Yahoo Sports' Jason Fitz details where A&M must improve in 2025

A Grammy Award-winning musician turned sports host, Yahoo Sports and FOX Sports Radio's Jason Fitz joined TexAgs Live to preview the SEC this upcoming football season. Fitz shared his takes on Texas A&M, Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina and more.

Key notes from Jason Fitz interview

• I’m happy to be on. Can you believe we’re finally able to talk about football? We've been obsessed with what it will look like for so long, I can’t wait for Saturday game days.
   
• I was a fiddle player for The Band Perry. We had the fourth biggest country song at the time when I left, “If I Die Young.” I have the plaques behind me. I did that for years, and in 2013, I realized it didn’t feed my soul, and I cared the most about sports. So before podcasts, I took my violin stuff on the road with me. I’d get music guys to talk about sports and sports guys to talk about music, and started building from there. ESPN came to me in 2016 and offered a college football show. No guarantees. The band was about to put out a single, and I quit for ESPN since it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It’s been a wild life.
   
• Las Vegas just decided it could host the Big Ten Media Days and turn everything into an event. Part of SEC Media Days is that you’re around the SEC. The environment and feel of it. Driving up to a hotel, and “It just means more” is everywhere. I think they lose out by putting the Big Ten Media Days in Las Vegas. Not Michigan or Ohio State. If you’re a Big Ten team trying to hold on to what the conference means to you, I would put it there.
   
• I think Mike Elko came in his first year with a defensive mindset. It takes a minute. I think at some point, you have to acknowledge that mentality usually takes them an extra year. You see it in the NFL. I think the defense will look much better. You also have to acknowledge that A&M scored points in conference play last year. They just couldn’t turn it into wins. They are right on the cusp. They just have to translate close games into wins. The SEC is wide open, and if things break right, they could be a playoff team, and that should be the expectation.
   
• First, everyone has caught up a little in the SEC. Tennessee is way down in explosive plays. One-route wide receivers have been taken away from them. They are going to have to be a ground-and-pound team. I don’t trust Nico Iamaleava. There are moments where you see they have shot themselves in the foot consistently. But, coming into the season, we either give everybody or nobody the benefit of the doubt. I think with transfer quarterbacks, it’s a slippery slope to think it will just work with Josh Heupel. I think they'll struggle, and a couple of losses is the difference between being elite or not. Alabama is learning. You pick up a couple of losses, you lose your edge in the SEC.
   
• You’re right. Arch Manning hasn’t done it against real opponents. Did I miss where Steve Sarkisian is a bad coach? I hope Manning has a great year because I root for these kids. Last year, Quinn Ewers was banged up at the end of the year, and Sarkisian would not put in his mobile quarterback to make plays. I’m watching a Texas team that had a legitimate title chance squander it in part because they chose not to put Manning in when Ewers was banged up. That means something to me.
   
• If you look at football and how they are in love with Manning, people weren't in love with Jayden Daniels. These guys come from out of nowhere more often. The concept of the Saints tanking for him... Do we even know if Manning will be good? The number of things we’ve presumed about Manning makes zero sense to me. Let’s see how he looks over the growth of a season when defenses get used to him. It’s easier to bet that he’s good than he’s epic.
   
• I think Alabama will take a step up from last year. Two things. Jalen Milroe was a bad fit for that offense, and Kalen DeBoer gets his defensive coordinator back. DeBoer has had the most success when he’s had guys in his system, which is getting harder and harder to do. My argument last year for why I thought Alabama would lose three of four games was that there’s an adjustment. The problem is that the adjustment was just step one. Now, you have to keep people long enough to develop. I think the offense will have good moments and bad moments. Alabama’s schedule allows us to see them beat up on cupcakes, but you have to wait for the meat of playing the good to see how it sustains. They are a great program, but I don’t think you can emphasize enough the loss of Nick Saban over the next three to five years.
   
• Week 3 is the perfect place to get Notre Dame. In Week 1 with a new quarterback and a new defensive coordinator, you have to study them out of the gates. In Week 3, you have something to work with. Notre Dame fans know this, but they drop one game a year they’re not supposed to drop. I think when you catch them early, you have the opportunity to catch them a little off guard. I’d rather catch them in the first five than the last five.
   
• LaNorris Sellers has to be much better. Last year, he just had to not lose and make some good plays. Now they are expecting an explosion from him. A lot of pressure. Turnovers will put them in a bad situation, I think. Of all the SEC teams we’re looking to hype, South Carolina is one I’m mid on. This is a moment where I can see Sellers having issues with turnovers and not getting them out of games early on.