Basketball’s back, football returns after a week off and all that other stuff..

1. Game one of the second season of Buckyball can be described in one word: ugly. Texas A&M will actually cover again Alabama State largely because they got fouled every 10 seconds and they had a big run in garbage time. Offensively, they had no rhythm whatsoever and missed a ton of shots right at the rim. They didn’t shoot well at the line or from 3, but had way more opportunities at the stripe to wear down the opposition.

2. One positive was the defense. They forced 25 turnovers, including three shot clock violations, a 10-second halfcourt violation and a 5-second inbound violation. But they also gave up a lot of offensive rebounds to Alabama State, in large part because the Aggies looked like they were dozing off once the shot went up.

3. I said yesterday in Monday Thoughts (didn’t read it? Join AggieHuddle today for a buck and solve that problem) that I thought the trio of Jordan Pope, PJ Haggerty and Mackenzie Mgbako could be as good a group of scorers as the Aggies have had in a long time. For a night, at least, they were. All three were in double digits, with Haggerty going over 20.

4. The Aggies put their strongest performance against the run maybe all season against Alabama, which is good because South Carolina have remained one of the toughest rushing offenses in America. The Gamecocks have four players with 20 or more carries and they all have averages of 5.6 yards per carry or better. And the top runner is LaNorris Sellers, who ran all over the Aggies the last time they played in Columbia. They’d better remember to tackle low and wrap up. If you go for the knockout, you’ll bounce off.

5. The Gamecocks are still giving up a lot of sacks, so the Aggies need to bring the pressure again. Sellers has been enjoying throwing the deep ball a lot of late, so it’ll be important to disrupt that. If Anto Saka is healthy this week, it would be a very good time for him to break out.

6. Coach Mike Elko said he saw improved physicality in the Alabama game, which is nice – but they need to bring it up several notches to beat South Carolina right now. That means running the ball, controlling the clock and, as mentioned slowing down the Gamecocks running game.

7. South Carolina’s pass defense isn’t good (91st), so it would be nice for Marcel Reed to come out and do a few things against it. But there’s no sign he’s ready to bust out of his funk and there’s also no indication he’d get the chance, as we saw last week when A&M went super conservative in the second half at Tuscaloosa.

8. Looking at the numbers, in spite of the ineffectual pass rush, we’re going to end up looking back at this season like 2021, only worse – a good defense wasted by a really, really bad offense. Both the defense and the offense were better in 2021, but seriously, the defense has done enough. Halfway decent play on offense has this team back in the CFP hunt.

9. 5-star LB Kaden Henderson is visiting Notre Dame this weekend, 4-star DE Frederick Ards already visited South Carolina and the Gamecocks are pushing for him, and Miami is going to fight for Mark Matthews until the end. We have less than a month until the early signing period, so it’s time for the Aggie coaching staff to earn their big paychecks and keep the biggest names in this class in the boat.

10. And, as usual, I want to know what the CFP committee smoked before releasing their rankings. What an absolute joke.

Our SPonsor

10 Things for Tuesday is sponsored by Brent Campbell, Fighting Texas Aggie Class of 1998. Brent is a Commercial Real Estate Broker, serving all of Central Texas and specializing in sales, leasing & development. He leads a retail acquisition and sales team and was recognized by the Austin Business Journal as a Commercial Real Estate Heavy Hitter in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2023, 2024 & 2025.

In the last 22 years, he has closed deals with a total transactional value of over $400 million and has leased more than 4.75 million square feet. Brent currently serves as the president of the board of directors for Habitat Homes, Inc. and Pathways Youth and Family Services. He is currently on the Downtown Round Rock Task Force.  He is a former president of the Heart of Round Rock Neighborhood Association and a former member of the Round Rock Zoning Advisory Committee, the Round Rock Business and Retention Committee, and the City of Round Rock Ethics Commission, which has led him to begin developing in Williamson and Travis County.

An Austin native, Brent lives in Round Rock where he and his wife have raised four boys. Brent works for Don Quick and Associates, Inc. in Round Rock and can be reached at brent@donquick.com.