On today's episode of Locked On Aggies, host Andrew Stefaniak breaks down some of Texas A&M's stats so far this season and where they stack up among all college football teams. One stat the Aggies have been really good at is scoring touchdowns in the red zone, but they need to get the sack numbers up.
Stefaniak then went on to talk about what the Aggies need to do in the game against Bowling Green to give this team more confidence as they get deeper into SEC play.
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[MUSIC PLAYING] It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. [MUSIC PLAYING] Early into the Colin Klein era, Texas A&M has been pretty good in the red zone. [MUSIC PLAYING] You are locked on Aggies, your daily podcast on the Texas A&M Aggies, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome on into Lockdown Aggies. I'm your host, Andrew Stofani. I have a picture making on Lockdown Aggies. You're first listening to every single day. Today's episode is brought to you by Game Time, download the Game Time App, create an account and use code LockdownCollege for $20 off your first purchase. So ladies and gentlemen, today, we are going to run through some early season stats from the Aggies, some early season stats about overall team stats, everything, rushing offense, rushing defense, red zone, passing. We'll run through all that and talk about where the Aggies stack up, what do you got to be better at, what needs to be improved on. And we're also going to talk about should Texas A&M be concerned with Arkansas. We'll talk a little bit about that, and then we're also going to break down what do we need to see against Bowling Green. We'll have all of those conversations today. But I want to start with, when Texas A&M hired Colin Klein, the first thing I did, and we talked about this on the show, was look at his stats from last season at Kansas State and how good his offense was. And the first thing that stood out to me was how good he is on offense. And we're not on offense in the red zone. His Kansas State team was really, really good last season in the red zone. And so we talked about that with Texas A&M last year. I think that the Aggies last season, you got to the red zone, and then we saw an awful lot of Randy Bond. And that's just not winning football. Field goals are not winning football. When you get to the red zone, you need to be scoring six points. And then Randy Bond is going out there for the extra point, not four field goals. And when I look at this, when I look at the red zone numbers, they're good so far. You've been in the red zone 11 times, you scored eight touchdowns and made two field goals. I think-- so in the red zone, you've gotten points 10 of 11 times, but you scored eight touchdowns. And right now, that's a really solid number. So let's-- I didn't do the math. And once again, those of you who listen to all the time, I use every day, and then the math is not my thing. So let's do this. That means about 73% of the time in the red zone this point in the season, you were scoring a touchdown. We'll take that. We'll take that. Last season, that number was not that good. And it was really frustrating watching the Aggies constantly drive the ball down the field and install and have to watch Randy come out and get your field goal. And that wasn't winning football. We learned that. And it kind of hurt Texas A&M last year. And we knew it was a strength, con climb. So it's great to see that early into the season, as Texas A&M is getting into the red zone, they're scoring touchdowns, not field goals. You want that to be a trend that continues the entire season long. So another one that I'm paying attention to here, some of these numbers, offensively and defensively, are exciting and are great. And some need to be improved on it. And we're going to run through all of these on today's show. So the Aggies third down percentage. Right now, the Aggies are 14 of 34 on third down for a percentage of 0.412. And I think that's a number right now that you want to see get better. You definitely want to see that improve on. No, that means that you're putting yourself in a really tough position when you are not picking up third downs. So I think that the key there is to continue to get big chunk plays on first down, push the ball down field, pick up. On first down, you want to be picking up four or five yards every time. Second down, you want to pick up yardage. So you're looking at third and four or less, a lot. And knowing that this team, especially looking at the numbers of passing compared to how much they're running the ball, texting him is really trying to run the football right now, which is expected from Coach Klein. So I guess what I'm saying is I wouldn't have expected this number to be a little bit better knowing how much they're running on first and second. You should be picking up positive yardage and knowing how good the rushing offense is, which we'll get to here in a minute, but top to bottom, that's not a number I'm concerned about right now. I expect that to move the needle to move in the right direction as the season goes on. One thing I will say is penalties. The Aggies right now are 93rd and penalties. You've already picked up 