The double-edged sword of upper-crust contention includes a prohibition of regression or setbacks. The best teams — the ones that hope to play in college football’s most meaningful bowl games in December and January — must be equipped to quickly and seamlessly fill the holes that open along the path toward it.
Texas A&M, now down a workhorse weapon for the foreseeable future, is now among that group.
Running back Le’Veon Moss will miss a “significant amount of time,” head coach Mike Elko said after A&M’s win vs. Florida last week, but is expected to return this season. The Aggies — ranked third in the AP Top 25 poll and undefeated at 7-0 for the first time since the 1994 season — are in an enviable position as it pertains to the College Football Playoff and don’t have time to lag while Moss heals.
The Aggies’ rushing offense ranks within the middle of the pack nationwide and among the bottom third of all SEC teams, per Pro Football Focus, and sophomore quarterback Marcel Reed runs the ball fewer times per game on average this year compared to last year. The ground game could be an area that the Aggies could exploit this Saturday against LSU’s defense, which allowed 239 rushing yards in its loss to Vanderbilt last weekend.
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A duo of A&M backs with prodigious backgrounds will now try to recreate Saturday in Baton Rouge, La. — and potentially for the rest of the season.
Sophomore Rueben Owens II, a once-prized recruit, has rushed for three touchdowns in two starts since Moss was sidelined. Senior E.J. Smith — the son of Dallas Cowboys legend Emmitt Smith — has been elevated from a depth position to a backup role and carried the ball seven times in Texas A&M’s win vs. Arkansas Saturday night.
Owens scored two second-half touchdowns vs. the Razorbacks to fortify a wild 45-42 win. Smith converted a critical 4th and 1 rush to sustain a fourth-quarter drive that ended in a 12-yard touchdown run from Owens.
“We answered the call every time we needed to, “Elko said. ”I thought it was really great the way we went out in the second half and just continued to make plays to find a way to win the game.”
Owens and Smith were among those to thank. Owens, a five-star recruit from El Campo, was the second-ranked running back nationally and the second-best signee in former head coach Jimbo Fisher’s last full recruiting class. He earned All-SEC honors as a freshman when he split time as a back and returner, but missed the entirety of last season with a lower-body injury.
The 5-11 back now leads the Aggies in yardage after just one-and-a-half games as the team’s de facto starter. He rushed for a career-high 142 yards vs. Mississippi State earlier this month, when Moss was still healthy, and totaled 120 yards and three scores against Florida and Arkansas in two games after that.
“I think he’s one of the kids who gets a lot better every week that he goes out there because those reps are so valuable for him,” Elko said. “He’s getting more and more comfortable with what we’re asking him to do in the run game with the run lines and the run angles … I just think he continues to develop every week and to be more of a complete back. Obviously we need him to continue to do that.”
Smith, a four-star recruit at Jesuit, chose Stanford over offers from A&M, Florida, Georgia, Ohio State and others nearly six years ago. He, like Owens, saw what could’ve been a breakout campaign end prematurely. Smith rushed for 206 yards and three touchdowns in the first two games of the 2022 season but missed the remainder of it with a knee injury.
He was a third-stringer one year later and transferred to A&M prior to the 2024 season. The first-year result mirrored his final season at Stanford when he was no higher than third on the running back depth chart. His sixth and final season of collegiate eligibility began the same this year, too, with both Moss and Owens ahead of him.
“When you think about it, E.J. Smith’s not having all of the limelight he dreamed of having going into his senior year, I’m sure,” Elko said. “I’m sure he wishes he was the feature back carrying the ball 20 times a game.”
But.
“But,” Elko continued, “here it is, fourth and one at Arkansas, in our own territory, and he’s got to convert, and that’s a championship play. That play and that player will have as much to do with our success as anyone, right?”
The Aggies will hope so.
Find more Texas A&M coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
