Texas A&M 2018 team preview
With Fisher now in charge, Aggies look for a culture change
Tyler Frisby
Jun 26, 2018, 10:22 am
Jimbo Fisher had success at Florida State. Andy Lyons/Getty Images
After a underwhelming season in 2017, when Texas A&M finished with a 7-6 record while failing to win a single game versus a top 25 ranked opponent, the program decided to move on from head coach Kevin Sumlin. Though the Aggies were fighting an uphill battle all season after losing starting quarterback Nick Starkel to a broken ankle, another lackluster year led to the firing of coach Sumlin after his arguably underachieving six years at Texas A&M.
Following the decision to fire Sumlin, the Aggies quickly turned the page to their next chapter by hiring former Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher, who led the Seminoles to a National Championship title in 2013 and finished with a career record of 83-23 in nine seasons.
There is no question that coach Sumlin underachieved with the abundance of athletic talent and recruiting depth that coach Fisher will luckily inherit. A&M fans are expected to maintain high expectations for the 2018 season considering the fact that Fisher brings with him a strong track record of success, with a program that is built like and attracts the same type of talent he had at Florida State.
The question that comes to mind now is how many wins will it take, or how quickly Jimbo will need to lead his new team to a National Championship in order to please the A&M boosters and fanbase? Can anyone possibly meet expectations that will most likely be placed on the shoulders of Fisher?
As I turn my attention to the players, we need to examine the roster coach Fisher will have as he takes control of his new team. Fisher finds himself in an ideal situation as he will have the opportunity to begin his time at Texas A&M with a large collection of returning starters from the 2017 season.
With that said the Aggies will have to find replacements for some of their top playmakers in 2017, which includes All SEC athletes Christian Kirk (WR) and Armani Watts (S). Kirk concluded his career at A&M ranked No. 2 all-time in total receptions in school history and No. 3 in SEC history, while Watts led the Aggie secondary with his athletic playmaking abilities and his aggressive ball-hawking mindset.
Along with the loss of Kirk and Watts, the Aggies will return without starting running back Keith Ford, who ran for over 500 yards while collecting 12 touchdowns in 2017, and lastly WR Damion Ratley who hauled in six total touchdowns and gained 700 yards in 2017.
Though the Aggies did not lose a large quantity of personnel, they will suffer with the loss of a few quality athletes. Altogether coach Fisher will have his hands full trying to replace his top three touchdown leaders, but you can expect A&M’s stash of athletes to produce the necessary stars.
Despite losing those key players, there are still multiple other players Aggie fans should be excited to see return to the field in 2018. Leading the charge will be quarterbacks Nick Starkel and Kellen Mond. Both players saw a significant amount of playing time in 2017 and faced their fair share of ups and downs. You can expect a major quarterback competition to take place before the season, but I would not bet against coach Fisher finding a way to get both QB’s on the field.
Mond definitely displayed a tremendous amount of raw playmaking ability in 2017 that Fisher will not allow to go unused. A few other offensive players returning that should draw some serious attention and excitement are Junior RB Trayveon Williams and sophomore WR Jhamon Ausbon. In 2017, Williams led the Aggies rushing attack on his way to nearly 800 rushing yards and eight touchdowns, while Ausbon finished his freshman season with over 500 receiving yards.
On the defensive side of the ball, Texas A&M can rest easy with the return of four of their top five tacklers in 2017. The two most important of those players being linebackers Tyrel Dodson and Otaro Alaka, who combined for 182 total tackles, 11 sacks and 4 interceptions last season. Also, the national spotlight will be shining bright on returning DE Landis Durham who tallied 10.5 sacks in 2017.
The Aggies will rely heavily on Durham to chase down opposing quarterbacks and at minimum repeat that same level of play. Lastly, with the loss of star safety Watts, coach Fisher will be excited to welcome in the 75th ranked recruit in the nation and 8th ranked safety in his class (according to 247sports.com), Freshman S Leon O’Neal Jr, in the hopes that he will pick up Watts weight in the secondary.
Everyone knows that Fisher is a very capable coach, and that Texas A&M will put one of the most talented teams in the nation on the field every year. The question at hand is how quickly can Fisher get his new team back into championship contention.
Yes, expectations should be high for a program like Texas A&M, but anytime a coach takes over a new team, you can expect there to be a fair share of growing pains. I truly believe that with coach Fisher at the helm the Aggies will soon contend for a National Championship, but patience and belief will be key in his success.
