"Everything," he replied. "They’ve got a really talented football team we’re going up against. Everything matters, especially when you’re going against a talent group like coach Fisher and his crew have assembled."

Lewis has done a phenomenal job in his three seasons at Kent State, including leading them to back-to-back winning seasons for the first time in 44 years. But, after a 3-1 season against MAC opponents, he knows the Aggies are a different animal.

"They’ve had three top-10 recruiting classes the last three years. They’re super, uber-talented," he said.

Lewis noted that A&M will have a new starter at quarterback in Haynes King, but said the cast surrounding the redshirt freshman is imposing.

"Their starting left tackle (Kenyon Green) is an All-American. They’re plugging in four new starters, but when I look at their height and weight…that’s a pretty imposing force," he said of the Aggie offensive line.

Lewis was complementary of A&M's receiver corps, but one player in particular caught his attention.

"They’ve got this kid (Ainas) Smith, who wears 0, who lines up all over the place…they’ll put him in the backfield, they’ll put him in the slot, ran a lot of mismatch issues with him," he said. "He’s a home run threat from anywhere on the field."

The 35-year-old coach was effusive in his praise of All-SEC running back Isaiah Spiller -- maybe to the point of exaggeration.

"Spiller, their running back, is 6-1, 225, and probably runs a 4.2. So he can run around you, make you miss in a phone booth or run through you," he said. "I know they’re breaking in a new quarterback, but they’ve got a lot of weapons around the kid including an All-American tight end (Jalen Wydermyer) who is a matchup problem."

Lewis said he was impressed by the speed, size and depth of the A&M defense, which he considers one of the best in the nation.

"Defensively, they only lost a couple of starters from a defense that in All-SEC play…they kept seven opponents under 30 points. Their defensive line is long, athletic..and they’re deep," he said.

The Golden Flashes are a pass heavy offense, which had Lewis watching the Aggie secondary closely. What he saw was a solid group which limits mistakes.

"They’ve got another 0, their boundary corner (Myles) Jones, is one of the best cover corners I’ve seen. The last couple of games of the season, he had an ankle injury and he didn’t play and his backup (Brian George) came in and played as well as he did," he said. "Their safeties in the backend…play exceptionally well together. They have a passion for playing the game…they play the game the right way."

Lewis said his team has been preparing for one other obstacle: the noise of the 12th Man, which he said will be a welcome burden after playing last year in empty stadiums.

"We’re going to have 105,000 people down there. Last time I checked, it was one of the top five biggest venues in all of college football," he said. "We started piping in the band noise and their Aggie Yell cheers and all their fine traditions that they have down there once we started the preparation. There’s something about a good college band and good college cheers that gets you going."

In a game like a season opener against a highly-rated opponent, the risk could be there for a coaching staff to try to out-think the other team. Lewis said his squad was coming in to Kyle Field to challenge themselves and compete as best they can.

"I believe in keeping it simple. I think simplifying things wins. It allows your guys to think fast, know fast, do fast and then go out and play fast without over processing things. We’re going to take that approach and give it our best shot," he said.