Texas A&M will open up the season against the Missouri State Bears at Kyle Field on Saturday night. It's always difficult to judge a team in these matchups, where talent alone can carry you, but you can still learn a lot about your players.
In this game, I don't think there will be a true X‑factor, but the defensive line needs to show pure dominance, two‑deep, for fans to feel comfortable heading into Week 2 against the Arizona State Sun Devils. It's not completely new faces, but with most of last year's production headed to the NFL, the question is how good this group can actually be in 2026.
Returners T.J. Searcy, D.J. Hicks, and Marco Jones have all flashed high potential, and with the addition of Anto Saka, they now have another legitimate speed rusher off the edge.
They also beefed up the middle by adding C.J. Mims and Angelo McCullom. How much will this unit actually play on Saturday? Who knows, but when they're on the field, it needs to be obvious they are leagues better than the offensive line across from them.
Below is a breakdown of what we would like to see from each of these players.

#players #actually #missouri