Joel Klatt took a swing at Texas A&M, but this one landed nowhere near the mark.
The Fox Sports analyst has long been willing to needle Aggie fans, and he did it again while talking about Auburn. In trying to frame expectations around the Tigers, Klatt dragged Texas A&M into the conversation and drew a comparison that doesn’t hold up.
“Auburn reminds me a lot of Texas A&M in that there's not a ton of consistency, but the expectations are always that they're going to be great... They're a popcorn program just like A&M. They're an average program that pops up every once in a while.” - @joelklatt pic.twitter.com/df4OMnLOtC
- The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) August 31, 2026
The problem is that the comparison misses what Texas A&M fans actually believe about their program. The expectation in College Station isn’t that the Aggies should magically be great no matter what. It’s that the right coach, backed by the resources Texas A&M has available, ought to be able to recruit and develop at a high level and turn that into results on the field.
If that doesn’t happen, Aggie fans see that as a breakdown in the process. The fix, in their eyes, is to change the coach. That’s the logic that played out with both Sumlin and Fisher, when Texas A&M had enough in place to settle into the “good, not great” tier with some consistency.
Auburn is a different story. Since moving on from Gus Malzahn, the Tigers have been far more erratic, with the occasional high point but plenty of stretches where just getting to a bowl game has been a struggle.
The numbers back that up. Since Texas A&M joined the SEC, the Aggies have had 7 or more losses only once.
Auburn has done it six times in the same span. Texas A&M has also posted three seasons with 2 or fewer losses; Auburn has only one.
Auburn certainly pours plenty into football, and its commitment to the sport is stronger than most programs in the country. But that still doesn’t make it comparable to Texas A&M in the way Klatt suggested. On this one, he was reaching, and it made him look out of touch.
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