Fear not, Aggie fans, meaningful college football is just around the corner, with the start of the 2023 season under a few weeks away! Here at Aggies Wire, we’ll be counting down by looking at each Texas A&M football player that corresponds to the number of days left till the start of the football season.
With 16 days until kickoff, we’re looking at No. 16 for the Maroon and White: sophomore defensive back Sam McCall.
The Aggies landed McCall out of the transfer portal in December with the immediate expectation that he would compete for snaps at cornerback and possibly safety, given his experience playing both positions. McCall was used sparingly during his 2022 season at Florida State, logging 70 total snaps, with 38 coming in run defense and 32 in pass coverage.
According to Pro Football Focus, he finished the 2022 season with an overall 73.6 defensive grade, including a solid 79.6 tackling grade and a 73.1 coverage grade. The Maroon and White are adding another top-tier talent in McCall to the fold, as he was ranked as the No. 49 prospect in the 2022 class before committing to the Seminoles.
Texas A&M is coming off a 2022 campaign in which they allowed the fewest yards through the air (156.2 ypg) in the entire SEC, but that unit also saw the departures of Antonio Johnson and Jaylon Jones to the NFL. That means the backend unit had to be shored up in the best method possible through the portal, and McCall joins a group that includes Tony Grimes and Josh DeBerry as transfers ready to make an impact in their new home in College Station.
With the recent development that freshman Jayvon Thomas is in a training camp battle with Grimes for one of those cornerback spots, time will tell if McCall has a lock on the other starting job. No matter how the depth chart shakes out, the former Seminole will be relied on to ensure the secondary remains cohesive and in sync, as they work in tandem with a promising Aggies front-seven, which should only result in wreaking havoc for opposing offenses.
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Story originally appeared on Aggies Wire
