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)
No. 15 Texas A&M (7-2, 5-1 SEC) depth chart
New Mexico State (2-7, 1-5 C-USA) depth chart
Injury update
Texas A&M: RBs Le'Veon Moss and Rueben Owens and C Mark Nabou are out for the year.
LG Chase Bisontis is out for at least this week.
New Mexico State: No reported injuries.
Texas A&M statistical leaders
Passing: Reed, 63-109 (57.8%), 861 yards, 7 TD, 1 INT
Weigman, 62-109 (56.9%), 782 yards, 3 TD, 4 INT
Rushing: Moss, 121 carries, 765 yards (6.3 YPC), 10 TD
Daniels, 94 carries, 466 yards (5 YPC), 6 TD
Reed, 68 carries, 334 yards (4.9 YPC), 5 TD
Receiving: Thomas, 24 catches, 367 yards (15.3 YPC), 3 TD
Barber, 24 catches, 265 yards (10.6 YPC), 1 TD
Allen, 17 catches, 260 yards (15.3 YPC), 1 TD
New Mexico State statistical leaders
Tackles: Martinez, 71
Crosby, 55
Aupiu and Barnes, 41
Tackles for loss: Edwards, 6
Aupiu, 4
Arinze, 3.5
Sacks: Edwards, 4
Peleti, 2.5
Arinze, 1.5
Interceptions: Cox, 2
Three players with 1
Forced fumbles: Crosby and Session, 1
What A&M wants to do
Score early, often and put the game away fast. But they've also got to get some work with what has to be a new-look offense, because the centerpiece of the offense is gone.
The Aggie offense isn't the same without Le'Veon Moss. That's pretty obvious and they'll have to adjust. Amari Daniels will become the workhorse and EJ Smith will get more carries, but A&M needs to make its passing game more effective. This is a game where the Aggies should be able to work on a few things -- including, hopefully, some new wrinkles implemented during the bye week.
The Aggies aren't going to get where they want to go unless the passing game improves. They're almost certainly going to be able to run the ball on an undersized defensive line that is one of the absolute worst in the nation, but NMSU's inability to get pressure or force turnovers should help give confidence to Marcel Reed or Conner Weigman (or both).
It's hard to adjust an offense at mid-season, but A&M's going to have to do it. NMSU is the perfect team to start working on some new things, and the Aggies should look to take advantage of it.
How NMSU may try to counter
Do everything different than they have all year? It has been the season from hell for this group of Aggies defensively. Nothing has gone right.
NSMU's defense struggles to get pressure on the quarterback and has even more trouble creating turnovers. Edwards is their best defensive player and leads the team in sacks, but he's a seriously undersized defensive end at 235 pounds. He'll be giving up a whole lot of size to whichever Aggie offensive tackle he lines up across from. They're going to have to be fast if they're going to get to the quarterback, so they may have to blitz more than they want.
NMSU will switch between three- and four-man fronts, and they'll have to get a lot more creative Saturday. They've given up 30 points or more to every FBS team they've played and gave up back-to-back 50-point games at midseason.
And A&M is, by far, the best team they've played.
This group of Aggies will have to play a tremendous game to hang around with the Aggies from the SEC.
