Anto Saka hasn’t been at Texas A&M long, but he’s already making it clear who he thinks deserves the credit for his jump into college football’s “freak” conversation.
A day after The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman unveiled his annual college football freaks list, the Northwestern transfer pointed straight to Aggies strength and conditioning coach Tommy Moffitt when asked about the recognition.
“Yeah, Coach Moffitt has been the greatest,” Saka said of the ranking. “One thing that I noticed that we're a real big Olympic lifting type program, real big on power output, power output, and explosiveness, and that's done wonders for me.
All my numbers have skyrocketed. Probably on all my major lifts, at least 40 pounds.
So they have a science here, and it works.”
That praise lines up with the numbers Feldman laid out. Saka checked in at No. 31 on the list, a huge rise from No. 56 a year ago and his second straight appearance.
Feldman noted that the former high school sprinter, who had 12 sacks and three forced fumbles over the past three seasons combined at Northwestern, has been clocked at 21.9 mph on the GPS in College Station. He also listed Saka at 254 pounds with just 8.2 percent body fat, along with a 370-pound bench press, a 345-pound clean and a 565-pound squat this summer.
The offseason work also came with added size. Feldman reported that Saka put on 15 pounds since arriving through the transfer portal, and the extra weight hasn’t appeared to slow down his testing numbers at Texas A&M.
At 6-foot-4 and 255 pounds, Saka already has the kind of frame that fits the SEC edge-rusher mold. The bigger question is how that body and those traits translate when the games start for real.
Texas A&M is counting on him to help fill a major void up front after sack leader and Day 2 NFL Draft pick Cashius Howell moved on. Saka brings three years of experience from Northwestern, and in each season there he finished with at least four sacks.
He’s already shown he can be productive against Big Ten competition. Now the Aggies need that production to travel to a new level in College Station, where he’ll be part of a defensive line room that doesn’t return a starter who had more than three sacks last season.
That matters in a Mike Elko defense built around getting after the quarterback, especially on passing downs when Texas A&M wants to turn up the pressure. For the Aggies, Saka is one of the players they’re banking on to become the kind of pass-rusher offenses have to account for.
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