Texas A&M’s slide has gotten ugly fast.
The Aggies were thumped 35-6 at LSU, a loss that pushed them to 2-2 overall and 0-2 in SEC play and made them look like one of the conference’s weakest teams. It’s a brutal turn after the early part of the schedule started so differently, with a 50-0 win over Missouri State and a 48-20 victory against Arizona State.
The trouble really seemed to start with the 31-21 loss to unranked Kentucky, and since then the bottom has dropped out. Through four games, there’s no clean explanation for how a team that began the year with those two comfortable wins has fallen apart this quickly.
But the clearest concern is starting quarterback Marcel Reed, whose development has stalled in a way that stands out after he threw for a career-high 3,169 yards and 25 touchdowns last season. That production came under current Kansas State coach Collin Klein, who was Texas A&M’s offensive coordinator a year ago.
The Aggies’ standing has taken a hit everywhere. They fell out of both the US LBM Coaches Poll and the AP Top 25, and in the latest US TODAY College Football Re-Rank they tumbled 16 more spots to No. 47, landing behind Baylor, Washington, and Minnesota.
Meanwhile, the SEC’s top teams keep looking the part. No. 1 Texas survived a trip to Neyland Stadium with a 20-17 win over Tennessee, and Georgia reinforced its case as the nation’s most complete team with a 41-17 home rout of Oklahoma.
Texas A&M gets Arkansas at home on Saturday night, and after back-to-back SEC losses by double digits, the Aggies’ fans have every right to expect a complete performance. They enter the game as a 14-point favorite, and they badly need to play like a team that can handle that kind of number.
In Other News...
Texas A&M's New SEC Academic Rank Will Spark Rivalry Debate
The latest U.S. News Best Colleges Report brought a fresh shakeup to the academic pecking order, and Texas A&M was among the programs feeling it. The 2027 rankings dropped the university eight spots from its previous place, with the new formula factoring in the 2025 Carnegie Classification system and earnings by major, two changes that can alter how schools stack up from year to year.
Around the SEC, the release is likely to fuel the kind of debate that never really stays academic for long. Alabama posted the biggest rise among conference schools, while Texas also moved up, giving Aggies fans another reason to measure themselves against familiar rivals and wonder how much of this new order reflects substance, perception or just the latest adjustment in the numbers. [Read more 🡒]
Texas A&M's LSU Loss Put One Crucial Recruiting Test In Focus
The lopsided loss to LSU did more than dent Texas A&Ms standing in the SEC, it also sharpened the spotlight on the kind of recruiting test every struggling program eventually faces. Mike Elkos team has been under scrutiny for both talent and coaching after the 35-6 defeat, but the immediate concern for the Aggies is whether the slide on the field starts to ripple into the class-building work that still has to carry the program forward.
For now, one notable answer has been steady: four-star recruit Kaden McCarty has reaffirmed his commitment to Texas A&M despite the recent losses. Sources also expect little movement among the 2027 class heading toward Early Signing Day, which at least gives the staff some breathing room as it tries to stabilize the bigger picture. The next chance to change the mood comes Saturday night against Arkansas, with kickoff set for 6:00 p.m. on ESPN2. [Read more 🡒]
Texas A&M Offense Is Becoming A Bigger Mike Elko Problem
Through the first month of the 2026 season, Texas A&M has slid to 2-2 and dropped its last two games, with the offense quickly becoming the most pressing issue around the program. The Aggies have not been consistent on either side of the ball, but the trouble on offense has stood out most, with the passing game sputtering, the run game failing to provide much relief and Marcel Reed dealing with accuracy problems behind an offensive line that has struggled to keep him clean.
The larger concern for Mike Elko is that this does not look like a one-snap fix. The questions now go beyond execution and into the structure of what Texas A&M is trying to do, from the play calling to the overall coaching approach on that side of the ball. With the season already carrying the feel of a pivot point, the Aggies may need meaningful changes if they want to stop the slide before it becomes something harder to recover from. [Read more 🡒]