As Texas A&M prepares for Orange Bowl, three sophomores carry the way on offense
Jalen Wydermyer knew he would have extra responsibilities this year with the Texas A&M Aggies. Ainias Smith, too. Isaiah Spiller, meanwhile, knew he would need to build on a solid freshman season.
Even with a senior quarterback under center, this trio of sophomores, all of whom grew up in the Houston area and within a two-hour drive from Texas A&M’s campus in College Station, became the backbone of the Aggies’ offense in 2020.
They formed a bond that has only grown as they took over as the Aggies’ top skill position players during an unprecedented season and has Texas A&M on the precipice of just its second 10-win season since joining the Southeastern Conference.
“It’s kind of crazy that we’re all sophomores and we’re going to come back,” Spiller said. “Next year should be really fun.”
Of course, the fifth-ranked Aggies have one more game to handle before they can think about next year. Texas A&M (8-1) faces No. 13 North Carolina (8-3) in the 87th Orange Bowl on Saturday at Hard Rock Stadium.
But as the 2020 season progressed, one in which the Aggies played an All-SEC schedule and one in which Texas A&M’s only loss came to No. 1 Alabama two weeks into the season, these sophomores carried the bulk of the production for a team that came just short of the playoffs.
Case in point: Spiller, Smith and Wydermyer accounted for just more than 60 percent of Texas A&M’s yards from scrimmage this season heading into the Orange Bowl.
The conversation starts with Spiller. He emerged as a starter midway through his freshman year and served as the Aggies’ workhorse in Year 2. Spiller enters Saturday third in the SEC with 986 rushing yards in nine games. He ran for at least 100 yards in six of those nine contests, including a season-high 174 yards and two touchdowns in Texas A&M’s lone marquee win of the season — a 41-38 victory against the Florida Gators on Oct. 10.
His next opponent: A North Carolina defense that ranks 48th nationally against the run (an average of 147.8 rushing yards allowed per game), has given up more than 175 rushing yards in six of its past nine games and is without its top linebacker in senior Chazz Surratt, who opted out of the bowl game.
“Regardless,” Spiller said, “Coach [Jimbo] Fisher always says that. It doesn’t matter about the opponent. The opponent is faceless. We’ve just going to go out there and do our job like we’ve been doing week in and week out, but UNC is a good team, so we have to get prepared.”
Wydermyer, a tight end, quickly became the Aggies’ most experienced pass catcher when the season began. Jhamon Ausbon, who led Texas A&M’s receiving corps a year earlier, opted out of his senior season, and the uncertainty that came with it to prepare for the NFL Draft. Quartney Davis, the Aggies’ No. 2 receiver in 2019, left school a year early for the NFL. That left Wydermyer as quarterback Kellen Mond’s top target in the passing game.
The result: Wydermyer led the Aggies with 45 catches and 502 receiving yards while tying Smith with six touchdown catches, a mark that trailed only Florida’s Kyle Pitts’ 12 among SEC tight ends this season.
But while Wydermyer proved he could be a vertical threat — 28 of his 45 catches went for at least 10 yards and four went for at least 20 — he said his biggest area of growth came as an in-line blocker, which was needed in the Aggies’ run-first offense.
“I was always a skilled route runner,” Wydermyer said, “but it would have to be my willingness to block. That’s something that I had to learn as I came here and since I’ve been here I feel like I’ve grown in that tremendously.”
And then there’s Smith. He began his career at Texas A&M as a wide receiver and then transitioned over to running back before the Texas Bowl at the end of last season.
As a sophomore, he has played a little of both. He has 732 yards from scrimmage (293 rushing, 493 receiving) and a team-high 10 touchdowns.
“We’re not going to take this opportunity for granted,” Smith said. “We’re going to take advantage of every opportunity that we have given — that we have been given, and I feel like that’s the whole team’s mindset. We’ve just got to come out and execute and just show ourselves that we can do it.”
While the Aggies will lose a fair amount of veteran leadership from their offense after this year — Mond has started every game at quarterback the last three years and four members of their starting offensive line are seniors — the goal, the hope, is that a win on Saturday will serve as a jumping off point for the underclassmen to continue what Texas A&M started this season.
“It would definitely catapult us into next season with a good taste in our mouth,” Wydermyer said. “After a year like this, this is the kind of year that would build a culture around A&M, and if we keep that going, it’s going to help us a lot with recruiting and just all-around football play around this school. It would definitely help a lot.”
This story was originally published December 28, 2020 at 2:37 PM.
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