#19: Michael Lamothe

If I were ever asked to create a dictionary entry for the term "football player:, it would identify someone like Michael Lamothe. He's not a lineman, and he's not quite a skill position guy...but he is all over the field making the plays that don't show up in the stat columns. He's almost a dying breed in this era of offenses, yet teams always seem to find a place for players like Lamothe. They are that valuable. And here is a bit of trivia for you on a Friday morning: do you know who caught Ryan Tannehill's first touchdown pass in his first game as the starting Aggie QB? That's right: #19.

Lamothe was one of the first recruits from the Louisiana pipeline that Mike Sherman was able to re-tap during his time at A&M. He contributed immediately as a freshman, becoming a special teams regular in the second game and playing in every subsequent contest. As a sophomore, he was honorable mention all-conference at tight end, and earned the same honors as a junior while nearly tripling his production.

It would have been easy for a tight end/fullback to get lost in the shuffle in the midst of the implementation of a brand-new Air Raid offense, especially as a senior. But Lamothe's prowess as an extra blocker both on the line and downfield continued to make him a key cog in the offensive machine. There's a reason you almost always see him on the field celebrating red zone touchdowns: he helped make them happen.

Best Game

Texas Tech, 2010. This was the aforementioned first start for Ryan Tannehill. Lamothe hauled in a pair of touchdown grabs in this game en route to a 45-27 shellacking of the Red Raiders. We would go on to win the rest of our regular season games.

So thanks to Mike Lamothe for a great Aggie career. And here's a quick lesson on how to pronounce his name (better late than never):

Getting To Know Texas A&M TE Michael Lamothe - KBTX News 3 - Shane McAuliffe (via Shane McAuliffe)