thought, you know really needs Kevin Sumlin? The Gators...

I think the NFL needs him. Like now.

Agreed!!! Well said BG

[AUbritt 611]

I was one that was pretty sold on SC being really good this year. Clearly I was wrong. The game I saw last night was not even remotely what I expected. aTm played with a purpose and a fire on both sides of the ball. SC played like they were lost, confused and just drawing plays in the dirt on offense. I know aTm's offense was on fire but that SC defense was just pathetic and weak. The worst tackling I've seen since Auburn 2012. On offense they just looked slow and uninterested. I'll reserve judgement on both teams until I see them play another good team.

Me, too.

[AUbritt 611]

Just a thought, you know really needs Kevin Sumlin? The Gators...

I think the NFL needs him. Like now.

Yes, please. Go to the Cowboys!

[cooltigger21 0]

Just a thought, you know really needs Kevin Sumlin? The Gators...

I think the NFL needs him. Like now.

Yes, please. Go to the Cowboys!

I could go for that. Offense isn't the problem. Defense is awful. Jerry screwed up by letting Rob Ryan go.

[Auburnfan91 1,407]

I felt Dylan Thompson played pretty well, actually. Well enough to win. He had 2 TDs and 100 yards worth of passing dropped, and still finished with 366 and 4 TDs. But without Mike Davis, their run game was just average. And, well, we saw that defense.

And I just don't know why. We need to look at OU's offense when he was there, or the fact that he's coached 3 heisman winning QBs (and that doesn't even count Drew Bledsoe). The guy is an offensive genius and really handles himself well. I've been a Sumlin fan since I first heard him doing the interview circuit when they came into the league. I think he was as happy for the non-Manziel era for him to start as the rest of us. He was ready to show everyone what his system can do.

A&M is good, but their defense still has a number of holes. SC could have easily had 42 last night, even being entirely 1 dimensional. A balanced attack vs that defense will be effective, and also keep that offense of theirs off the field.

I agree with you. Dylan Thompson played pretty well considering all the pressure was on his shoulders.

The reason nobody respected Texas A&M that much going into the game is primarily their defense was horrible last year. South Carolina still showed that A&M's defense is not that good. Nobody thought Kenny Hill would look that good and that South Carolina's defense would be that bad. South Carolina's defense couldn't tackle and couldn't get off the field when they got Texas A&M to 3rd down.

[Dom1ni0n 51]

I felt Dylan Thompson played pretty well, actually. Well enough to win. He had 2 TDs and 100 yards worth of passing dropped, and still finished with 366 and 4 TDs. But without Mike Davis, their run game was just average. And, well, we saw that defense.

And I just don't know why. We need to look at OU's offense when he was there, or the fact that he's coached 3 heisman winning QBs (and that doesn't even count Drew Bledsoe). The guy is an offensive genius and really handles himself well. I've been a Sumlin fan since I first heard him doing the interview circuit when they came into the league. I think he was as happy for the non-Manziel era for him to start as the rest of us. He was ready to show everyone what his system can do.

A&M is good, but their defense still has a number of holes. SC could have easily had 42 last night, even being entirely 1 dimensional. A balanced attack vs that defense will be effective, and also keep that offense of theirs off the field.

I agree with you. Dylan Thompson played pretty well considering all the pressure was on his shoulders.

The reason nobody respected Texas A&M that much going into the game is primarily their defense was horrible last year. South Carolina still showed that A&M's defense is not that good. Nobody thought Kenny Hill would look that good and that South Carolina's defense would be that bad. South Carolina's defense couldn't tackle and couldn't get off the field when they got Texas A&M to 3rd down.

Other similar points I neglected to mention earlier in my reasoning as to why I thought SC would take this one, not that the coaching abilities of Sumlin were ever in question.

[Auburnfan91 1,407]

Other similar points I neglected to mention earlier in my reasoning as to why I thought SC would take this one, not that the coaching abilities of Sumlin were ever in question.

Yeah. Sumlin's an offensive guy. I thought Texas A&M's offense would still be pretty good. I never doubted their offense not being able to score, it's that their defense would keep them from doing better than 7-5 this season because they went 9-4 last year with Johnny Manziel scoring 40 points almost every game.

Really it was combination of Texas A&M's offense being even better than most people thought and South Carolina's defense being a lot worse than most people thought. Texas A&M's defense still didn't really show too much improvement. I really don't put much belief either that A&M's run defense is much better either because South Carolina basically abandoned the run because they needed their offense to score on almost every possession because their defense couldn't stop Texas A&M. South Carolina couldn't just chew up the clock with long drives and shorten the game because it would have made it harder on themselves to try and comeback since their defense couldn't stop A&M from scoring anyway.

[tgr4lfe 220]

Eating humble pie here, expected SCAR to have this in the bag. On the bright side, think aTm will hand Bama their backsides on a plate.

After watching the turds today, I think you are right about TAMU.