10 Things for Tuesday

I don't want to make this seem like a disaster scenario, but this is one area where A&M definitely needs help, and for multiple reasons. For starters, the Aggies didn't have a lot of scholarship receivers to begin with, and one of them (Jabre Barber) is already down with a pretty serious injury that could limit him well into the season. Moose Muhammad has been up and down his entire career. Noah Thomas has dealt with multiple injuries in his two seasons. Three of the scholarship receivers are freshman and two aren't on campus yet.

Transfer Cyrus Allen looks good. Jahdae Walker looks good. Micah Tease looks more comfortable. But there's still a need to add talent if you want to take on the SEC's elite secondaries and win -- especially if you have injuries to deal with. That is why I expect A&M to be heavily involved in the receiver market, including for Penn State's KeAndre Lambert-Smith.

Alex Howard clearly wasn't the answer out of the portal. Productive though he was at Youngstown State, he didn't seem to catch on quickly at A&M and was getting passed up by guys like Daymion Sanford and Martrell Harris (which is a positive from the Aggies' perspective).

All the same, the Aggies need depth at the position. Right now, they have Taurean York listed as a starter in bold ink. But who backs him up? And who plays next to him? That's still a question mark. They have Sanford, Harris, Scooby Williams, Chantz Johnson, Jordan Lockhart and Tristan Jernigan to fill out the roster. There's not a ton of experience here, and seven scholarship linebackers is still cutting it pretty thin (even if it's more than they've had the last couple of years).

Here's why: Shemar Turner and Gabe Dindy are both hurt. That's not news; Mike Elko has said as much. We have no idea what their timetables are. Turner, the most important piece to the D-line puzzle, could still play some defensive end as well.

Dindy has struggled with injuries for two years. Samu Taumanupepe is massive and should be a big run-stuffer, but he's really only played in one game. Dealyn Evans won't be on campus until summer. That puts a lot of pressure Albert Regis, DJ Hicks and Rodas Johnson. They need a big guy with some experience.

In a somewhat surprising move, transfer offensive tackle Derrick Graham went back into the portal Tuesday afternoon. Maybe it shouldn't have been surprising, though; Graham is a graduate student and he's looking for an opportunity to showcase his abilities for the NFL. Clearly, he wasn't going to beat out Trey Zuhn for the starting left tackle job, which he was brought in to try to do. Sitting on the bench waiting for an injury does him no good, so going somewhere else makes plenty of sense for him.

Zuhn is set on the left side, while Dametrious Crownover and Deuce Fatheree battle it out on the right side. But after that, you're looking at true freshmen or guys with no experience. That puts you in a perilous position if you lose one of the big three guys. You have no margin for error. Graham at least provided that luxury, even if it wasn't best for his future prospects.

The national media, which does not pay attention to much that goes on beyond their nose, is making a big deal out of Jacoby Mathews entering the portal today. But A&M fans have known that was coming for a month, and honestly, they had done a good job to prepare for that possibility (intentionally or not) before he decided to leave.

Mathews had a good year last year. But clearly, there was a disconnect between him and the new staff. But Elko himself said last Wednesday that he's really pleased with the safety group, and he has reason to. Bryce Anderson has made that transition from nickel nicely, and Dalton Brooks has taken a big leap forward. Marcus Ratcliffe has been impressive. They haven't even gotten to see what Trey Jones and De'Rickey Wright can do yet. So, unlike the past few years, they've got some real depth at safety.

Sam McCall has gone into the transfer portal for the second time in as many years, and he may need someone to sit down with him and have a serious discussion about his future. Out of high school, Rivals had him listed as a safety. He wanted to be a corner. He went to Florida State and didn't play much. So he moved to A&M, who needed corners. And he didn't play much. And when he did, he was eaten alive by Ole Miss and Oklahoma State.

He's not a corner. He's a safety. And he can be a very good one and make a lot of money if he is open to making the switch. But he wants to be a corner, and A&M put the writing on the wall pretty plainly by going out and getting five of them in the offseason. So, off he goes again.

Went into the portal as I was working on this -- and thank you to Samuel Brown of the University of Houston, because I was running out of things to talk about. Brown had 62 catches for 815 yards and 3 TD last year. He's 6-foot-2 and about 200 pounds. That should check about all the boxes for Holmon Wiggins, I expect A&M will be in pursuit.

Even with the four guys who have gone into the portal today, A&M is still at around 88 scholarship players, or three over the limit. So they're clearly not going to sit around and just drop three more guys and call it a day. There's going to be a lot moving pieces over the next two weeks, and maybe beyond that.

Alabama: 0

Arkansas: 4

Auburn: 1

Florida: 0

Georgia: 2

Kentucky: 1

LSU: 1

Mississippi State: 2

Missouri: 2

Oklahoma: 0

Ole Miss: 3

South Carolina: 0

Tennessee: 1

A&M: 4

Texas: 3

Vanderbilt: 2