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After finishing up with the Guardians the Astros have a rather important series for early May with the Seattle Mariners heading to town for the weekend. While it’s still too early to be an absolute must-win series for the Astros, losing the series to drop seven or nine games off the division lead would make successfully defending their American League West title that much more unlikely.
Since their own stumble out of the gate to a 6-10 record the Mariners have been racking up series wins, including one this week over the Atlanta Braves. The M’s offense is largely Mmm Mmm Bad, but their pitching is sensational. In 18 games after a 4-8 start, the Mariners gave up five runs in a game once. In the other 17 games they only gave up four runs once. Over the 18 games their starting pitchers gave up 18 earned runs total with a 1.44 earned run average. That’s absurd. Coming into the season Seattle’s starting rotation was clearly better on paper than those of the Astros and Texas Rangers, and it has crystal clearly played out as such into the second month of the schedule.
While it’s natural to focus on and fret over one’s own team's woes when they are plentiful as they have been for the Astros, a reminder that not all grass is greener elsewhere. Alex Bregman has been awful so far. So has young Mariners’ superstar Julio Rodriguez (though not Breggy Bad). A meager four extra base hits over his first 30 games were all Julio produced down at the ballyard. That the Mariners are well ahead of the Astros with J-Rod significantly underperforming is good news for Seattle.
Caratini comes through!
So it turns out the Astros are allowed to have a Puerto Rican-born catcher who can hit a little bit. Victor Caratini’s pedigree is not that of a quality offensive player, but he has swung the bat well thus far in his limited playing time and provided the most exciting moment of the Astros’ season with his two-out two-run 10th inning game winning home run Tuesday night. I grant that one could certainly say “Hey! Ronel Blanco finishing off his no-hitter has been the most exciting moment.” I opt for the suddenness of Caratini’s blow turning near defeat into instant victory for a team that has been lousy overall to this point. Frittering away a game the Astros had led 8-3 would have been another blow. Instead, to the Victor belong the spoils.
Pudge Rodriguez is the greatest native Puerto Rican catcher, but he was no longer a good hitter when with the Astros for the majority of the 2009 season. Then there’s Martin Maldonado.
Maldonado’s hitting stats with the Astros look Mike Piazza-ian compared to what Jose Abreu was doing this season. Finally, mercifully for all, Abreu is off the roster as he accepts a stint at rookie-level ball in Florida to see if he can perform baseball-CPR on his swing and career. Until or unless he proves otherwise, Abreu is washed up and at some point the Astros will have to accept it and swallow whatever is left on his contract that runs through next season. For now Abreu makes over $120,000 per game to not be on the roster. At his level of performance, that’s a better deal than paying him that money to be on the roster.
Abreu’s seven hits in 71 at bats for an .099 batting average with a .269 OPS is a humiliating stat line. In 2018 George Springer went to sleep the night of June 13 batting .293 after going hitless in his last four at bats in a 13-5 Astros’ win over Oakland. At the time no one could have ever envisioned that Springer had started a deep, deep funk which would have him endure a nightmarish six for 78 stretch at the plate (.077 batting average). Springer then hit .293 the rest of the season.
Abreu’s exile opened the door for Joey Loperfido to begin his Major League career. Very cool for Loperfido to smack a two-run single in his first game. He also struck out twice. Loperfido will amass whiffs by the bushel, he had 37 strikeouts in 101 at bats at AAA Sugar Land. Still, if he can hit .225 with some walks mixed in (he drew 16 with the Space Cowboys) and deliver some of his obvious power (13 homers in 25 games for the ex-Skeeters) that’s an upgrade over Abreu/Jon Singleton, as well as over Jake Meyers and the awful showing Chas McCormick has posted so far. Frankly, it seems unwise that the Astros only had Loperfido play seven games at first base in the minors this year. If McCormick doesn’t pick it up soon and with Meyers displaying limited offensive upside, the next guy worth a call-up is outfielder Pedro Leon. In January 2021 the Astros gave Leon four million dollars to sign out of Cuba and called him a “rapid mover to the Major Leagues.” Well…
Over his first three minor league seasons Leon flashed tools but definitely underwhelmed. He has been substantially better so far this year. He turns 26 May 28. Just maybe the Astros offense could be the cause of fewer Ls with Loperfido at first and Leon in center field.
Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via YouTube: stone cold stros - YouTube with the complete audio available via Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.