Texas A&M Bowl Projections

There were a number of questions surrounding the Texas A&M Aggies coming into the 2014 season. The biggest question was, how would head coach Kevin Sumlin and his staff replace former Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel.

Kenny Hill was the quarterback who succeeded Manziel, and he started out the season on fire. Hill lit up opponents early in the season. In fact, if the Heisman had been handed out in September, Hill would have been the winner.

The Aggies found themselves 5-0 and ranked sixth in the country before a brutal stretch saw them lose three games in a row. As the season wore on, the opposition seemed to figure out what Hill and the Aggies were doing. And by the end of the year, Hill had been replaced as the starter by true freshman Kyle Allen.

A&M finished at 7-5 and in sixth place in the tough SEC Western Division. While that’s certainly respectable, it’s not what it could have been, and Sumlin knows his team could have done bigger things.

Now, the postseason arrives, and there is quite a bit of buzz around the Aggies. It appears that A&M will be selected to play in the Advocare V100 Texas Bowl in Houston. If that happens, the opponent will almost certainly be the Aggies’ long-time rivals, the Texas Longhorns. That would be one of the most talked-about lower-tier bowls during this postseason, due to the tradition of this rivalry, which is no longer played now that the Aggies are in the SEC.

If, for some reason, A&M is not selected to go to Houston, they would be in play for the Duck Commander Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La. There, they would meet an opponent from the ACC, perhaps the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Another choice could be the AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis. The opponent would be from the Big 12, and it appears that the West Virginia Mountaineers would be that choice.

A&M facing Texas would be a classic showdown, and here’s hoping that’s the choice that is made.

Tim Letcher is a contributing writer for www.RantSports.com and a member of the Football Writers Association of America. Follow him on Twitter @TimLetcher , on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.