Texas A&M eyes run at SEC West in 2020

May 28

May 28 2020 Texas A&M football predictions on the HG

What’s to like:

It’s year three of the Jimbo Fisher era in Aggieland coming off back to back top ten recruiting classes. Depending on you who you ask, the Aggies are in the discussion for a run at an SEC west title with Kellen Mond back in 2020. Why does it feel like we have all been down this road before? Well, we have.

The Aggies did score just a bit under 30 points per game a year ago and they bring back lots of fire power off last years team. Isaiah Spiller returns in the backfield, as well as Cordarrian Richardson. The Aggies return almost all of the 2,068 rushing yards and 24 rushing touchdowns.

Several experienced pass catchers also return and the Aggies play the 32nd hardest schedule in the country on our metric – good for 12th in the SEC. This schedule is ready made for an SEC West run and a College Football Playoff run.

What’s not to like:

Look, until the Aggies actually win the SEC west, it’s all just more of the same smoke and mirrors. In order to breakthrough into the conference elite, you have to breakthrough into the conference elite. Winning seven conference games in a season would be a good place to start, something the Aggies have never done since joining the SEC. Johnny Manziel got the Ags to 6-2 and Kellen Mond is no Johnny.

The Aggies gave up 23 points per game a year ago, and are our 21st ranked team in the country in our offensive and defensive scoring efficiency rankings. They bring in a team that has brought us the 22nd best offense and the 40th best defense the last two years. If you’re talking about the College Football Playoff for the Aggies or even the SEC West, they have to do much better than this on both sides of the ball in 2020.

What does the Hourglass Say?

2020 Texas A&M pick: Aggies 11-1 overall, 7-1 in the SEC, finishing second in the SEC West

2019 HG analytics pick: 8-4; Actual Record 7-5 (92 percent)

2018 Analytics Pick 8-4; Actual Record 8-4 (100 percent accuracy)

2017 Analytics Pick 6-6; Actual Record 7-5 (92 percent accuracy)

Three-year analytic percentage on Texas A&M = 92 percent

2020 Texas A&M Analytics –

Hour Glass National Recruiting Ranking (three-year metric): 8th – Inside our Realistic College Football National Champion Line on our talent index.

National Coaching Rank for Jimbo Fisher on HG Scale: 15th (Jimbo Fisher 2020 coaching value set at 12) – Average coaching value for 2020 set at 6.5. – This puts Fisher well above the average coaching category.

Returning Texas A&M quarterback play rated 17th the country out of 130 teams. Average quarterback metric for 2020 set at 11.66. Texas A&M has a quarterback metric value of 15.99 – putting them at the above average quarterback value for 2020.

ODE Analytics – NOTE: ODE is our offensive and defensive scoring efficiency ranking for each team. We use a two-year evaluation of each program.

Texas A&M ranks 21st in the country in our 2020 ODE evaluation. Offensively they have a ranking of 22nd in the country and defensively 40th in the country.