It’s early, but Texas A&M showed it might just have the best offense in the SEC in 2025
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It was a stat that was hard to believe in 2024. Part of the reason why it was hard to believe was because you could poke holes in it pretty quickly.
In 2024, Texas A&M led the SEC in points per conference game. On the surface, that was a pretty improbable feat for a team with multiple quarterback changes and a first-year offensive coordinator with a first-year head coach.
It was also a down year for SEC offenses, as shown by the fact that A&M led the way with 29.4 points per conference game, and if you take away A&M’s 2 non-offensive touchdowns, that number was at 27.6 points per game. Take away the Aggies’ non-offensive scores and a wildly inconsistent Alabama actually had the best scoring offense with 28.1 points per game in SEC play. In the first 4 years of the 2020s, there were 3-5 SEC offenses who averaged at least 30 points in conference play, and then 0 in 2024. That included A&M.
In 2025, though? The Aggies might just be the best bet to break through and have the clear No. 1 offense in the SEC.
It’s early, but how can you not be impressed with A&M’s offensive firepower? All the Aggies did was put up 41 points against a Marcus Freeman defense at Notre Dame. The last time that Freeman had a defense that allowed that many points in a game was Nov. 2, 2019 when Freeman was the defensive coordinator for a Cincinnati defense that surrendered 43 points to East Carolina. The last time a visiting team put up 41 points at Notre Dame Stadium was Nov. 15, 2014 vs. … Northwestern? Yeah. Go figure that was a week after A&M’s last road win vs. a ranked opponent. At least that was A&M’s last such victory before Saturday’s offensive blitzkrieg at Notre Dame happened.
Even if Notre Dame’s defense continues to struggle without Al Golden, let’s put some perspective on A&M’s offense through 3 weeks. It has yet to score less than 41 points in a game, though if you take away KC Concepcion’s punt return in the opener against UTSA — that was the first score of the season — it’s still between 35-44 points with 6.8-7.1 yards/play per contest. Go ask LSU fans what they’d do for an offensive game like that (just don’t ask Brian Kelly).
LSU was expected to have one of the top offenses in the SEC, and it has yet to hit 24 points in a game, which is only noteworthy because it included a 23-point effort vs. Louisiana Tech. Texas was also expected to have one of the top offenses in the SEC with Arch Manning, yet it most recently got booed by the home crowd for being stuck on a 7-3 lead late in the 3rd quarter against UTEP. Programs with elite signal callers like Florida and South Carolina have been stuck in the mud, and just had disastrous Week 3 showings. While Georgia just won a shootout against a surprisingly prolific Tennessee offense (more on that in a second), at this time last week, UGA fans were skewering Mike Bobo for a quiet offensive start.
The best offenses in the SEC were far less decorated entering the season. Think Arkansas with Taylen Green, who now leads FBS in scrimmage yards per game. Think Vanderbilt with Diego Pavia, who just put up (a season-low) 31 points at No. 11 South Carolina. Think Oklahoma, who has the guy at No. 2 in the latest Heisman Trophy odds in John Mateer. Think Mizzou, who looks like it has a special emerging 1-2 punch in Beau Pribula and Ahmad Hardy. And yes, think Tennessee, who just had a remarkable 41-point showing of its own against a talented Georgia defense and has already won the Nico Iamaleava breakup because of Joey Aguilar’s brilliance.
There are promising SEC offenses, but give me A&M over the bunch
Why? Go back to the offseason. We didn’t question a ground attack that had, as Mike Elko said, its top 7 returning offensive linemen. Even with Le’Veon Moss coming off an ACL tear, there was a sense that it would still be perhaps the SEC’s best rushing unit with running backs Rueben Owens and Amari Daniels, along with the mobile Marcel Reed in Year 2 of the Collin Klein offense.
The questions about the offense were all related to the passing game, both with Reed and a new-look group of pass-catchers. So far, that group exceeded even the wildest set of expectations entering the year. Through 3 games, Mississippi State transfer Mario Craver leads the FBS with 443 yards (274 of which came after the catch) while KC Concepcion is 1 of 6 SEC players who is averaging 17 yards per catch with 3 receiving touchdowns. Those 2 have been difference-makers already.
Reed is benefiting from having better weapons than he had as a part-time starter in 2024, but he also looks like someone who improved in a couple of key areas. Both his yards/attempt and average depth of target are up a full yard, and he’s only been sacked once on the 27 times he was pressured. While his downfield accuracy can still be improved from the 31.6% adjusted completion percentage on 20-yard throws, he’s got the offensive line and the receivers who can allow for him to take that next step.
That’s really what A&M’s offensive optimism is about. Reed looks like someone who has taken the next step with Klein. Even the confidence he showed on that game-winning touchdown to shift off his original read of Concepcion and find Nate Boerkircher matched up on a linebacker was a savvy, clutch play that you’d like to see from a veteran quarterback.
A&M’s offense is now a multi-faceted unit that can beat you in a variety of ways.
I didn’t even mention one of the other revelations of the Notre Dame game, which was watching Moss finish 3 drives in the end zone and get 20 carries. There was clearly a ramp-up period in the first 2 games to see what Moss could handle post-ACL tear last November. I’d say getting 20 carries on 48 snaps was a sign that the 2024 second-team All-SEC selection is back to feeling like himself. That’s good news for a unit that should allow Moss and Co. to see lighter boxes with the emergence of Craver and Concepcion.
A&M has already answered the biggest question mark, and it did so without the aid of an FCS matchup while also having a premier nonconference road matchup. That’s worth remembering because the Aggies haven’t posted quite as impressive raw numbers as others in the conference. As we know, competition can skew early-season numbers in a major way. Here are the SEC teams who have had 0 FCS games with a true road game vs. Power Conference competition:
- Alabama: 42.7 PPG, 7.1 yards/play
- Auburn: 37 PPG, 6.3 yards/play
- LSU: 20 PPG, 5.3 yards/play
- Ole Miss: 44.7 PPG, 7.3 yards/play
- Texas: 24 PPG, 5.4 yards/play
- Texas A&M: 42.3 PPG, 7.0 yards/play
Competition matters this early. It matters that A&M just had the most impressive offensive showing of any of those teams so far in 2025.
The last time that A&M had 3 consecutive games with 40 points through regulation (that excludes the 2018 LSU game) was Johnny Manziel’s pre-Draft year in 2013. It gets overlooked that A&M actually began that season with 10 consecutive games with 40 points. This could be the Aggies’ best offense since that group, which ultimately didn’t play for a national championship because it fell off a cliff defensively. Time will tell if the same proves true with the 2025 version of A&M, but one would think the defensive-minded Elko has a better shot of avoiding that than most.
For now, all we can say is that A&M’s offense fueled quite the start. Don’t be surprised if it repeats as the SEC’s best offense in conference play.
Just don’t expect so many holes to poke.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
