Pretty much everything related to the football program is now under an electron microscope at Texas A&M.
Losses to Group of Five teams — even one with a history like Appalachian State — invariably lead to intense scrutiny. For A&M, which began the season with a No. 6 AP ranking and all kinds of preseason hype from a No. 1 recruiting class, the 17-14 defeat reset the season narrative.
With a defining four-game stretch that starts with No. 13 Miami (Fla.) on Saturday and ends with No. 2 Alabama on Oct. 8, the Aggies could easily see everything slip-slide away.
No wonder that topics suddenly shifted Monday to the status of starting quarterback Haynes King and whether coach Jimbo Fisher might give up his offensive play-calling duties.
Most importantly, it brought the kind of talk from team leaders that attracts attention, like receiver Ainias Smith questioning the team’s buy-in.
“Honestly, I feel like it’s just a matter of want to,” Smith said. “I’m saying at the time, we can all do our best to go ahead and force everything that we want to do. But at the end of the day, when it’s time to come, if people aren’t all the way locked in, then it’s not going to be what we want it to be.
“There was times where people weren’t bought in. You can see it in practice. It showed in the game.”
Gulp.
Nor was he alone in his assessment.
“This year? Yes, I feel like it’s a true statement,” defensive back Demani Richardson said. “I feel like guys could buy-in more as a whole. I feel like guys are starting to get on board. But it could definitely be like more, more like a significant number of players.”
To his credit, Fisher didn’t overreact to his players and agreed with Smith’s pronouncements, at least as it relates to practice habits, especially with young players.
Sometimes being good in practice isn’t good enough, Fisher said, and that breakdowns are not OK.
“Buy-in for an older guy like [Smith], who understands the difference, is that every play of every practice is like a game,” Fisher said. “You learn how to practice. That’s what bought-in is.
“It’s not that they’re fighting the program, fighting what we do. It’s just that their ability to strain for long periods of time has to grow and every practice rep has got to be just like a game rep.”
At least it would be a start. The problems against Appalachian State may be too numerous and complicated to fix in one week.
The Mountaineers were the more physical team on Saturday, controlling the line of scrimmage and dominating time of possession and total plays. A&M managed just 186 yards of total offense.
Quarterback Haynes King ranks 49th in the FBS in quarterback ranking, having completed 64.7% of his passes for 461 yards in two games. As he did after the game, Fisher said he could “possibly” make a change at quarterback, but refused to totally blame King, a redshirt sophomore making his fourth start.
Fisher compared King to a mother who takes care of all the spills.
“He is a young guy so he’s not ready to clean up his messes and he still has got to do his things right,” Fisher said. “There are a lot of things in there going on around him that he’s not ready to take over and maybe fix. At the same time, there are three or four throws in there I wish he would have made.”
The criticism and scrutiny has gone beyond King to Fisher, who has called plays in all five seasons at A&M, just like he did at Florida State. A complex scheme, Fisher’s system was viewed as cutting edge 10 years ago, less so now.
Fisher said he could “possibly” consider giving up play-calling duties. He also noted that the play calling is a collaborative effort between him and co-offensive coordinators Darrell Dickey and James Coley.
If the time comes, Fisher said his ego would not be an obstacle.
“Winning takes effect over everything, I promise you that,” Fisher said.