22 penalties for 200 yards so far the season, which we've played three games. So that is about 7.3 penalties per game. You know, that's a number you'd like to see that around five or four. I mean, cut out the penalties. It's part of it. I don't think that the yardage on the penalties has really killed you. But still, it's something if you can win the penalty margin, if you can eliminate the penalties in SEC play, it'll help you win football games. So that is definitely something that I am monitoring. Stop committing penalties. We talked about it last year. Last year, we saw a good amount of penalties from the Aggies. You got to play smart football. You got to play disciplined football. You can't pick up a ton of penalties. So I mean, it's just definitely something that-- Hey, you're turning one right now. But it could haunt you when you get into SEC play, when you play Arkansas, when you play Missouri and LSU and South Carolina and Mississippi State, it can haunt you a little bit when you are picking up all the penalties. So 7 penalties per game, sounds small. Why not really? Honestly, it sounds good about. But point is, something you want to fine-tune because little things like that lose football games. And you don't want to be holding and jumping off sides and false starting in big time situations against really good football teams because it will be a losing recipe. The next thing I have here is the rushing offense. And I want to stop and talk about this for a good bit here. We talked about the numbers a little bit yesterday. And the Aggies want to run the football. The rushing attempts compared to passing attempts early into the season, it's a substantial difference. Let's actually pull that up and talk about exactly what it is. So far this season, the Aggies have thrown the ball 72 times. They've completed 54% of their passes, which is also an E in number. But you've run it 131 times. So Coach Kline has made it very clear what his goal is on offense. He wants to run the rock. The Aggies have run for 789 yards so far in three games, seven touchdowns. And they are currently running for about six yards per tote into the season. And the-- no, the Irish precarious rate is 4.43. So, and I'll tell you this, or that's rushing defense. I'm sorry, where's rushing offense? Yes, six yards per. I was right. I was confused while it was like, that doesn't make sense. Yes. 6.02 yards per carry on here, which is a really good number. You're also rushing for about 263 yards per game right now, which you're rushing offense is 9th in college football. That is great, because that means you're running backs. And your offensive line are working as a unit that will also open things up in the play action. The passing game, that'll help Conor Regan, Marcel Reed, whatever happens a quarterback wise, get the ball downfield. This is all exciting stuff to see. So, you know, I've been really happy with how the Aggies are running the ball. But, you know what that number right there tells me? 6.02 yards per carry. To me, I'm running the ball on first down a lot. If I'm picking up 4, 5, 6, 7 yards per carry in a football game, I'm keeping the football on the ground, and I'm grounded and pounding. I'm getting first downs, I'm chewing up clock, and I'm scoring touchdowns. And I think that that is what this tells me is you can put yourself in a positive, you know, game script if you were getting 4, 5, 6 yards every carry, because that means you're looking at 2nd and 6, 5, or 4 instead of 2nd and 8, 9, 10, you know. And that makes a big difference. It's much easier, 'cause then, hey, you're running the game, and you've got 3rd and 1, 2, 3, 4, or, you know, you pass it there, you've still got a 3rd and short, whatever. You're gonna have, if you pick up 5 yards, 4, 5, or 6 yards per carry on first down, you're putting in yourself unless you lose your own second down in a spot where if you do end up getting a 3rd down, you are in a spot where that 3rd down is gonna be 3rd down in a little bit shorter, which is gonna be easier for this offense, easier for Colin Klein, which is great to see, and that's what you wanna see. We've got more stats to run through, rushing defense, passing offense, passing defense, time of possession, sacks, which is a bit of a surprise. We're gonna run through all of that, coming up right here. I'm locked on, Aggies. First, we'll tip at our friends over at GameTime. Those of you every day is here at locked on Aggies, know how much I love the GameTime app. My dad got me tickets to a concert. Him and I are gonna go see. We're gonna see one of his favorite brands, Nickel Creek. I don't know if anyone's ever heard of that. Shout out to Nick Creek if you haven't. 