Texas A&M’s fall in the US LBM Coaches Poll came fast and hard after a night it would rather erase.
The Aggies were handed their worst loss under third-year coach Mike Elko on Saturday, and the damage showed up immediately in the rankings. After entering Week 3 at No. 8, Texas A&M tumbled 12 spots to No. 20 following a 31-21 home loss to unranked Kentucky at Kyle Field.
That result had all the ingredients for a brutal drop: a packed stadium, a 28-7 hole late in the third quarter, and an SEC opener that turned into a full-blown setback. Kentucky controlled the second half and left the Aggies looking out of sync on both sides of the ball.
The offensive questions only got louder from there. Starting quarterback Marcel Reed is still being asked to grow as a passer, and the source material suggests he may have already hit his ceiling. That leaves first-year offensive coordinator Holmon Wiggins with a clear challenge: shape the attack around Reed’s natural strengths and lean more heavily on the run game.
Texas A&M’s defense didn’t provide much help either. The Aggies gave up 408 total yards, including 156 rushing yards and two touchdowns to Texas transfer running back CJ Baxter. Kentucky played with edge from the opening kick and, by the second half, had taken command in a way that made the loss feel even more lopsided than the final score.
Now the schedule gets even more demanding. Texas A&M heads to Baton Rouge in Week 4 for what the source describes as a must-win matchup against LSU, and the Aggies do not currently look like a College Football Playoff contender.
The rest of the conference only sharpened the contrast. No. 8 Ole Miss beat LSU 32-24 in the day’s most exciting game, while Mississippi State rallied from a 16-0 second-quarter deficit to knock off South Carolina 41-34.
At the top of the new Coaches Poll, Texas holds No. 1, followed by Georgia, Notre Dame, Indiana and Miami. Ole Miss jumped to No. 6, Alabama moved up to No. 8, and LSU landed at No. 11 after its loss to the Rebels.
Texas A&M is now in a spot where the margin for error is gone, and the climb back starts immediately against LSU.
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That evaluation begins right away, with a schedule that should give Duke a few chances to learn before the pressure ramps up. Early matchups against Army, Coastal Carolina and SIU Edwardsville offer some room to test combinations and roles, but the bigger issue is what happens once the competition stiffens and Scheyer has to make the kind of minute-allocation decisions that can define a season. [Read more 🡒]