It’s all about impressing the committee for Texas A&M at this point.

The No. 5 Aggies have a very winnable path on their remaining schedule, but they must prove themselves to be 1 of the 4 best teams in the country to get into the College Football Playoff. Barring back-to-back Alabama losses, they won’t play in the SEC Championship Game. In the CFP’s 6-year history, only 3 teams have made the Playoff that didn’t win their conference championship.

Strong quarterback play is unsurprisingly a common thread among the teams that make the final 4.

A&M certainly has the talent in Kellen Mond, though the consistency has been lacking throughout his career. Before the Aggies were forced to postpone games because of COVID-19, Mond was starting to play his best football as an Aggie. He combined to go 37-of-52 for 484 yards and 7 touchdowns in the 2 games before the 1st postponement.

But the senior left a lot to be desired in his return to the field Saturday.

He looked flustered by LSU’s man coverage and out of synch with his receivers all day as the defense stole the show in a 20-7 victory. Mond finished 11-of-34 for just 105 yards and no touchdowns. It marked the 3rd time this season he has thrown for less than 200 yards.

For the Aggies to break into the Playoff, they need Mond to return to his pre-quarantine form and start playing Heisman-level football. A look at past Playoff teams shows that might be enough to push the Aggies in.

The Oklahoma Sooners made it as a 1-loss team the past 3 seasons thanks almost solely to their quarterback play. OU had back-to-back Heisman winners in 2017 and 2018 in Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray. Jalen Hurts quarterbacked the Sooners the following year.

Mayfield and Murray both averaged more than 300 yards passing per game, while Hurts averaged 275. Mond is averaging 224.7 this year.

Deshaun Watson and Clemson also got in as a 1-loss team in 2016 and ended up as national champions. Watson didn’t win the Heisman, but he played well enough to be 1 of the finalists. He threw for 6 touchdowns in the regular-season finale against South Carolina and more than 400 yards in the championship game against Alabama.

Oregon made it as a 1-loss team in 2014 and fell to Ohio State in the national championship.

The Ducks were led by Marcus Mariota, who also won the Heisman that year. Mariota threw for at least 300 yards and 2 touchdowns in his final 5 games of the season.

Tua Tagovailoa was also instrumental in leading Alabama to the Playoff during his sophomore season. The Crimson Tide finished the season undefeated and were never doubted, but the point still stands. Tagovailoa dazzled with a 5-touchdown performance in the Iron Bowl in Bama’s last game of the regular season.

He lost in the national championship to Clemson and Trevor Lawrence, who is an example in his own right.

The final quarterback is one whom Mariota beat in the semifinals and the Aggies’ Jimbo Fisher coached at Florida State. Jameis Winston won a national championship in the final year of the BCS era and made the inaugural College Football Playoff in 2014.

The turnover-prone Winston might be the quarterback closest to Mond in terms of his inconsistency.

Winston threw 25 touchdowns to 18 interceptions that year and had a career-low 125 yards and 4 interceptions in the regular-season finale against Florida. He was up-and-down all year and was not a Heisman finalist despite winning the award the season prior. The Seminoles still made the Playoff thanks to finishing with an unblemished record.

The Aggies won’t have that advantage, and thus will need Mond to play extremely well over his final 3 games.

Mond is at least much better at decision-making than Winston was. He has only 2 interceptions this season and has not thrown any in his past 3 games. What he lacks is the big games of these other quarterbacks.

We need more of the Mond that we saw against Florida, when he threw for 338 yards and 3 touchdowns to lead the Aggies to the biggest win of his career. Or the Mond that carved up Arkansas for 260 yards and 3 touchdowns on 21-of-26 passing.

That’s the kind of quarterback the committee isn’t going to be able to turn away.

Fisher has coached enough football to know what’s at stake. His experience at Florida State with Winston should come in handy here. The time off from practice could have affected Mond’s rhythm, and one can be sure the Aggies will look to rectify that this week against Auburn.

Mond will get 3 more auditions before the choice has to be made. Can he make the most of them and cement himself even further in Aggies history?