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Well, we have something a little different for you. Now if there's a number 22nd, all Fandool customers can bet $5 and get a three week free trial of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Then with a YouTube TV base playing, you'll be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out of market game. All you need is a Google account and a current form of payment and you can cancel any time. Just visit Fandool.com to download America's number one sports book today. So continuing on this conversation of some of the stats early into the season and one, another one that I think in this matters, it might not be the most fun one to talk about of all time, but Texas A&M has done a very, very good job punting the football so far. You know, on the punts to this point, you are currently looking at, where did I never go, last one number? You are looking at 47.6 yards per punt. Now that's only on five punts, which is good in and of itself, but you take that all day from, you know, your new punter, your young punter and white and I mean, that's just great. Being able to win, that helps you win the field position battle. Flipping the field, putting the ball to the other team and getting it deep in there, you know, making sure you pin them inside the 20. This stuff matters, winning field possession games matter. You know, that stuff's gonna matter a lot when you get deeper in SEC play and you're playing Missouri and you're playing LSU and you're playing some of these better teams and you know, winning the field position battle will help you win games. So having a punter who is able to help you do that is very, very, very important for this team. So, I mean, top to bottom, I've been very happy with your new punter. Punning was an issue last year from Constantine. I mean, it was really an issue last year. I mean, we talked about it a lot. Like, is it time to change your punter or is it time to give the first pen a chance? Is it time to do something different here? Punting was a problem last year. You are not getting a lot out of your punter and it matters. A lot of people, we're talking about punting that's boring and I'm talking, okay, yeah, I get it. It's punting. I do get it. But having a good punter wins football games. I mean, like, I was best player on their team was their punter. And now he's the punter for somebody in the NFL and I forget who it is, but he's great. And like, this stuff matters. The Aggies seem to have a really good punter. You don't want to see your punter a lot, but when you do see your punter, you want to see a solid kick that pins the opponent inside of the 20. So that is definitely something that's been solid for the Aggies so far this season. Now, one thing that comes a bit of a surprise knowing what we expected this off season was that the Aggies are currently 108th in sacks in cardboard boy, three sacks. Now, I do remember this. I don't know if you all remember this. The Aggies did start slow last year when it came to sacks. They kind of slowly dialed in. They slowly started to figure it out when it came to sacks. And it was, you know, it's funny because you figure, oh, early in the year you're going to have a couple games against non-great non-conference opponents. Well, I mean, even last year, the Aggies did not rack up a ton of sacks. I think, you know, those teams are just always trying to get the football out quickly. I'm sure it'll be a case of speaking against Bowling Green. But, you know, that's definitely something that I am going to be paying attention to here is, can you start picking up these sack numbers? Can you start getting after the quarterback more? And, you know, there's been a lot of pressures, a lot of hurries, a lot of hits. It just hasn't led to sacks yet. And eventually that will start leading to sacks. And you're going to see this number come up. But, I mean, I just, I really thought the Aggies would be at like seven or eight right now and put themselves in a really good spot to, you know, pick it up in SEC play. So, three is a spot, I mean, you'd love to pick up a few against Bowling Green this weekend, help your number out. But, you know, right now to be really, to me, this is going to be thoroughly interesting to see where the Aggies end up when it comes to their sack total this year. Because, yeah, I'm losing a little bit of confidence. And, I mean, a lot of confidence in them leading the SEC. I think it's going to be tough to come back from getting, you know, one sack per game in your first three football games. That's just not going to be able to get it done. No one you had, you know what, it was a 42 sacks last year. So, that is something I am paying attention. The other thing is right now, the Aggies time of possession is 31 minutes. And, I think that's number you take. I mean, that means that you're winning the time of possession battle, all game long. Now, I wouldn't hate seeing that number go up later throughout the season, knowing that how much tech stand and runs the football. You know, you wouldn't mind seeing it be 35 to 25 every game. You know, you wouldn't mind seeing that. Like, that'd be a solid time of possession. And I think if you do that, and you are, once again, continue to do a good job in the red zone. You are turning, you're getting the ball to the red zone. You're scoring touchdowns. Then you're putting yourself in a really good spot to drain clock, win football games. I like that metric so far to this point. But yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing the total in the possession per game even go up a little bit. So, I'm kind of anxious and curious to see what that looks like when we get deeper into the season, like four more games down the road. We'll probably take another look at all this. Rushing defense hasn't quite been as great as I would have thought. 