For a third consecutive football season, Texas A&M heads into a high-profile game in October with a 5-0 record and boundless momentum.
This time, the Aggies might even be sporting a sledgehammer to break through the glass ceiling that has signaled the end of SEC and national championship dreams at this same point the past two years.
Built on defense and fortified by road victories in high-pressure environments, these Aggies have a swagger and substance behind their fast start that feels different as No. 8 A&M (5-0, 3-0 in SEC) prepares to face No. 9 Tennessee (5-0, 2-0) in Saturday's battle of SEC division leaders in Kyle Field.
A&M coach Kevin Sumlin, who spent the offseason atop the short list of the nation's most embattled college coaches following last year's second consecutive late-season swoon, put his finger on what has triggered the attitude adjustment in Aggieland: locker room leadership. That's ironic because most observers considered that the missing ingredient as A&M turned a 5-0 start into last year's 8-5 finish.
"You go back to August, these guys have really done a great job of blocking out noise," Sumlin said during this week's news conference in College Station. "When people talked about this program in disarray, talked about uncertainties, talked about the whole thing, they have continued to play at a high level of football and ... focused on the little things.
"When people ask me what's different, how they've gone about their business has been different. And I don't expect that to change."
A&M fans can be forgiven if they approach Saturday's contest with the same trepidation that Charlie Brown felt when Lucy offered to hold the football while he kicked it in Peanuts cartoons from yesteryear. Every year, Charlie trusted. Yet he always wound up flat on his back when Lucy pulled the ball away as he whiffed the kick.
No one needs to remind Sumlin that his team has whiffed October the past two years. After a 5-0 start in 2014, the Aggies lost their next three games to SEC rivals Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Alabama by a combined 142-51. Last season, another 5-0 start ended with a 41-23 loss to Alabama in a top-10 matchup in Kyle Field. The setback became the first step in a 3-5 closing push that put Sumlin at the top of the embattled coaches list on CoachesHotSeat.com heading into the 2016 season.
Sumlin's name no longer appears on the site's 30-coach list, topped this week by Texas counterpart Charlie Strong. But it wasn't on there at this point last season, either.
That's how quickly perceptions change in today's college game. A&M has flipped its August script with a big-play defense and a veteran quarterback who protects the football and oozes intangibles that inspire teammates.
A&M's most important stat in supporting the staying power of this 5-0 start: The Aggies lead the nation's FBS teams in tackles for losses (50), a huge factor in helping A&M win three SEC matchups in venues other than Kyle Field (two road games, plus a neutral-site triumph over No. 16 Arkansas in Arlington). The Aggies have allowed just 15.4 points per game, a touchdown ahead of last year's pace (22.0 average) and basically half the weekly yield of the 2014 team (28.1) that also had its 5-0 cameo. The 15.4 mark ranks fourth among SEC teams and is No. 12 nationally among the nation's 128 FBS programs.
That suggests a legitimate, sustainable turnaround unfolding in the second season under defensive coordinator John Chavis. The acid test comes Oct. 22 against top-ranked Alabama (5-0, 2-0). But there is nothing Tennessee brings to the table Saturday that indicates these Aggies have to play above their ability level to carry a 6-0 mark into that contest.
It will require more savvy game management from quarterback Trevor Knight, a graduate transfer from Oklahoma who has accounted for 13 touchdowns (six rushing, seven passing) and just three interceptions in support of the rock-ribbed defense. With ESPN's College GameDay show in town, Knight understands he must help younger teammates embrace the big-game buzz without losing sight of the bottom line.
"There is an emphasis on handling that atmosphere in the right way. Not making it a Super Bowl, but having fun with it," said Knight, who appreciates that this offense, unlike past units under Sumlin, does not need to score 40 points each week against SEC defenses to succeed.
"There's no such thing as an ugly win," Knight said. "And it feels really good to have a defense that will step up. I wouldn't call them a security blanket, but it's nice to have a defense that plays really hard for you."
That defense, which features four all-SEC caliber players (DE Myles Garrett, DE Daeshon Hall, FS Armani Watts, SS Justin Evans), is A&M's sledgehammer in efforts to break through its October glass ceiling. Sumlin, for one, would like to get that done so naysayers can nitpick other aspects of his program.
"It's something that people keep harping on," Sumlin said. "But if we lose Saturday, it's not indicative of anything. Our season's not over. We're playing good football."
Good enough that A&M should discover Saturday what life is like on the other side of its October glass ceiling.
