It's time for this week's AggieYell Mailbag, sponsored by Tres Hermanos 1850, a hunting ranch with native and exotic game, near Gatesville, Texas. Check out their website here.
Q: Why does the media buys Kiffin's crap so easily? (MexAggie)
A: They find the fact that he likes to talk and make headlines endearing. People who don't follow the program or are not national tend to find him an irritating, condescending jerk. It kind of follows what I call the "fungus on the shower shoes rule" (NSFW -- language)
Q: Can anybody knock off UGA this year? (H273)
A: After a quick review of the schedule, they play Tennessee in Knoxville Nov. 18. That's their toughest game by far. So...no.
Q: Can you summarize where the basketball team stands from a transfer in/out standpoint by position and need? (Jeffmc)
A: Transfers in: SG Jace Carter
Commitments: PG Bryce Lindsey (signed), C Brandon White
Transfers out: C Javonte Brown, PG Kiki Robinson, SG Eric Pratt
Other departures: SF Dexter Dennis (draft), F Ethan Henderson
Boots Radford is supposedly on the fence about his decision, but I expect him to stay.
A&M has reached out to several new entries into the portal, so they're not done. Their needs are the same: A big with a strong presence in the lane, and good 3-point shooters.
Q: I doubt anyone really knows the inner workings of getting kids into schools, but with all of the transfers, how difficult is it to get them in to school?
A: Not difficult at all.
It seems many are making decisions and walking off of campus. The extreme cases (like our guys that were not on the team this semester) have to have some grade issues, transfer hour issues, etc.
Do we have a person or team responsible for pushing the paperwork through the system. (Richard23)
A: Yes, but the player initiates the process. Once he does that, then the university contacts the NCAA and they're officially in the portal.
Q: I think Jimbo and crew will get this team back to competing for the SEC West title, but if they don't Win big in the next two years, IMHO he's gone.
Realistically at that point, what coaches are in your top 5 to replace ol' Jimbo? (Big Smoothie)
A: I'm not going to give a response to this one because it's really a waste of time to consider it. We're talking two full seasons down the road in this hypothetical and we have no idea what's going to happen and who's going to move where. I haven't even looked at possible replacements because I don't think they're close to that point yet. Another 5-7 and you get there real quick.
Q: Tyree Wilson is being projected as a Top Ten First Round pick as a pass rusher. How did we let him get away? Did we not see the talent? (GCJC)
A: This is revisionist history at its absolute worst. Has everyone who is dragging A&M forgotten who was in front of Wilson when he was here? Let me help remind everyone: DeMarvin Leal, Tyree Johnson and Micheal Clemons. Jeremiah Martin was also supposed to be the next big thing. Wilson played in 2019, and quite a bit, but he wasn't going to beat out those other three for a starting job for a couple of years. So he left.
They saw the talent. He didn't want to wait.
Q: This may not be something you can speak to, but the situation at CU sure seems odd. I know times have changed, but this seems so drastic. I liked his messages (the ones that were released for us to see) to his players at Jackson State. Have any thoughts on that? (Gmalone)
A: There's a lot of stuff that goes on in locker rooms or football programs in general that we don't see. Deion has his own way of doing things and Colorado is basically letting him use their football program as his experiment. We'll see how it works, but the number of transfers they have is unhealthy.
Q: I have heard from several people who should know that our lack of success in last year's recruiting class as well as the transfer portal is due to our NIL game not being up to par. Have you heard that and if so, what is the reason for it? (katyAggie)
A: I don't know specifics and it probably would be a bad idea for me to comment if I did. So I'll take a pass on this one, only to say that it may not be coincidental that A&M has had some recent success in the portal.
Q: Your favorite all-time A&M athletes - football, basketball, baseball, track and field? (TAMU-83)
A: Football is very hard because I know so many of them personally. I'll go with Mike Evans due to his combination of performance and being a genuinely great guy, but Jason Glenn is a very close second. We've been friends for 20-plus years.
Basketball is easy: Acie Law.
baseball is tougher, but Michael Wacha.
Track? There's only one answer here, and that's Athing Mu.
Q: On paper, we have possibly the best DL in the country, yet they seemed to get pushed around regularly last year. I understand a lot of that was due to being very young, going against upper classmen, but it also seemed to be due to our defensive scheme. We didn’t seem to play very aggressively which might have allowed superior athleticism to show, and frankly, a lot of us were very disappointed in Durkin. What are you anticipating from our D this year? (thepassAg)
A: Improvement. Amazingly, they were still top 25 in scoring defense last year, so it wasn't a total disaster. But they're a year older up front, and should be far more capable. The linebackers are deeper. The safeties are really good and Bryce Anderson looks great at nickel. I still want some corner depth.
The opportunity to be more aggressive should be there. They have linemen with speed and good cover corners. A lot of it is going to come down to the linebackers doing what they're supposed to, something they rarely did last year.
ESPN has A&M as the 15th best defense in the nation. I don't think that's too far off from right.
Q: how difficult was for you to cover the team last year compared to 2021 with all the expectations at the start then all the turmoil that unraveled? (Doctore-20)
A: 2021 wasn't fun. 2022 was even worse than that. It's tough to watch when things clearly aren't looking and there are some very unlikeable people wearing the colors of your alma mater, but you can't really say or do anything about it. It's even more frustrating when you see flashes of potential, but things just don't come together.
I think most of those issues are gone. We'll see if I'm right.
Q: Where do you rank Aggie Football facilities in the SEC? Is there anything related to football operations Jimbo has requested and not received? (Randy Hill)
A: A&M and Alabama have the best facilities in the conference and there's a wide gulf to the next team(s). Anything Jimbo has asked for, he's gotten. That's one of the reasons the pressure on him to perform is amplified this year. 5-7 is bad enough, but 5-7 when literally billions have been invested will put you on thin ice.
Q: Anything new on a Reed makeover? (BVOSUX)
A: No.
Q: What happened to the qb guru (Whitfield?) that JFF worked with? Is he still around? (6.William.Bs)
A: George Whitfield? Yeah, he's still out there. He has a QB academy, for lack of a better term, in San Diego.
