Texas A&M Football: 7 Things Holding the Aggies Back from a BCS Bid

As Texas A&M enters the toughest division in college football coming off a very disappointing 6-6 season, everyone understands that no one in Aggieland is looking towards the BCS with any kind of hope.

Considering that, however, A&M has big plans for their future in the SEC, wishing one day to be their representative in a BCS Bowl game. A strong start in the recruiting game under new head coach Kevin Sumlin has given many a reason to believe that things might actually be going the right way for a change, yet there are never any guarantees in a sport as volatile as college football.

The BCS is a lofty goal for literally any team in the SEC as things can change dramatically in such a competitive conference. Every team has its weaknesses and every squad has their strengths, yet each one is confident in their ability to bring home a win on the field, a fact that becomes more evident with every passing season.

Unfortunately for such a powerful conference like the SEC, the NCAA only allows two teams per year to attend the BCS even though the league has easily had enough talent to possibly send three or four squads in each of the past few seasons.

Texas A&M is, for the time-being, not one of those programs. They have many a problem holding them back from dominance in their division and only time will tell for the SEC West newcomer. We take a look at the top seven things restraining the Aggies from attending the BCS in their inaugural season with the SEC. 

New Conference

The SEC is a meat grinder. It will destroy you if you don't respect it. 

Texas A&M was fortunate enough to receive an invite into the conference, allowing them to separate themselves from their long-time rivals in Texas, gain a stronger financial backing and compete against the best in the country on a weekly basis.

As anyone will tell you, however, acclimating yourself to a new place is never easy. The Aggies will be hosting teams that they haven't played in years and will be visiting stadiums that they possibly have never even been to.

Playing in the Big 12 as well as the Southwest Conference before that has absolved A&M into a creature of habit, forcing them to get used to taking on Texas, OU, Kansas and anyone else the conference provided.

Everything is different now. New game plans have to be established, new rules have to be followed, and life as every as Aggie knows it will forever be changed.

It will take years for Texas A&M to acclimate themselves to the new environment that is the SEC, a factor that easily keep the Aggies from reaching the top of the conference anytime soon. 

Inconsistent Defense

As every A&M fan noticed this past season, the defense was the side of the ball that definitely needed some offseason work. Although the offense played extremely inconsistently, it was the defense that could almost never be counted on throughout the course of the year.

With returning linebackers Sean Porter, Jonathan Stewart and DaMontre Moore, the Aggies will have a lot of experience leading the defense. The problem will definitely be in the secondary and down in the trenches. With only a few players returning at each of those areas, times will be tough to fill in top-notch underclassmen at these vacant positions.

New defensive coordinator Mark Snyder hopefully will have all the answers. Moving in from USF, his 4-3 scheme might just save the Aggies. It won't be an immediate impact though as Snyder will need time to recruit players that work with the strengths of the defense he will be running.

The SEC is built on defense and A&M has none of it to be found. It will be a deciding factor in their overall ability to take on the best of the conference year-in and year-out. Times will be tough till the defense is back on it feet.

New Starting Quarterback

As of right now, A&M has two young players with enough talent to take over the vacant starting QB position. Redshirt freshman Johnny Manziel and sophomore Jameill Showers will both be competing to see who will snag the team's most important open spot.

In addition to them, 4-star recruit Matt Davis may also have a shot if he truly impresses the offensive-minded Sumlin. In most analysts' opinions, Manziel is the clear choice due to his high school performance, skill both throwing the ball and ability to tuck it to pick up yards on the ground.

Personally, however, I wouldn't be so sure. Under Sherman, this would have been a simple choice, but with the entrance of Sumlin, Manziel will have to show up in full force to claim the job. Showers and Davis are big-time passers with the ability to run as well, making this one a hard decision for the new head coach and his staff.

No matter who Sumlin ends up picking to lead his offense, a young QB creates an uncontrollable variable. As any head coach will tell you, the younger the star is the easier it is to mold him to the way you want him to be, yet that doesn't excuse him from not making costly errors, particularly against the best defenses known to college football.

For the next two or so seasons, the age of A&M's QB will be a huge determinant in how solid the Aggies really are. 

Untimely Injuries

For the past two seasons, Texas A&M has been plagued with some injuries that just came at the wrong time. They have killed some of A&M's chances in crucial games, forcing many to discount them on belief that they can't finish or don't own enough talent.

For example, the loss of the premier running back Christine Michael over the past two seasons has hurt the Aggies exponentially. Not having him and his talents late in the year were difficult to say the least.

On the defensive side of the ball, losing players such as Coryell Judie made an already bad secondary look even worse.

Avoiding injuries is almost impossible. If it happens, it happens and there is literally nothing you can do about it. What can be done, however, is provide more depth to the entire team so that the loss of one or two key players doesn't completely destroy one's chances in big matchups. 

New Head Coach

Breaking out of Houston for a BCS automatic qualifying program, Kevin Sumlin is in the best position of his young career. Considered one of the top offensive minds nationwide, his ability to pick apart defenses is a godsend for a flailing Aggie team.

Leading an extremely successful Cougars squad for four solid years, Sumlin morphed a decent QB in Case Keenum into one of the most dangerous weapons in the sport. Just watching the young man rip apart a powerful Penn State passing defense was more than enough to convince me that Sumlin was the right man for the A&M opening.

Although weak on the defensive side of the ball, a place the SEC emphasizes with a passion that Sumlin may have what it takes to go toe-to-toe with the Alabama's and LSU's of the conference and possibly emerge victorious. This man has a swagger I've never seen before.

He is all-new though. It is extremely rare that a fresh coach to a big program like A&M's takes his team to the top in the first few years of him being there. Cases such as Gene Chizik and Chip Kelly are one in a million and no one is counting on Sumlin to be the next messiah for the Aggies. 

Recruiting

With programs like Texas and Oklahoma to compete against for the past century, it has been tough for the Aggies to pull in top-notch recruits on a consistent basis. For example, Trey Williams, the jewel of the 2012 recruiting class, was the Aggies' first 5-star recruit in the past three seasons.

The move to the SEC has already helped with the weak recruiting that A&M has been doing for a long time. They've picked up some great recruits who have high hopes of making an impact on the football-crazed SEC.

This new phenomenon will take time to sink in to the whole state. Most of the big-time players still want to either wear crimson and cream or burnt orange, something that the Aggies are looking to change. Their conference realignment made a huge splash for the time being, but supplanting that into hearts and minds of star recruits all over Texas will take time.

Till the recruiting game is at a whole new level of exceptional, this A&M team will struggle against programs such as LSU and Alabama who consistently pull in top classes year after year.

Placement in America's Toughest Division

When the BCS Title game was played just a mere 400 miles to the east by two programs who will be populating the SEC West for a long-time to come, it has me just a bit worried for the immediate future against this division.

LSU and Alabama are just the start as Mississippi State, Auburn and former Southwest Conference rival Arkansas all have shown that they can compete against the best of the nation with ease every single season. The Aggies are literally walking into a deathtrap.

The SEC West is the toughest division inside the nation's premiere athletic conference. It owns the best talent in the country and knows how to walk into opposing stadiums and suck the life right out of them. This is almost like A&M is moving into the NFL as you compare the kind of talent that they will be facing in the SEC West against their former Big 12 opponents' depth charts.

As Texas A&M prepares for the blunt impact that is their new conference, their new home in the West division will hold as one of their toughest challenges to overcome as the Aggies progress into the next few years.