COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KRHD) — The No. 14 Aggies won their 6th straight win on the road, taking down Mississippi State 34-24 Saturday night. Texas A&M is now one of two teams that are unbeaten in SEC play. The other - No. 8 LSU who’s headed to Kyle Field for a top 15 clash Saturday night.
“It's going to be an opportunity for us to go out there and show we belong on this stage and have taken this program where we all thought we wanted it to go,” Aggie head coach Mike Elko said.
“It's a great opportunity, it's a great venue. They're a great team, we're a talented team. It's going to be a lot of fun,” Elko added.
Tigers quarterback Garret Nussmeier ranks 7th in the nation with 18 passing touchdowns on the year. The Aggie secondary knows they need to be locked in on receivers Kyren Lacy, Aaron Anderson, and Mason Taylor.
“Their receiving corps is very special,” junior defensive back Bryce Anderson said.
“I feel like it’s going to be one of the best, as a group, the best-receiving corps we’ve seen this season with [Kyren] Lacy, Aaron Anderson and they got the other couple of guys that's real special. We're going to have to keep the top on the coverage, eliminate the big plays and just get the ball down,” Anderson said.
While there’s a lot of noise surrounding this game, A&M is, again, focused on their preparation and not letting the moment get too big.
“Yeah, it's a lot of stakes from the outside point of view, but internally it's just another week, just another team,” junior linebacker Scooby Williams said.
“We just got to focus and prepare how we usually prepare and we can't let up,” Williams said.
“We spend so much time talking about where success comes from,” Elko said.
“You know, you can spend this whole week thinking about the play you're going to make, the celebration, what you're going to look like, or you can spend the whole week focusing on all of the things that are going to help you have success on Saturday. It's just kind of trying to shift their eyes every single day in that lane and stay there as long as humanly possible with the strong knowledge that they're 18 to 23 [years old] and it's an ongoing process for us,” Elko explained.
After matching their best start to SEC play, the Aggies will be back at Kyle Field for the first time in three weeks and are excited to play this one in front of the 12th Man.
“As far as being a home game, daytime, night time, the crowd plays a bigger factor, a bigger role,” Williams said. “So we just expect the 12th Man to show up and show out.”
Sole possession of first place in the SEC and potential playoff contention is on the line this Saturday as the Aggies host the Tigers here at Kyle Field. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. and if you can’t make it out to the game, you can watch it on ABC.
