Monday Thoughts

It’s beginning to look increasingly like the Aggies will lose at least one player to an early entry for the NFL Draft. While most attention has been directed and Jace Sternberger and Trayveon Williams, it’s Erik McCoy who is most likely to go.

Before the season, Jim Turner speculated that McCoy was a 3rd round draft pick with a good season. He had an excellent season, and we’re told that his draft evaluation came back with a 2nd round grade. While I think it’s unlikely he actually goes that high because centers just don’t, McCoy has the size to be a guard from day one and still hasn’t given up a sack in pass protection. That alone makes his resume impressive. He got overlooked for All-SEC consideration, but scouts could not care less.

Another sign McCoy is probably going pro: he send a tweet asking if someone wanted to sublet his apartment for a semester (he deleted it almost immediately).

If McCoy does leave, that actually puts A&M in a bigger bind than if anyone else had departed early (except Tyrel Dodson, who has made indications he’d coming back). The Aggies will have to find a replacement from options that might alter the rest of the line. The three backups to McCoy this year were Ryan McCollum, Colton Prater and Barton Clement, in that order. McCollum started the last four games at right guard and would be the favorite to stay there in 2019. If he moves to center, both guard slots will be open. Luke Matthews, Tank Jenkins, Grayson Reed and Prater would probably all get a look. The best scenario would be for Clement to win the job, and he should probably get a real shot. But no matter what, losing McCoy will definitely sting.

Linebacker should be really interesting next year. A&M is finally getting some real players to fill out a two deep. A&M was really lucky Otaro Alaka and Dodson stayed healthy this year because the options behind them where both unimpressive and slim.

Dodson will start next year for sure. Where he starts is a question, because he and Anthony Hines are both capable of playing inside or out. Right now, I suspect he’ll remain outside and Hines, a tackling machine, will take Alaka’s role. Buddy Johnson remains the third linebacker.

Then it gets — at least to me — fascinating. Ikenna Okeke will be back, I assume, and he can back up Johnson at Rover. But can Aaron Hansford, who was with the linebackers during pregame warmups this season, fully recover from a brutal leg injury? If he can, the Aggies suddenly have a linebacker who has size and speed for (probably) three seasons. he’s also going to be rusty and have to adjust to playing SEC defense. Of the newcomers, I expect Andre White to be the most ready to go and will probably be the backup in the middle. He’s got the size already and is a great tackler, racking up 132 this year in Pennsylvania high school ball, which is pretty darned good. Ke’Shun Brown looks like a player to me. If Hansford can’t back up outside, he might. Tarian Lee needs to bulk up and RJ Orebo right now is an edge rusher — he needs to figure out the rest of the linebacker role. In any event, A&M could (emphasis on could) have more linebacker options next year for the first time in a decade.

During his signing day press conference, Jimbo Fisher discussed all the different formations you now need on defense. With the addition of their new class, I think A&M now has a lot of options when it comes to its front line. I wouldn’t be surprised if you see groupings like this:

Base: Tyree Johnson, Justin Madubuike, Jayden Peevy, Bobby Brown

Slightly smaller base: Johnson, Madubuine, Peevy, Micheal Clemons

Anti-run: Max Wright, Madubuike, Peevy, Brown

Speed/Anti-pass: Johnson, Madubuike, Brown, Jeremiah Martin

It wouldn’t be a surprise to see DeMarvin Leal out there in some situations. He’s that good. Derick Hunter may also factor into the equation.