The College Football Playoff is nearly upon us.
As Texas A&M gears up to host Miami and Oklahoma faces Alabama, colleges insiders Lia Assimakopoulos and Shawn McFarland joined SportsDay coumnist Kevin Sherrington in a quick roundtable about all things college football.
Here are some of the highlights.
More excerpts from their roundtable will go live later this week.
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Now that we’ve made it to the College Football Playoff, what level of perfection do teams like Texas A&M and Oklahoma need from their quarterbacks to potentially win more than one game?
Assimakopoulos: Texas A&M wide receiver KC Concepcion said this week, “We are only going to go as far as Marcel takes us.” Against a Miami defense loaded with talent from defensive ends Rueben Bain and Akheem Mesidor to cornerback Keionte Scott, he’ll need to be at his best. Reed has risen to the occasion in most of A&M’s games this year and will need to bounce back from a rocky second half against Texas to lead his team as far as they go. As for Oklahoma, the Sooners have won games when John Mateer wasn’t at his best against SEC competition. He was just 15-for-24 with 138 yards and a rushing touchdown in the regular-season meeting with Alabama. The Sooners’ success will depend on their defense.
McFarland: I don’t think either quarterback needs to be perfect, per se, but Oklahoma has proven that it can win big games without a stellar John Mateer performance and Texas A&M’s big victories have been earmarked by Marcel Reed masterclasses. The Sooners were able to beat Alabama once with only 138 yards from Mateer thanks to their defense. The Aggies won road games against ranked opponents (Notre Dame and LSU) because Reed helped carry the offense. The fact of the matter is that A&M’s success is more closely tied to its quarterback’s performance than Oklahoma’s is.
Sherrington: Brent Venables is a defensive coordinator, and his team reflects his predilections. The Sooners are in the conversation with Georgia for the CFP’s best defense. So John Mateer doesn’t have to carry them, though he’ll probably have to play better than he did the last time against the Crimson Tide. Marcel Reed, on the other hand, shoulders a bigger burden. If he can set his feet and deliver the ball to a couple of really explosive players in KC Concepcion and Mario Craver, the Aggies shouldn’t have a big problem with Miami. He’s as dangerous as any quarterback in the CFP in the open field, but that won’t be enough. He’s got to get the ball in the hands of their playmakers.
What will it take for Texas A&M to beat Miami, securing what should be a pro-Aggie crowd at The Cotton Bowl?
Assimakopoulos: Marcel Reed, KC Concepcion and Mario Craver are going to need to be at their best. Miami had the best defense in the ACC this year by a longshot, allowing a touchdown less on average than any other team in the conference. But Miami’s greatest strength is its defensive front and stopping the run. The Hurricanes don’t have many weaknesses, but Reed and his receivers need to pick apart the Miami secondary better than Carson Beck and his receivers do to the Aggies’.
McFarland: Reed needs to outplay Miami quarterback Carson Beck. When he’s looked like the Heisman Trophy candidate he once was (see: Notre Dame, LSU, the second half of their South Carolina win), the Aggies can go toe-to-toe with anyone. When he doesn’t (see: Texas), it forces A&M’s defense and run game to pick up the slack. Both units are capable of that, but it’s not a strategy I’d love to deploy against a good Hurricanes team.
Sherrington: Question for me is how Carson Beck handles the environment at Kyle Field. Can he play a clean game, or will he make a throw or two that gets his team beat, as we’ve seen him do? He reminds me of another Miami QB. Vinny Testaverde could make all the throws, but he’d also do something inexplicable at times. Beck’s not as good as Vinny at his best, but he’s just as bad at his worst. Reed needs a good game, and the Aggies have to confuse Beck. They didn’t like their CFP seeding, but I don’t know what they were complaining about. If they beat Miami, they should have JerryWorld rocking.