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Kellen Mond vs. Nick Starkel: SEC Network analysts break down who to be concerned about
By Brian Stultz
Published:
When Texas A&M and Arkansas take the field this weekend in AT&T Stadium, both teams will be coming off losses and looking to avoid their third defeat already this season.
For the Aggies, both losses have been at the hand of teams in the top ten, but for Chad Morris’ Razorbacks, a stunning loss to San Jose State, in which quarterback Nick Starkel threw five interceptions, a win would be crucial to building momentum for the rest of the year.
There’s also the fact that Starkel will be facing his old team in the Aggies. The quarterback transferred following last season after losing the job to Kellen Mond, the current starting signal-caller for Jimbo Fisher’s side.
The SEC Network broke down which quarterback they are more concerned with going into this matchup and further.
“The concern is there for Starkel,” analyst Jordan Rodgers said. “Coming off five interceptions, playing against your [former] team, how emotional will you be? Last week you didn’t put up your best performance and there’s still a guy behind you that knows this offense and, anytime you slip up, here comes that other guy.”
While Mond hasn’t seen the struggles that his former teammates has — he threw for 335 yards and two touchdowns in the loss to Auburn this past Saturday –, analyst DJ Shockley is concerned about how effective he can be without any sort of running game being a threat for the Aggies.
“I don’t have concern for Mond in the way he’s playing,” Shockley said. “I think he’s exceptional. He’s done well with the circumstances and the inability to run the football that they’ve had, but you look down this schedule, they still gotta play ‘Bama, Georgia, LSU, so I have a lot of concern for Kellen Mond because they can’t run the football right now. 30 rushing yards out the running backs this year is not acceptable.
This team needs to get back to basics and you look at that schedule, if they lose all three of those and they run the table, that’s only seven wins. Games like this [against Arkansas] is where they have to grow … they have to dominate games like this.”
Brian Stultz covers SEC football for SaturdayDownSouth.com. A graduate of Auburn University, he is a member of the Football Writers Association of America. You can follow him on Twitter @brianjstultz.
