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Texas A&M weathered one hurricane in good form this Saturday. They face another this coming Saturday when the Miami Hurricanes roll into town.  It appears now that kickoff has been set at 2:30 Kyle Field time in an ABC Regional broadcast. 

The Miami Hurricanes were once a Category 5 football team, but have faded to more of a tropical storm in recent years.  The Aggies rode into Miami last year with high hopes of beating them, but were easily controlled in a 34-17 loss that began to ensure that Coach Dennis Francione was in his final year on the A&M sidelines.

This year the Aggies have struggled, losing at home to an Arkansas State team that Aggie fans expected us to beat easily, and struggling to a close win over a New Mexico team where even a 4:1 turnover ratio failed to instigate a blowout. The offense could not even muster 50 yds in the second half . 

Miami has cruised to an easy 52-7 win over Charleston Southern, then put up a good showing by staying with Florida for better than three quarters before allowing them to pull away late.

Aggies now ponder two questions:  Who will start at QB on Saturday after Stephen McGee injured his shoulder in New Mexico and is described as likely "day to day" by Coach Sherman?  Who should start at QB on Saturday given that backup Jerrod Johnson, switching to QB from wide receiver, threw three TD passes against New Mexico?  Consider that McGee threw only five twelve TD passes all last year!  On the other hand, Johnson struggled directing the Aggie offense in the second half. 

Still, if I had to bet, I think JJ will get the nod, not because Sherman prefers him over McGee, but simply because McGee is hurt and won't have been able to practice much for this game.

The struggle of the Aggies this year is a struggle in the trenches.  The much revamped OL and front 7 for the Aggies on defense have not reached our hopes.  We have been beaten in both areas, in both games so far.  We have one of the best offensive backfields in the nation, but if the OL can't give the QB time to throw and the runners space to run, that will not matter. Goodson and company have only so many miracle runs they can make, and most of them so far involve just getting to the LOS. 

On defense we are giving up big yards on the ground.  We've been lucky to win one of our two games with the way the front 7 has played on both sides of the ball.  If that aspect of the game does not improve, winning any Big 12 games will be a struggle.