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This job may not be the greatest-paying in history, but what can be much better than being able to watch your alma mater's teams in person, for free, and get paid for it? Such is my life, difficult though it may be at times. It means a lot of late nights, sometimes flirtations with bankruptcy and being away from your family a lot.

That last part nearly took on an entirely new meaning on Saturday. As my brother and I were walking through Caesar's Palace, we were discussing how lucky it was that the big tornadoes that hit Houston had barely missed my house. While we were waiting for Emmitt Smith to show up at Field of Dreams to ask him if EJ was going to come back, I got a text from my wife, who was visiting my in-laws in Mississippi: "Large tornado on the ground. Will contact you as soon as possible if we lose comms."

And then I didn't hear anything for 45 minutes until Cody texted me. "Daddy, we were hit by the tornado, but we are ok."

They were ok, but the people across the street were not. Their trailer had been flipped over and destroyed. The church where my in-laws were married and Arie was baptized was absolutely obliterated.

The damage to my in-laws house is pretty severe. The tornado (an EF-2) ripped off the roof of one room and tore the carport apart. The magnolia tree outside of the house, which had been there as long as the house (nearly 100 years) exploded, and a couple of windows were broken by what essentially became shrapnel.

The house was moved at the foundation and some of the floors were wrecked as a result. Nobody was hurt, but it's still a bad situation.

And I was a long way from being helpful. It was a frustrating and terrifying experience, and i was nowhere near the storm. It definitely made me a whole lot less angry about the result of the game.

I'm thankful everyone is safe and it was a heck of a wakeup call for me. It put things in perspective, to be sure.

If you'd like to donate to the GoFundMe to help my in-laws rebuild, you can do so here.

QB: Marcel Reed, Jacob Zeno, Miles O’Neill, Brady Hart, Eli Morcos

Two deep: Reed/Zeno

RB: Le’Veon Moss, Amari Daniels, Rueben Owens, Jarmarion Morrow, Tiger Riden

Two deep: Moss/Owens

TE: Theo Ohrstrom, Micah Riley, Nate Boerkircher, Eric Karner, Kiotti Armstrong

Two deep: Ohrstrom/Armstrong

WR: Noah Thomas, KC Concepcion, Terry Bussey, Micah Hudson, Mario Craver, Ashton Bethel-Roman, Ernest Campbell, Izaiah Williams, Jerome Myles, Kelshaun Johnson, TK Norman

Two deep:

WR (X): Thomas, Hudson

WR(SLOT): Craver, Bussey

WR (Z): Concepcion, Myles

LT: Trey Zuhn, Robert Bourdon, Lamont Rogers, Jonte Newman

Two deep: Zuhn/Bourdon

LG: Chase Bisontis, Papa Ahfua, Nelson McGuire

C: Mark Nabou, Koli Faaiu, Ashton Funk, Josh Moses

Two deep: Nabou/Faaiu

RG: Ar’maj Reed-Adams, Blake Ivy, Tyler Thomas

Two deep: Reed-Adams/Ivy

RT: Demetrious Crownover, Deuce Fatheree, Marcus Garcia

Two deep: Crownover/Fatheree

DE: Cashius Howell, Dayon Hayes, TJ Searcy, Samuel M’Pemba, Rylan Kennedy, Solomon Williams, Kendall Jackson, Marco Jones, Landon Rink, Jadon Scarlett

Two deep:

DE: Hayes/Searcy

DE: Howell/Williams OR M’Pemba

JACK: Kennedy/Jones

DT: Albert Regis, DJ Hicks, DJ Sanders, Dealyn Evans, Chace Sims

Two deep:

DT: Regis/Sanders

DT: Hicks/Evans OR Sims

LB: Taurean York, Scooby Williams, Daymion Sanford, Jordan Lockhart, Tristan Jernigan, Noah Mikhail, Kelvion Riggins

Two deep:

LB: York/Sanford

LB: Williams/Lockhart

NICKEL: Tyreek Chappell, Bravion Rogers, Deyjhon Pettaway

Two deep: Chappell/Pettaway

S: Bryce Anderson, Dalton Brooks, Marcus Ratcliffe, Jarred Kerr, Myles Davis, Jordan Pride, Rashad Johnson

Two deep:

S: Anderson/Ratcliffe

S: Brooks/Davis

CB: Will Lee, Dezz Ricks, Jayvon Thomas, Julian Humphrey, Adonyss Currie, Jamar Beal-Goines, Cobey Sellers

Two deep:

CB: Lee/Currie

CB: Humphrey/Ricks

I’m pretty comfortable with the offense for 2025 right now. I’ll get more into Reed in a second, but everything else looks solid. They have a good running back corps, and I’m going to assume Daniels comes back — he had shoulder surgery and he’s out until May at the very earliest.

