Tennessee is coming off its open date and looking to earn a critical SEC win when it welcomes Texas A&M to Neyland Stadium Saturday afternoon.
Each week, Rocky Top Insider will take you behind the scenes with a question and answer with a media member who covers Tennessee’s opponent.
*Some answers have been slightly altered for clarity
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How important is this game both for the 2023 Texas A&M team and Jimbo Fisher?
“It’s a big bounce back game from the Alabama game— a game that the Aggies should have won. It’s going to be one of the dividing factors of whether this is a season that puts an upward trajectory on the Aggie program or if it’s one keeps things towards another eight-win, seven-win season. Circling games on A&M’s schedule left it’s Tennessee, Ole Miss, LSU. Those are the games that will be kind of the deciding factors on if you’re looking at the potential for a nine, 10-win season or if it’s going to be one that’s back in the eight, seven average range that A&M has become accustomed to over the last six to eight years.”
How would you assess Texas A&M’s offense to date?
“It’s been a tale of two offenses because it seemed like A&M had finally found their guy at quarterback in Conner Weigman and he was really moving the ball well and efficiently through the air in combination with his skill set and the addition of offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino and what he’s brought to play calling this season. But he got hurt in the first half of the Auburn game and it’s been different with Max Johnson in there. He had a great outing in the second half of the Auburn game and did enough in the Arkansas game to win it, but the offense doesn’t quite have the same efficiency that it did with Conner Weigman. Weigman was also a little bit more mobile in the pocket so it gave him a chance to extend plays. I think the biggest thing to look out for in this game and moving forward is that one of their biggest issues against Alabama was Johnson struggled with taking too much time working through his progressions which resulted in some sacks. I’m looking at if they simplify the playbook and if Johnson is able to make some progress in working through his progressions. That will be a big key in the game for Texas A&M’s offense.”
How has the offense changed with Max Johnson at quarterback?
“They still take some shots. The deep ball was a huge part of the offense earlier in the season with Conner Weigman. They hit a lot of chunk plays in the pass game with Weigman and at times they’ve been able to do that with Max Johnson but it’s not quite as efficient. Conner Weigman had 85% completion percentage against ULM. The offense was just more efficient with Weigman than it is with Johnson but it’s a pretty similar playbook. There was just a higher rate of efficiency and there was more of an equal distribution of targets amongst receivers. Johnson has kind of leaned on about two or three different receivers through most of his game.”
What are the strengths and weaknesses and Texas A&M’s defense?
“The front seven is probably one of the strongest in the SEC if not the country. They’re leading the country in tackles for loss and sacks and they held Alabama to 23 yards rushing. It’s extremely hard to run against that front and you have to work a short passing game against Texas A&M because they’re going to get to the quarterback with relative frequency.
With that being said, once you get to the secondary— that’s actually been a decent liability for the Aggies. In the Miami game, the Hurricanes used a short passing game to get the receivers outside and to force one-on-one tackling and A&M’s secondary was atrocious in open field tackling in that game. That’s basically how Miami beat them. Then last week, A&M had no answer for Jermaine Burton who had almost 200 yards receiving. It’s going to be an interesting matchup because I know Tennessee identity starts in the run game. They have a very strong run game but the way to beat A&M is through the air. Yes, Tennessee is going to run the ball. But I’m curious to see if they’ll use more of a short passing game, screen game in lue of what would be part of the run game to try and isolate some of these A&M defensive backs and see if they can beat them that way.”
Do you make much of Texas A&M’s seven-game road losing streak?
“Part of that is certainly just the fact that A&M wasn’t very good last year. But there is something to it too. They haven’t won a ranked road game since 2014 against Auburn. There is something to the fact that they can’t notch that big win on the road when they have to bring their own energy. There is something to both sides of that. They just weren’t good last year so they weren’t winning games on the road but they’ve also been a little snake bit as well.”
What’s are the keys for Texas A&M against Tennessee?
“They have to get to the quarterback. The quicker pressure they get on the quarterback it helps the secondary out. That was one of the reasons they were successful against Auburn and Arkansas was just getting to the quarterback quickly. There really isn’t a whole lot of margin for error on offense. They can’t turn the ball over because they need all the help they can get on offense. And then the offensive line, one thing I haven’t talked about is the offensive line. It’s been real up-and-down this season. They had their worst game of the season against Alabama. Just allowing pressure on Max Johnson. He’s not a quarterback that’s going to complete a lot of passes under pressure. He has to have a clean pocket. The offensive line and secondary are two things to watch on whether Texas A&M will be successful or not.”
Prediction?
“I think this is going to be a defensive minded game, a close scoring game. I think Tennessee is going to eke out a close win and it’s probably going to come down to a one score game.”
