Granted there’s still a ton of football to be played. Heck, we haven’t even reached the halfway point in the conference season. But with the small sample size we’ve already seen, the picture is geting clearer. And what it’s telling me is that the roller-coaster ride has only just started.

And from all indications, the race for second place in the SEC West is going to be one of the more competitive ones that we’ve seen in quite a while. Literally, almost any of the six teams in the SEC West could beat one another on any given Saturday.

Mississippi State proved that last Saturday. A Bulldogs team that most had written off after opening conference play with consecutive losses, rose up and defeated an Auburn team that more than a few gave serious consideration for division honors. After all, the Tigers are the SEC West defending champs.

So, it certainly isn’t a far-fetched notion to surmise that when the dust settles, it will be an improving and battle-tested Texas A&M team that sits atop that six-team heap for second place in the SEC West.

Wouldn’t that be something? A&M has never finished alone in second in the SEC. Its first season, in 2012, the Aggies shared second place. Since then, they haven’t posted a winning record in conference play. ESPN’s FPI, remember, predicted another 4-4 SEC finish in 2018.

Jimbo Fisher could change that in Year 1.

The Aggies, 2-1 in SEC play, have been consistent throughout the season, and except for the lopsided loss to Alabama, in the Tide’s most competitive game of the season, they’ve been in every game including the 2-point loss to Clemson.

Here are a few reasons the Aggies are poised to finish alone in second place.

Kellen Mond’s rapid development

When Fisher arrived, we didn’t even know who would be the Aggies’ quarterback this season.

There were logical arguments for both candidates, but Mond won the job and has played better than most expected.

In 100 fewer pass attempts, he already has exceeded last season’s TD total (9 to 8) and yardage total (1,447 to 1,375). His accuracy has jumped 9 percentage points to 60.5, his yards per attempt have increased by 2 to 8.18, and he’s proven to be a capable runner.

With a bowl game, he’s on pace to top 3,000 yards passing. And he hasn’t padded those numbers against pushovers, either.

His best game came against Playoff contender Clemson, when he threw for 430 yards and 3 TDs in a tough loss. His best running performance came against Alabama. Given the preseason questions, no single player has been a bigger breakout performer in the first half of the season.

Road trip critical

The upcoming 3-game road trip will tell the story. The Aggies start with a visit to South Carolina, a team that squeaked past a pedestrian Missouri team at home last week. After a week off, the Aggies continue their trek with divisional showdowns at Mississippi State and at Auburn, two 1-2 teams that have failed to meet expectations this season.

With only one SEC loss so far, Texas A&M and LSU (also one conference loss) lead the way for that SEC West runner-up spot. That means that the Aggies could absorb another loss in that 3-game stretch and still be the front-runner.

Brutal schedule helps Aggies

LSU has Georgia and Alabama coming up. Three SEC losses is certainly not out of the question for an impressive LSU team that already has two Top 10 wins.

The Tigers appear, as of right now, to be the biggest obstacle for Texas A&M to settle in at the No. 2 spot in the division. Auburn won’t be a factor until it can fix its problems on offense. Mississippi State stumbled out of the starting gate and have games with LSU and Alabama among others still left on the schedule.

Showdown to end the season

It looks like the regular-season finale with LSU could very well decide it. The winner, as it stands now, is more than likely going to claim the SEC West runner-up spot. And the game is at Kyle Field, where the Aggies are 3-1, have outscored the opposition by a combined 94 points, and own a victory over a ranked opponent (No. 13 Kentucky last Saturday).

The cards are beginning to stack up in Texas A&M’s favor, but we’ll know a lot more after the 3-game swing away from Kyle Field.