1. This week’s opponent, Tennessee, is a very run-heavy team. It’s not what you’d expect from a Josh Heupel team, but that’s who they are. Running back Deshaun Bishop is already over 1,000 yard rushing, so as he goes, they go. The Aggies may look like a mismatch with their rush defense ranked 51st, but in their last two games, against Alabama and South Carolina, they’ve only given up an average of 88 yards a game. They’ve been much improved.
2. The big question for Tennessee is which quarterback will play Saturday. There’s been some talk that Faison Brandon, who was hurt in early October and returned briefly last week, will start. But it seems the Aggies believe George McIntyre, who has been more accurate and has taken a lot fewer sacks, will get the nod.
3. This is the fourth road game that Tennessee has played, the others having been Georgia Tech, Arkansas and South Carolina. They won the first two against bad teams, but lost to the Gamecocks. So they appear to be vulnerable on the road. The 12th Man could be very big in this one.
4. Doubling back for a second, there’s one thing that makes me even angrier about the South Carolina loss. For three plays of A&M’s final drive, South Carolina only had 10 men on the field. And they still couldn’t take advantage.
5. Speaking of the 12th Man, the attendance for last night’s Aggie basketball team and ULM was pitiful. I know there’s little excitement for non-conference games unless they’re against a marquee name, but this isn’t a Buzz Williams team that wins 75-58 rock fights against West Alabama State or whoever. They score, they’re aggressive on defense and attack in waves. And, the initial returns for this season would indicate they’re good, too. We’ll see more Thursday when Oklahoma State visits. That’s a payback game for what happened last year, when the Aggies got smacked in Stillwater.
6. At the half last night, the duo of PJ Haggerty and Jordan Pope had more points (28) than ULM (27). Those two guards may be the best pairing A&M has had in terms of scoring ability in more than 20 years. They’re not just 3-point shooters; they can get to the basket and draw fouls as well. I don’t think most people around the country realize how good these guys might be together.
7. So far this season, the Aggies are 10th in the nation in scoring, second in turnovers forced and seventh in steals. The biggest problem to date has been free throw shooting, where the Aggies rank 246th as they’ve made 66% of their shots from the line so far.
8. The College Football Playoff is going to 24 teams and I absolutely loathe the idea. There are now going to be a bunch of first round blowouts that take the place of conference championship games. And then for CFP executive director Rich Clark to throw out this doozy yesterday — ““We did take into account their sentiment, and that was rolled into this decision, but we decided to move forward with it” — is running the risk of biting the hand that feeds it. According to The Athletic, less than 10% of college football fans support expanding the CFP to 24 teams. This is running a major risk, and ESPN is shelling out $1.7 billion for the pleasure.
9. ESPN would probably spend another large amount of money to get SEC commissioner Greg Sankey to shut up. After a number of atrocious calls — all going one way — in the Texas game, there was ample (proper) criticism of the officiating. Some of that came from the announcer’s booth, which I don’t think is an issue. Sankey does, and he got really snarky about it on Paul Finebaum’s show yesterday. He apparently wants announcers to toe the party line and tell everyone (switching to Russian voice) “EVERYTHING LOVELY IN SEC! BLUE SKIES EVERYWHERE! NO PROBLEMS WITH OFFICIALS!” Honestly, that’s ridiculous. The SEC had a problem with their officiating, still has a problem with its officiating and it refuses to do anything to change that. It’s making a mockery of the conference and for Sankey to come away from Saturday’s debacle with the major takeaway that the announcers were mean is, simply, ridiculous.
10. In the “Can they both lose?” classic, Texas goes to LSU this weekend. A win for LSU puts Texas in some trouble for the CFP; an LSU loss kills their season entirely with Tennessee still on the schedule. As much as I enjoy seeing those folks from Red Stick lose and Lane Kiffin’s “I’m so depressed” press conferences, I think I would rather they show up to win Saturday.

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.