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    • Texas A&M football is an SEC contender after Weigman’s loss at Missouri
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    Texas A&M football is an SEC contender after Weigman’s loss at Missouri

    Caradoc Wyn Posted on

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    • The Aggies return to action Saturday at Mississippi State, where they are heavily favored.
    • The Aggies still have games remaining against Mississippi State, LSU, South Carolina, New Mexico State and Auburn before a highly anticipated home game against arch-rival Texas on November 30th.
    • Conner Weigman completed 18 of 22 passes for 276 yards, helping the Aggies improve to 5-1.
    • The Aggies sacked Missouri QB Brady Cook six times. He had only been sacked four times in the first four games.

    COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M football quarterback Conner Weigman returned to the starting lineup and staged an ambush the likes of which this area hasn’t seen in at least a decade.

    If Saturday was any indicator, add the Aggies to a growing list of SEC title contenders.

    It’s never too early to talk about resuming the blood feud between Texas and Texas A&M over Turkey Day weekend, and there were certainly more than a few eyeballs in the 512 on their flat screens on Saturday, including the Longhorns- Coach Steve Sarkisian, who always plans ahead.

    In case you’re wondering, many of the 97,049 players at Kyle Field didn’t miss the opportunity to show “Horns Down” on the video board. Good times.

    For anyone hoping for a competitive game, it was a truly gritty game, one of those dominant one-on-one duels that, shockingly, was even more one-sided than the final score suggested, made even sweeter by Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz’s headline – Poignant misjudgment re A&M’s quarterback situation.

    More on that later.

    The No. 21 Aggies spectacularly ended No. 9 Missouri’s eight-game winning streak dating back to last season and played their most complete SEC game in years. The 41-10 final was A&M’s biggest win over an Associated Press top-10 team.

    RELATED: 4 Takeaways as Conner Weigman Encourages NFL Draft Hype

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    WATCH: Named Texas football MVP, Aggies’ QB decision vs. Missouri

    Yum and Eckert make their On Second Thought debut and chat with host Cedric Golden.

    Aggies were impressive on both sides of the ball

    Saturday’s massive win was reminiscent of the night Kenny Hill threw for 511 yards and three touchdowns in a 52-28 blitz over Steve Spurrier’s South Carolina Gamecocks to open the 2014 season, even though Weigman didn’t throw a touchdown pass. After injuring his shoulder in a win over McNeese in Week 2, the redshirt sophomore was back in the saddle, completing 18 of 22 passes for 276 yards on a balanced offensive day that included another 138 yards and three touchdowns from running back Le’Veon Moss.

    First-year coach Mike Elko defended his quarterback in the postgame interview with what he called fictitious personal statements about Weigman as his second season as a starter got off to a slow start.

    MORE IBD: Who will Steve Sarkisian start at QB vs. Oklahoma: Quinn Ewers or Arch Manning? | Golden

    “Some of what was said about this child and written about this child – not by you, you were great – is embarrassing. It’s absolutely embarrassing,” Elko said. “The things that are coming out with this kid… this kid is a winner. He is a competitor. He’s doing everything he needs to do for Texas A&M football.”

    The Tigers were 4-0 and coming off a bye week, but they didn’t show much to their Show Me State fans. They rolled into Brazos County after giving up just under 2.84 yards per rushing attempt, but the SEC’s No. 4 rushing defense will return to Columbia after giving up 236 yards at a 6.6 yards per clip, including Moss’ knockout hit of a 75-yard touchdown sprint to open the third quarter.

    Apparently there were reports of Missouri players saying their practice was louder than Kyle Field’s, which the Aggies made sure to mention.

    “They thought they would just come and get a piece of cake,” Moss said.

    Not to be outdone, A&M’s defense shut down the SEC’s sixth-ranked offense with six sacks of Missouri quarterback Brady Cook, who had been sacked just four times in the previous four games.

    A look at A&M’s second half of the season

    As a result, the Aggies (5-1) enter their bye week with their first 3-0 start in the SEC since the 2016 team, which started 4-0 before suffering a 33-14 loss to Alabama, which then The national runner-up to Clemson finished 3-0.

    MORE IBD: Texas Basketball Hopes Bigger Guards Will Lead to Bigger Wins in 2025 | Golden

    A&M has a relatively friendly schedule that will make it a legitimate contender for one of those 12 College Football Playoff spots, albeit assuming the Aggies play in the deepest conference in the country. It’s a far cry from the listless group we saw in the 23-13 home loss to the Fighting Irish.

    “We just kept grinding,” Elko said. “We are now where we want to be. We couldn’t respond better after Notre Dame, but at the end of the day we still have half the season left and this thing can go a lot of different ways.”

    Elko is well ahead of schedule in A&M’s Jimbo Fisher rebuild. Weigman played his best ball in his first game in nearly a month and defensive end Nic Scourton, a Purdue transfer, leads an up-and-coming defense that he said is playing with a chip on its shoulder since the Week 1 loss.

    Drinkwitz caused a stir with a QB comment

    The rollover came at the expense of Drinkwitz, who added a little spice to the game week when he was wrong in his prediction on Monday about who would start behind center. Long before he became a successful head coach, Drinkwitz was a Little League baseball player in Alma, Arkansas, and like everyone who played the sport back in the day, he wobbled a ball or two.

    He pulled a 1986 Bill Buckner when asked during his weekly media availability about the quarterback situation in College Station, which involved redshirt freshman Marcel Reed – he of three straight wins – and Weigman, who was on the depth chart of the week was listed at the top.

    “I mean, at this point I know that on their depth chart it says the other guy is the starting quarterback, but I mean, that’s just semantics in my opinion,” Drinkwitz told reporters. “(Reed) is 3-0 as a starter, and whether he’s listed as questionable or whatever, I don’t think they’re coming back.”

    He couldn’t have been more wrong. E-drinking joke.

    While Weigman celebrated the biggest win of his career, the opposing coach had to miss it as his team had to take the worst kind of medicine on national television.

    The Aggies just announced to the college football world that things are going to be tough for them going forward.

    As far as Drinkwitz is concerned, Little League’s run rule would have come in handy.

    Follow the American-Statesman on Facebook for more. Your subscription makes this kind of work possible. Get access to all of our best content with this great offer. Follow Cedric Golden on X

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    Caradoc Wyn
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