Texas A&M Football: 5 Ways Aggies Must Prep for the Bigger, Stronger, Faster SEC

While the Big 12 was an extremely competitive conference, nothing can match up to the SEC.

The Aggies' new league is considered the best of the best when it comes to football, basically forcing new head coach Kevin Sumlin to outfit his program with different strategies and methods for competing with the conference. 

The evolution of this team into one that can take on the Alabamas and LSUs of their new league will be a tough road. The conference on average is bigger, faster, and stronger than any Big 12 university—save maybe Oklahoma and Texas—making this one difficult transition for Texas A&M.

We take a look at five prep techniques the Aggies need to do to make ready for the upcoming SEC onslaught.  

Interior Defensive Line Size

For this upcoming season, the Aggies will have a lot of difficulty matching man-for-man on the defensive side of the ball.

The SEC grows their lineman big and while the Big 12 was extremely focused on putting speed rushers on the field, expect A&M to need more strength and size to compete in this part of the country.

This past NFL Draft, the SEC saw two of their top interior defensive tackles plucked up near the beginning of the first round. Michael Brockers out of LSU and Fletcher Cox from Mississippi State joined the St. Louis Rams and Philadelphia Eagles, respectively. Together, they averaged a 6'4.5" 310 pound frame.

The Aggies' largest DT, Jonathan Mathis, will be back next season following a tough year sitting out an injury on the bench. He comes in at just 6'2" and 293 pounds. Gavin Stansbury and Kirby Ennis, the other two experienced defensive tackles for A&M, come in with an average 6'4" 275 pounds.

In all honestly, that's just not going to cut it. The SEC is easily the strongest and most powerful league in the nation and when it comes down to it, whoever controls the trenches seems to take home the victory.

While Mathis, Stansbury, and Ennis all have bulked up over the summer, none of them match up to the standard that Cox and Brockers have set for the conference.

Extreme Conditioning

One of the best things about the state of Texas is the heat. As a current resident myself, I can say with certainty that Texans have gotten used to the deadly waves and the blistering energy the sun produces for what seems like 75 percent of the year.

Conditioning in such heat helps football players find a balance with the temperature so that, eventually, they can play in it also. Just as many people consider competing in the freezing cold an advantage, so can playing in the blistering heat.

Last season, the Aggies had more than a problem with finishing games. While some may  attribute "choking" to those situations, I suspect that conditioning, or a lack thereof, helped opposing teams find a way to consistently outplay A&M.

Kevin Sumlin and his new staff have to make the Aggies one of the top conditioned teams in the nation. The SEC is full of locations where it gets just as hot as College Station and in most cases, more humid. The Aggies' conditioning over the course of this offseason will become an integral part in whether or not they can stick with conference opponents till the gritty end or fall short just as they did last year.

More Depth at Speed Positions

While "speed positions" isn't a real classification, I'll use it here for my own purposes.

Receivers and defensive backs have become two of the most important units on the field over the course of the past few decades.

As the game has evolved from a "run first, pass later" to "a pass now, run maybe" system, each of these positions have greatly gathered clout at both the college and professional levels. For Texas A&M, the receiving corp this upcoming season is supported by some of the country's top players while the DB unit is rebuilding following a dismal 2011 year.

For the WR unit, names like Ryan Swope and Uzome Nwachukwu have become household in Aggieland. This kind of skill and talent at the position has given A&M a false sense of security as nationally touted Swope and the inconsistent Nwachukwu are really the only names any SEC defense has to worry itself about.

Players such as Nate Askew, Malcome Kennedy, and Kenric McNeal have to step up for this receiving corp to become effective at all.

As for defensive backs, there seems to have been many a change from last season. The loss of Coryell Judie and Terrence Frederick present this collapsed secondary with many a problem, but the return of Dustin Harris and Floyd Raven have given the unit some building blocks for the future.

As of right now, players such as Steven Terrell, Deshazor Everett, and Howard Matthews will all be on the spot during the season.

Avoid Injuries

I'm sure this sounds like a well-beaten drum by this point as many A&M writers have touched on this subject, but we just can't emphasize this enough.

Last season, injuries plagued the Aggies and will be even more lethal this coming year if the trend continues.

The loss of DT Jonathan Mathis, RB Christine Michael, and DB Coryell Judie are just the more well-known injuries that killed A&M's chances during the season. Also, the Aggies missed RB Cyrus Gray during the Lonestar Showdown as it was the absence of his presence on the field that was a determining factor in A&M's loss to Texas.

For next season, both Jonathan Mathis and Christine Michael will play major roles in the Aggies staying viable in the SEC. With no Cyrus Gray to back him up, RB Michael will have to remain off the bench for the entire year.

Overall, avoiding injuries seems extremely obvious, but the amount of strain just one injury can have on a team is immeasurable. The SEC hits harder than any other conference, so A&M has to be very weary of their injury prone players while on the field.  

Have Scout Defense "Cheat" During Practice

As an offensive player myself, I had the opportunity to experience this drill in action. When my team would take on particularly skilled opposing defenses, the coaches would line up the practice squads in such a way that placed them seconds ahead of where they would be normally. 

This could include anything from putting defensive lineman offsides or giving defensive backs the routes that receivers were running that play. This drill would was, essentially, an extremely helpful tool in preparing us for quicker, stronger opposition.

While Sumlin and his staff may not resort to such "primal" methods, I'm confident he has ways to simulate the bigger, faster SEC squads A&M will be facing soon enough. These drills and simulations will provide the Aggies with a taste of what is coming for the next couple of years as Sumlin builds up his recruiting to match the caliber players in the conference.