If Arkansas football is still under water as a program, Texas A&M is a sinking ship. The Aggies were sailing along last year, reaching the College Football Playoff and hosting a first-round game. They arrived. Now they are trying to plug all sorts of leaks. They are lost at sea and are about to abandon ship, taking to the lifeboats to find safe harbor this season.

The reason Texas A&M is sinking is simple. Marcel Reed is not a good quarterback, or at least, he isn't playing like one. A&M's season has been hijacked by its signal-caller.

Ryan Silverfield isn't trying to cause any trouble going into Arkansas' game against the Aggies. He was very complimentary of Reed in his early-week remarks, as relayed by NWA Home Page and Pig Trail Nation:

“'Obviously, we know we have a tremendous challenge going on the road and playing at Texas A&M,' Silverfield said. 'It’s going to be a heck of an environment there. Night game in the SEC is always tough, but there’s a reason they were top 10 in the country preseason. They’re one of the most talented teams that we’ll see. They got a lot of things. Their head coach has done a tremendous job. They have a three-year starting quarterback. They’ve got a defense that’s forced seven takeaways. So, we’re going to have to have a great week of prep. But I’m excited about the opportunity this Saturday.'

"A&M quarterback Marcel Reed has completed 72 of 130 passes for 738 yards, six touchdowns and four interceptions. He also has rushed 34 times for 104 yards and a touchdown. Silverfield knows Reed and the offense can be explosive.

“'Listen, you have a three-year starting quarterback that’s a captain, so you know how talented he is,' Silverfield said. 'He can make every throw, he can run, he can do all the things you need him to operate. They’ve got a good rotation at running back, and like I said, I think their offensive line is pretty damn good. And then they’ve got some different receivers. I think they have two receivers that account for 49% of their receptions, and so they’ve got some of their go-to guys as well. But more than anything, we’ve got to be cleaner on our assignments. They’re going to show some tempo and we’ve got to be ready for that. Obviously, a new offensive coordinator, and so there’s still some things that they probably haven’t seen, right? Just like any offense, ‘Oh, I didn’t know they were capable of doing that.’ So, we’ve got to be ready. I’ve told our team again, and I did this last week, like, Texas A&M, what a tremendous opponent, but we’ve got to really focus on ourselves this week and getting lined up. And that’s not coach speak. That truly is … like, getting lined up, making sure we’re playing assignment sound, tackling well, and yes, obviously implementing what Texas A&M does offensively. But so much of it’s going to be, ‘Hey, are we in the right spots where we need to be and is the communication on point?’”

If Marcel Reed gets right, A&M gets right. Arkansas can't allow this to be Reed's and A&M's "get-right" game. Arkansas is not a great team, but decent teams - competitive teams, teams worth taking seriously - are at least able to make other mediocre teams struggle. If Arkansas' defense makes Marcel Reed look bad, this game should be close and the Hogs will at least be able to say they didn't allow a struggling opposing quarterback to get off the mat. That matters going into October and Week 5.

Source: Yahoo Sports