Gigem 247 gives a rundown on Texas A&M's week two opponent in Arizona State
Summary
Game breakdown: Gigem 247's Jeff Tarpley appeared on Your Afternoon Stretch with host Glenn "Stretch" Smith to discuss Texas A&M's first non conference game versus a Power Four foe when they take on Arizona State this...
Gigem 247's Jeff Tarpley appeared on Your Afternoon Stretch with host Glenn "Stretch" Smith to discuss Texas A&M's first non conference game versus a Power Four foe when they take on Arizona State this Saturday from Kyle Field. Smith said "Give me your early take on what the Sun Devils are bringing in Kenny Dillingham, who's got a really well coached team."
He's a very competent guy, very functional guy. He doesn't ask his players to do too much. He seems to know what he wants when he goes out and gets players from the transfer portal. They brought in 25 transfers. Like A&M, they kind of needed an opener to work out some kinks and get some of the newness out of their system so they could come back and play a better game in their second game of the season.
They've got a couple of transfer wideouts, Reed Harris and Omarion Miller, that are going to be very, very good football players for them. They're bigger targets and they can get down the field. They combined for 14 receptions in their season opener. I think they're going to challenge A&M a bit in that respect, and if they can get the ball down the field then that is going to cause some problems for the Aggies.
The middle of their offensive line is very, very big. You're talking about 340, 350 pound guys, sumo wrestler types. Their defense, they've got a guy named Owen Long, who's a very competent Mike backer. C.J. Fite is a fine nose tackle and he works to keep their backers clean. However, they probably don't have what I would call elite talent on that front seven. The corners should be pretty good as they've got some experience. One of them is a transfer and one of them has come up through ASU's system. Both of them are going to go out and try to compete with A&M's receivers which is another matchup to watch.
There are some issues they're going to run into. One is the fact that they're going to be playing in front of 100,000 fans. I have tried to talk to some of the ASU people about this. It's a lot different playing in front of 100,000 people than it is 80,000 people. Another 20,000 people really makes an impression on you. A&M fans don't like 11:00 AM kickoffs but this is going to be a 9:00 AM start time for Arizona State. I would say that is a bigger disadvantage for them than it is the Aggies.
I think the another thing is this is that they had Sam Leavitt at the quarterback spot who played so well for LSU Saturday night. He is a very mobile guy. They now have gone to Cutter Boley, a Kentucky transfer, who is a drop back passer. In terms of his ability to escape pressure, in terms of running RPOs the same way that Levitt did, they're not going to be able to do those things. I think those are disadvantages for Arizona State.
Finally, their offensive tackles are kind of rangy guys. I think when A&M sends out guys like Marco Jones and Anto Saka, the Northwestern transfer….I think those are going to be issues for them not in terms of getting beaten or off the edge, but maybe of being leveraged, pushed back into the pocket, and pressing the passer.
Having said all that, this may be a tougher game than what A&M fans think it's going to be. It may be lower scoring too. However, that probably just means that A&M eventually pull away and wins by double digits.
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