10 Things for Tuesday, sponsored by Ekdahl Nelson Real Estate

Not only will A&M face off with LSU at 11 a.m. Saturday, but No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Michigan will kick off at the same time. Washington and Washington State will play at 3 p.m. Why would those non-conference games be of interest? One wonders...

The Aggies will have their hands full with LSU's top-ranked offense Saturday, but LSU's defense may be the worst A&M has seen in conference play. They are atrocious, especially in the secondary. Jaylen Henderson has done pretty well in his two starts, but I think Johnson gives A&M the best chance to win if he plays. He's more patient, reads defenses better and spreads the ball out, as you would assume a more experienced quarterback would.

Is for the Aggies to use tempo. A&M did that for the first time against Abilene Christian and I think that's more of what Bobby Petrino wants to do. We got a bit of an idea of what Jimbo Fisher was doing, or not allowing, with the offense last week. It wasn't a coincidence the pace picked up.

A&M's offensive line has been Godawful in pass protection all season, as is evidenced by the injuries to Conner Weigman and Johnson. Fortunately for them, LSU is 76th in sacks in 83rd in tackles for loss. On the other hand, they couldn't stop Abilene Christian from getting to the quarterback, so...

Rueben Owens had his first 100-yard rushing game of his career Saturday and he may be tasked with another heavy load against LSU. The Tigers are 103rd in the nation against the run, and A&M will either start a quarterback with banged up ribs or making his first career road start. Running the football would be a very, very good idea.

This is actually a possibility, because he has a Covid year to use. He wouldn't listen to me if I tried to give him advice, but I'd tell him to go. He's been great this season, averaging 16.4 yards per catch. He'll make some money at the next level. But if you want to make an argument for him to stay, it would probably be that he could reach 1,000 yards receiving in a season for the first time (he has 743 right now) in 2024 if the Aggies hire a coach with an explosive offense, which seems to be the plan.

Before the season, LSU LB Harold Perkins was an All-American and All-SEC selection. A&M's Edgerrin Cooper was not even on the radar. But that's why they play the games.

Cooper currently has 75 tackles, 16 tackles for loss, 7 sacks, a forced fumble and a 2 fumble recoveries. Perkins has 62 tackles, 11.5 TFL, 5 sacks, 3 forced fumbles and an interception.

Perkins has solid numbers this year. But Cooper has unquestionably been the better of the two. He is probably the best linebacker in the SEC, period.

The 12th-ranked Aggies are off to Disney World to play in the ESPN Invitational, starting with a rematch against Penn State. The Nittany Lions are 4-0, but have played very weak competition so far. They got a game from Lehigh (74-65), but that's been it. A POed Aggie team should be quite different.

But then the Aggies will play either No. 19 Florida Atlantic (who lost to Bryant last week) or 3-1 Butler. A&M should be better than both of them, but both have real talent. A&M can't sleep on any of them.

Penn State isn't the sniping 3-point shooting team they were last year. They're not nearly as good shooting, but they're bigger, led by Georgetown transfer Qudus Wahab. Wahab is taller then A&M's Henry Coleman and is averaging 11 points a game so far on the season, but Coleman is on a heater, with three straight double-doubles and the SEC Player of the Week award. He's going to have to go after Wahab on both ends for A&M to handle Penn State.

Texas A&M is hitting less than 25% of its 3-point attempts after going 2-22 against Oral Roberts Friday. They are 329th in the nation in 3-point percentage and dead last in the SEC. They're only shooting 40.3% from the floor as a whole, which is 304th nationally and 13th in the SEC. They've been surviving on tough defense, rebounding, foul shots and the ability of Coleman, Wade Taylor and Boots Radford to get to the basket.