On Wednesday morning, A&M fans had every right to feel extremely unlucky and extremely lucky at the same time.

Billy Liucci reported that starting quarterback Conner Weigman suffered a season-ending foot injury. Those who have watched Weigman up until his injury saw a player who looked like the real deal in Year 2 at A&M and Year 1 of the Bobby Petrino offense. That Miami loss would’ve been a whole lot worse if not for Weigman’s play, and while he got off to a slow start against Auburn, there was a path to an All-SEC season for the former 5-star recruit.

For the second time in 3 seasons, A&M lost its starting quarterback to a season-ending injury before the calendar flipped to October. Unlucky? Absolutely.

But unlike 2 years ago, A&M has Max Johnson. The Aggies are blessed with a backup quarterback situation that’s as ideal as any in the SEC. Disagree? OK, how many SEC teams can turn to a backup quarterback who started multiple games in the SEC West in each of his first 3 seasons in college with over 3,000 passing yards and a 26-5 TD-INT ratio against SEC competition? Nobody. Auburn (Robby Ashford), Mississippi State (Mike Wright), Vanderbilt (Ken Seals) and A&M are the only SEC teams with a backup who has multiple starts against SEC competition.

With all due respect to that group, give me Johnson all day, every day.

His decision to stay at A&M while a quarterback 2 years his junior won the starting job was monumental. Dare I say, Johnson is suddenly the most important player in the SEC West race.

Think about it. If you were to pick a West favorite, it’s probably LSU or Alabama, right? Well, A&M trucked LSU last year in the midst of a dumpster fire season while the Tigers had everything to play for in that regular-season finale. And despite A&M’s 2 disappointing seasons, it split its past 2 matchups against Alabama and both games went down to the wire.

The Aggies, even at their worst, have been able to have a say in the West. Last I checked, that’s still on the table for A&M.

And yeah, nobody outside of College Station is holding their breath on A&M to play in a conference championship game for the first time in the 21st century. But Alabama and LSU both lost by double digits against the most talented team each of them faced so far. Bounce-back victories don’t make them suddenly a lock to blow out A&M.

If you’re looking at this through the lens of Johnson, you might wonder why he’s suddenly capable of leading a prolific offense. After all, if he was the guy, he would’ve followed 1 of these 3 paths:

  • Option 1: Still QB1 at LSU
  • Option 2: On an NFL roster
  • Option 3: QB1 at A&M

Instead, “Option 4” was to transfer to A&M and lose the QB battle to 2 different guys. And sure, the idea of playing with younger brother Jake Johnson in College Station was obviously appealing. But if Johnson was going to be the unquestioned starter at LSU entering Year 3, he wouldn’t be where he is now. Period.

He has his limitations. At LSU, the knock was that he locked in on Kayshon Boutte. The title of “world’s strongest arm” isn’t going to Johnson. He doesn’t have the mobility of his LSU successor Jayden Daniels or his A&M predecessor Weigman.

But we were reminded of what Johnson could do once he stepped in for Weigman against Auburn. Can he stare down the barrel of an opposing blitz and deliver an absolute dime? You bet. Can he give his receivers a chance to go make a play instead of burying balls or sailing them into the 5th row? Absolutely.

Most important, Johnson is going to prevent this A&M season from falling apart. I can say that with confidence. How many other SEC teams can you say that about right now if they had to deal with a season-ending injury to their starting quarterback? Ole Miss with Spencer Sanders and LSU with Garrett Nussmeier? Maybe Mississippi State with Wright or Auburn with Ashford? That might be it.

(Now is the part where South Carolina fans tell me that everything would be fine with true freshman LaNorris Sellers even though he has yet to take a rep against an FBS foe and Spencer Rattler is playing the best football of his career.)

Even Georgia, which has stockpiled talent at the position, would be turning to a guy in Brock Vandagriff who has 13 career pass attempts, only 1 of which came against Power 5 competition. There might be buzz about former 5-star guys like Vandagriff, Ty Simpson at Alabama or Nico Iamaleava at Tennessee, but all of those guys are still massive unknowns.

Johnson isn’t an unknown. In this Petrino-led offense, you can build a successful game plan around his skill set. It might not have the quarterback run game that we’re used to seeing with Petrino, but if you think he needs a highly mobile quarterback to make his offense work, might I remind you of the late Ryan Mallett and his 5.37-second 40-yard dash. Mallett had back-to-back 30-TD seasons under Petrino at Arkansas.

A&M is lucky that according to Johnson, he never considered the transfer portal. Aggies senior receiver and captain Ainias Smith said just knowing that gave him a boost of confidence. Jimbo Fisher said A&M was “blessed” to have Johnson. Yep. They’re right.

As brutal as the Weigman injury news was, life could be a whole lot worse in Aggieland.