79th right now, you're giving up 143 yards per game, and a 4.4 yards per carry. Definitely wanna see all of those numbers come down as the Aggies get deeper into SEC play. You don't want to be the team that it's really easy to run the ball. But in a lot of state, I mean, listen, passing defense, you're 42nd, 168.7 yards per game. Your total defense is 60th, giving up 312 yards per game. So, I think that, I think you need to dial in a little bit defensively. I mean, I'm not concerned about the defense in any way, shape, or form. But I definitely think that it's fine if you, you know, I wouldn't be upset if you dial this in and do a better job stopping the run. You know, you want to stop the run. I think that you really want to get that rushing arch per game number down just because that's your identity. You want to, you are the football team that stops the run. You are the football team that does not let opposing teams, you know, move the ball on the ground. And that's your identity. I think that's what Coach Oko wants to be. So, I'm definitely monitoring this. I want to see how this ends up at the end of the year, but it's something you want to see this defense continue to get better and better and better as the season goes on. I think that's going to happen. Then you've got passing offense. You're 118th, and this is not a surprise at all knowing how the Aggies are running the football right now. You're 118th and passing offense, 158 yards per game. I bet this moves up, but I do think that you're going to see this team get a little closer to balance. It'll, the Aggies will never be in my opinion balanced because, you know, I don't think it'll ever, I don't think it'll ever be balanced once again because, you know, Coach Kline wants to run the ball, but I do think you're going to see it kind of move closer to balance at some point in the season. There's the SEC play, maybe I've started getting the ball in the air more, but that is something to pay attention to. So, those are the stats this point in the season. How do we feel about it? Are we upset about it? Do we not like it? Let me know, y'all's thoughts on that in the YouTube comments. We're going to talk about what we want to see against Bowling Green coming up right here. I'm locked on Aggies. First, we'll talk about our friends over at Roy. Hey Aggies fans, have you heard about Roy? It stands for return on you and it's a new platform that lets the fans get involved in NIL like never before by making contributions directly to your favorite athletes. 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You know, we talk about the injury, it kind of, it really feels like it's gonna be Marcel Reed out there. And if it is Marcel Reed out there, I think you just wanna see him continue to move the football in all ways. He looked good past it last week. He looked good running it last week. If his offense is really good with him, you know, use his legs and get it through the air. I think you wanna continue that. You wanna see him continue to just look good, continue to have confidence. You don't want him to not play well in this game and then you get ready to face off with Arkansas here, you know, in a little while. And he's just not playing well for coming off a bad game and you're not feeling great about how he's going to show up. And I mean, the line in this game is only texting to minus 23. This is not a line where it's like the Aggies minus 57 and a half. So, you know, go out, play well, let the offense dominate. We wanna see Marcel Reed continue to have a good game. I think you, another thing we talked about in a minute ago, but get some pressure. I think it's time to get more pressure, to start to get going on those sack numbers. I think it's a very realistic thing to have happen in this ball game, but I'm paying attention to that. It's due time for the sack numbers to start increasing. This defensive line is too good for this, you know, you to be 180 in court football and sacks right now with only three. So, I'd love to see that happen in this game, but in all honesty, the number one thing that I am monitoring for Texas A&M in this football game is the way the offense flows and how good Marcel Reed is. Because once you get into SEC play, I mean, after this, it's boom, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi State, LSU. I mean, like you get right on into this. So, I am definitely paying attention to this because the Aggies have got, have absolutely got to get things going offensively. And if they're able to do that, I think you're gonna have the season finish very strong. And I think you're gonna get to that goal of winning nine plus football games if this offense gets going. 'Cause we know what you got defensively. That is gonna do it for today's episode of Lockdown Aggies. Thank y'all so much for being here every single day. Really, really appreciate it. Hope everyone has an outstanding rest of their day today. We'll see you tomorrow right here on Lockdown Aggies. - A prime members, you can listen to this Lockdown podcast ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today!
