Week 6: A huge weekend in the state of Texas
The Red River Shootout commences at high noon Saturday followed by Alabama visiting Texas A&M. Who's coming out ahead in the Lone Star State and what else is going on this weekend?
This is a huge weekend for Jimbo Fisher.
He’s under a lot of fire from Aggie boosters who want to see results from the “highest ranked class of all time” back in 2022 when they signed eight 5-stars. The Aggies have played fairly well and are 4-1 overall with a 2-0 record in SEC play, but quarterback Conner Weigman has been lost for the season and the schedule is about to get real for the Aggies.
The major concern for Fisher is the juxtaposition with rival Texas, who’s coming to the SEC and College Station next season. The Aggies are deeply concerned with the prospects of having their rival, who has historically overshadowed them, join the league with hype and fanfare to boost recruiting. Texas’ win over Alabama would juxtapose very poorly with a home loss by the Aggies against the same team on Saturday when the Tide come to College Station. A Texas win over Oklahoma wouldn’t be great either.
Ultimately, a 4-2 record with this theoretical loss to Alabama and an ugly loss to Miami is going to look bad but also portend a tough season ahead.
It’s a big week for Texas as well. They’re favored to beat Oklahoma and I’ll detail some reasons why this is pretty likely, but if they can execute a dominant win the same Saturday that an Alabama team they already defeated can win at Texas A&M it’d be a huge narrative win for the Longhorns. Those matter in a sport where annual recruiting and subjective rankings determine champions.
Elsewhere around Texas we’ve also got the BUTT Bowl between Baylor University and Texas Tech as well as a number of big time SEC matchups. Analysis after the jump:
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to America's War Game to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.