Texas A&M football’s bowl opponent racked by portal entries during winter window

Texas A&M football is set to face off with Lincoln Riley’s Southern Cal squad in fewer than ten days. For all the portal discussion that Aggie fans have had— with most of it being positive— things have been trending in a far different direction out west in LA.

Rather than top contributors sticking around for Riley’s continued rebuild, the Trojans’ tough year has led to a lot of players in search of greener pastures. Lincoln Riley’s squad is essentially coming apart at the seams ahead of the Las Vegas bowl.

Though their leading receiver, Makai Lemon, is remaining with the Trojans (at least, for the moment), SC will be without Zachariah Branch, Kyron Hudson, and Duce Robinson— three of the top five receivers for the Trojans— as they are in the portal.

QB Miller Moss, who started the year for the Trojans before being replaced by Jayden Maiava, is also in the portal. Of course, he had already been supplanted, so it’s unlikely we would have seen him. However, the lack of depth is certainly notable. Their second option at running back, Quinten Joyner, has also entered the portal.

There has not been as much word about which Trojans will be opting out of the bowl game, but SC fields quite a few seniors on this squad, including Woody Marks. Marks, who the Aggies faced several times when he was at Mississippi State, is a formidable running and receiving threat, so to lose him for the game could be quite deleterious for the Trojans.

Of course, this is nowhere near the roster destruction that the Aggies faced when they played in their bowl last year— and we all still count that game, of course, so this is no excuse for the Trojans. It’s worth noting, though, that the Ags may have an upper hand here.