Where, when, weather and TV
Where: Kyle Field, College Station, Texas
When: 6:45 p.m. central time Saturday, Nov. 16
Weather: Cloudy with temperatures in the 70s
TV: SEC Network (Dave Neal, Aaron Murray, Ashley ShahAhmadi)
New Mexico State (2-7, 1-5 C-USA) depth chart
No. 15 Texas A&M (7-2, 5-1 SEC) depth chart
Injury report
New Mexico State: QB Deuce Hogan (shoulder) is out for the year.
Texas A&M: Nickel Tyreek Chappell (ACL) is out for the year.
New Mexico State statistical leaders
Passing: Parker Awad, 40-93 (43%), 518 yards, 4 TD, 3 INT
Marucci, 43-93 (46.2%), 439 yards, 3 TD, 5 INT
Nunez, 9-24, 61 yards, 1 INT
Rushing: McGowan, 121 carries, 626 yards (5.2 YPC), 3 TD
Washington, 108 carries, 524 yards (4.9 YPC), 6 TD
Marucci, 32 carries, 135 yards (4.2 YPC), 1 TD
Receiving: Price, 23 catches, 238 yards (10.1 YPC), 1 TD
Johnson, 15 catches, 237 yards (15.8 YPC), 1 TD
McGowan, 14 catches, 136 yards (9.7 YPC), 1 TD
Texas A&M statistical leaders
Tackles: York, 54
Brooks, 36
Lee, 33
Tackles for loss: Scourton, 12.5
Turner, 5.5
Three players with 4.5
Sacks: Scourton, 5
Howell and Turner, 2
Four players with 1.5
Interceptions: Ratcliffe, 3
Mayes, 2
Six players with 1
Forced fumbles: Six players with 1
Fumble recoveries: Three players with 1
Head-to-head
What NMSU wants to do
Pretty simple: run the ball, control the clock and keep A&M's offense off the field.
The Aggies have a solid running attack, led by McGowan, the former Oklahoma running back who hadn't played in three years before returning with NMSU this season. Washington, a transfer from Buffalo, provides a strong 1-2 punch with McGowan. The offensive line has blocked pretty well for them.
Outside of that, they've been an absolute disaster on offense. None of the four quarterbacks they've played have a completion percentage over 50% and the starter, Deuce Hogan, was lost early in the year. A&M coach Mike Elko was generous when he said NMSU was still trying to figure things out at quarterback.
NMSU has virtually no down the field passing game because, even if they try to avoid throwing, they can't hold up against a pass rush. Marucci, the most mobile of the quarterbacks, looks like he's become the starter and he played most of the game against Western Kentucky two weeks ago.
If the inability to seriously throw the ball weren't bad enough, NMSU turns it over at an alarming rate. They've been picked off 11 times and fumbled the ball away nine more, so they're averaging over two turnovers a game. It's going to be very tough for them to do much against the A&M defense anyway, but if they continue that trend, it will be really, really bad.
How A&M may try to counter
Here's an idea: tackle.
Seriously, tackling should be priority one in this game. If the Aggie defense takes away NMSU's running game at the line of scrimmage, then this becomes a rout in a hurry. A&M's attacking defense should be able to overwhelm NMSU when they try to throw, which the visiting Aggies will try to avoid at all costs.
Odds are the Aggies are going to have eight men in the box almost all the time and have man coverage on NMSU's receivers. When NSMU does throw, expect them to blitz heavily. The Aggies want to get negative plays, turnovers and get their opponent off the field as quickly as possible.
A&M's season stats were skewed heavily by two disastrous performances and this is an opportunity to get things back on track. If they do the basic things right and flush the horror that was the South Carolina game, they should be able to do that.
