The Texas A&M Aggies took the field for the first time in the 2025 season tonight against the UTSA Roadrunners, bringing the always arduous offseason to an end. The first game is always exciting, and especially one in which your team walked away with a 42-24 victory. But despite the ultimately comfortable margin, most Aggies likely walked away from this game anything but comfortable.
The Aggie defense flashed a proclivity to give up big plays in the run game that plagued them a season ago, getting gashed by Roadrunner RB Robert Henry for 172 yards and 2 touchdowns, going for 10.2 yards per carry. It was a concerning performance for a team who’s defensive line was perhaps the biggest question mark on the team, and did little to answer those questions in their season-opener. The real low-point for the group came when Henry ran up the gut for a 75-yard touchdown on the first play of the second half to bring UTSA with four points of A&M.
The good news is that run was the last points the Roadrunners would score on the day. In fact it was the last time they’d get a first down until the closing minutes against A&M’s backups. It took one play longer than we would have liked, but Mike Elko’s second half adjustments did seem to take effect. But the gaffes in the run game will still give this coaching staff plenty to chew on in the week ahead.
Offensively, the story is essentially the complete opposite. Marcel Reed, despite a handful of misfires (including a beyond frustrating overthrow of a wide open KC Concepcion), looked in command of the offense and able to find his open receivers. His final stat line of 22 for 35 for 289 yards and four touchdowns (and no turnovers) is as much as we could have hoped for and more out of the Aggie QB in game one, and his new receivers certainly helped tremendously on that front. KC Concepcion and Mario Craver each logged two touchdowns (one of Concepcion’s coming on a punt return) and combined for 11 receptions and 194 yards. Quite simply, both looked like the fastest player on the field every time the ball was in their hands. It’s a feeling Aggies haven’t had often the past couple of seasons.
However the Aggie run game was, perhaps shockingly, absent. After the offensive line appeared to struggle to open up holes early, the Aggies went pass-heavy for seemingly the final three quarters. Marcel Reed ended up being the team’s leading rusher, most of which came on scrambles, and none of the running backs had more than five attempts or 40 yards. This was perhaps the most surprising result of the night, because the offensive line and the stable of running backs was touted so much both inside the program and out as one of the strengths of this team. In many ways it feels like we didn’t even see enough of the run game to know if they truly struggled or not, but it was far from the dominant performance we thought we might see against a defense who didn’t return a single starter from 2024.
At the end of the day, A&M took control down the stretch and got the win, and UTSA is not a terrible team (especially offensively). But it’s still a game that a team with the kind of expectations A&M has should win with ease. There were flashes of good tonight, but this was not a coming out party for an elite team. That doesn’t mean this season can’t still be great, but this team definitely still has some growing to do and things to fix.
Source link
