Outside noise crippled Texas A&M’s biggest strength and championship hopes at the worst time possible
The outside noise ended up being too much for the Texas A&M Aggies to handle.
After boasting one of the top offenses in all of college football this season, the Texas A&M Aggies chose the worst time to have its ugliest performance of the year. Head coach Mike Elko and his team welcomed the Miami Hurricanes to Kyle Field on Saturday, and came out with a 10-3 playoff loss. It was a day filled with missed opportunities, frustration, and several turnovers.
While the Hurricanes have a good defense, this type of performance from offensive coordinator Collin Klein’s unit is unacceptable, especially at home. Even though Klein had done some tremendous things during his time with the Aggies, he will unfortunately be remembered for this final game. Following the defeat, Klein heads back to his Alma Mater to become the head coach of Kansas State.
Elko’s defense more than held their weight during the loss, allowing Miami to total just 278 yards on the day as an offense. The offense, however, sputtered to just 326 yards of their own. That includes just 89 yards on 35 carries, an average of 2.5 yards per carry. Aggie quarterback Marcel Reed also threw two interceptions on the day.
Did the Aggies lack focus with the Klein news?
With how late the playoffs take the season now, we are more and more seeing coaches leave their teams before the season has fully concluded. Between the two programs in this contest, Klein was a hot topic of conversation over the last couple of weeks with his impending career stop. He stayed to coach the game, but clearly things didn’t mesh during preparation.
There’s a fair conversation about whether this Aggies offense wasn’t as engaged and well prepared as usual, even if it wasn’t intentional. Outside of the interview process, Klein is going to be doing a lot on the outside of his Texas A&M responsibilities, particularly on the recruiting side and roster retention. There are a lot of distractions in this type of situation.
It doesn’t feel like much of a coincidence that the Aggies all of a sudden turn in its worst offensive performance of the season under the circumstances. The Aggies may have wasted a great opportunity to make a deep run this season. With a stellar offensive line and premier playmakers, they should have been a strong contender to make a run.
The offense let them down at the worst possible time, and a lot of that blame is going to go Klein’s way.
Texas A&M Aggies News
Texas A&M Aggies have a massive hole to fill after suffering a major loss this week without even playing
Texas A&M offensive coordinator Collin Klein is leaving to take a job with a former Big 12 rival