Losing Donovan Green tonight hurts. If he gets back to 100%, he’s a real weapon. But Ohstrom and Armstrong appear to be a very capable pass-catching duo.

The receiver room now looks very good. Adding Concepcion gives the Aggies an established pass-catcher who will take pressure off of Thomas. Hudson could be a great one if he reaches his potential. Craver has already shown he can be a dangerous SEC receiver. And, of course, there’s Bussey — if he stays at receiver.

The offensive line took a considerable step forward this year, and the whole crew should return for next season. This year, they moved from terrible to middle of the pack. They became a good run-blocking team; now they have to improve in pass blocking. We know that Faaiu and Fatheree can play guard, so that adds depth at both of those positions.

The defense, especially the line, concerns me in a big way. Shemar Stewart and Nic Scourton were, overall, disappointments — and the group A&M has currently to replace them are not on the same level in terms of talent. Howell will be an every-down player next season and he proved to be a well above average SEC defensive lineman; Hayes should be at least an SEC-average end on the other side. Searcy should be decent, but I don’t know what to think about M’Pemba. He didn’t do anything at Georgia, so he’s a risk/reward kind of guy. Solomon Williams looked pretty good Friday night, so he should be out there. But, after seeing the ends underperform this year, put me firmly in the “I’ll believe it when I see it” category.

Defensive tackle scares me even more. I’m not worried about DJ Hicks and Albert Regis; I’m worried about what’s behind them, and right now it’s all freshmen. I think DJ Sanders will be very much the real deal and Chace Sims was a lot better than his ranking, but do you want one of them and Dealyn Evans out there as pair of freshmen against veteran offensive linemen? Of course not.

I have no question about the talent of the linebackers. That’s about as good as it’s been in a generation. I am worried about other parts of the game — tackling and discipline. Taurean York gets a lot of crap from Aggies, for reasons I can’t understand, as he had 82 tackles, 9.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks and an interception. He only missed six tackles. He’s going to be preseason All-SEC. Scooby Williams was way better than expected but had his ups and downs. Sanford’s a terrific athlete. Jernigan, Lockhart, Mikhail and Riggins are the future and I’m good with that.

I’m worried big time about the secondary, but the return of one player could change a lot: Tyreek Chappell. Plugging him back in at nickel could solve a lot of problems. But they need to find a backup, and right now that would probably be Pettaway unless Rogers seriously steps up.

I thought they were good at corner after adding Humphrey, but Friday night changed my mind. Will Lee is an All-SEC player, as we saw this season. But Dezz Ricks ended up being a liability, and USC ate him alive in the Las Vegas Bowl. I wanted Humphrey as a backup, but right now I think he’d start if the season restarted tomorrow. But we saw the consequences of not having Lee out there Friday night, and they need more depth. Maybe the freshmen will be ready, but are you willing to bet the farm on that?

TL/DR: Offense should be good. The defense has issues that still need to be addressed in the portal.

This may be unpopular with some of you, but I really don’t care. The Aggies have their QB1, and his name is Marcel Reed.

Reed threw for the second-most yards of any Aggie freshman quarterback with 1,867 yards, trailing only one J. Manziel. He threw for 15 touchdowns against six interceptions, and ran for 547 and another seven scores. That’s 2,414 yards and 22 touchdowns in eight starts — basically nine games overall. After taking over as the full-time starter, Reed completed 65% of his passes with nine touchdowns passing and five rushing. He threw for an average of 243 yards a game during the five game stretch. You translate that over a full 12-game schedule and he’s pushing 3,000 yards passing, and next year he’ll have a significantly better receiver corps than he did this season.

Reed is, by no means, a finished product. He still homes in on receivers early in his progression and misses guys who are open. He had a habit (before the bowl game) of pulling the ball down and running before he needed to. He ran himself into sacks.

But he’s a true dual-threat quarterback who can run and make all the throws. In my opinion, he can get a lot better and he would not be the first quarterback to improve from his first real season to the next.

The Aggies have invested a lot in Reed. There’s reason to believe he’ll be worth it, much to the dismay of his critics.

One of the positives from the bowl game was the performance of Rueben Owens. Even though he’s not fully healthy yet, he had what was probably his best performance to date in the Las Vegas Bowl. It wasn’t how much he ran for (13 carries, 56 yards), it was how he ran. During his freshman season, Owens was hesitant and indecisive when he got the ball, and his results showed it: 3.8 yards a carry for the season and only one 100-yard rushing performance, against Abilene Christian. He was a different guy against USC, showing a lot more confidence and overall skill when he got the ball. That’s why he was running with the 1s before his injury and a great reason to think he and Le’Veon Moss could be a dangerous platoon next season.