Texas A&M Starting QB Trevor Knight Set Up for Stardom with Aggies

If you watched Texas A&M's spring game on Saturday night and, more specifically, how head coach Kevin Sumlin used his quarterbacks, Monday's news was about as shocking as the sun rising every morning.

Trevor Knight is the Aggies' starting quarterback.

The graduate transfer, who played at Oklahoma for the past three years and originally hails from San Antonio, completed 25 of his 36 passes for 282 yards and two touchdowns with one interception and added a score on the ground, according to stats released by Texas A&M. His primary competitor, junior Jake Hubenak, completed five of his 10 passes and took a back seat to the former Sooner. 

"Trevor Knight will be our starter," Sumlin said in a release emailed by Texas A&M. "His on-field performance this spring along with his leadership earned him the starting job."

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He's set up for success at a program that, while headlined by offseason turmoil, is made for instant success.

When Knight looks around, he's going to see a bevy of talented receivers. Christian Kirk topped the 1,000-yard mark as a true freshman in 2015, and Josh Reynolds topped the 900-yard mark for an offense that endured its fair share of quarterback turmoil. All told, Texas A&M returns its top eight wide receivers from last year's squad, including Kirk, Reynolds, monster junior Ricky Seals-Jones and versatile speedster Speedy Noil.

That turmoil, specifically shuffle and subsequent departures of former 5-star prospects Kyle Allen and Kyler Murray, has many people writing off Texas A&M this season.

Don't fall into that trap.

Knight has shown flashes of brilliance as a starting quarterback on big stages, including his 348-yard, four-touchdown performance against Alabama in the 2014 Allstate Sugar Bowl. He's in an offense that produces results—even in down years. 

Poor performances over the last year-and-a-half in both the starting and reserve roles have led many to believe that Knight peaked too early. The most recent long-term glimpse we got of Knight was when he came in for Baker Mayfield against TCU after Mayfield suffered a concussion, completed five of 16 passes and nearly threw away a big Sooner lead. 

It's nice to assume that backups are always prepared to go in for injured starters in a pinch, but that's not reality.

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The new reality for Knight is a loaded wide receiving corps, a new offensive coordinator in Noel Mazzone—who will develop quarterbacks like he did with Josh Rosen at UCLA last year—a running game that should be stable with the duo of James White and Keith Ford and a more physical offensive line led by new offensive line coach Jim Turner. 

Knight has been a star before, and he has all of the pieces to repeat the feat with an offense that's one of the most talented units in the country. As Brent Zwerneman of the Houston Chronicle noted on Twitter, that unit can now grow over the summer without the distraction of a quarterback battle making the water murky. 

Plus, for Knight's star to shine as bright as possible, he needs his teammates to help vault the Aggies back into the national conversation for the right reasons.

That's a legitimate possibility, too.

Texas A&M's defense quietly kept the Aggies in every game last year. It improved from last in the SEC in total defense in 2014 (450.8 yards per game) to eighth (380.0), and it returns a fearsome defensive line that includes Myles Garrett, Daeshon Hall and Daylon Mack.

More stability in the second year under coordinator John Chavis should complement a talented secondary that includes safety Armani Watts and corner and former UCLA hot-shot recruit Priest Willis. Not to mention the defense will get several key players back at full speed, including linebacker Otaro Alaka.

Don't sleep on Texas A&M.

That weird feeling in College Station is known as "quarterback stability," which seemed impossible to achieve just five months ago after Murray and Allen bolted. 

One of the most talented rosters in the country and smart coaching changes on the offensive side of the ball should land the Aggies in the conversation for the SEC West title when the calendar hits November. 

Quotes were obtained firsthand, unless otherwise noted. Statistics are courtesy of CFBStats.com, unless otherwise noted, and recruiting information is courtesy of 247Sports.

Barrett Sallee is the lead SEC college football writer and national college football video analyst for Bleacher Report, as well as a host on Bleacher Report Radio on SiriusXM 83. Follow Barrett on Twitter @BarrettSallee.