Texas A&M football is set to host Utah State in this year's edition of the "battle of the Aggies," after A&M smacked down New Mexico State last year. If they can do the same to USU, we can rest assured that they will enter next season retaining the title of the best Aggies in the nation.
Other than that, though, there's not a whole lot at stake.
I guess that depends on how you count it, though, since a Texas A&M loss would mean some pretty bad things for Mike Elko's program. But that's only the case because Utah State is such a profoundly bad team by FBS standards.
First look: Texas A&M should dominate tune up game vs. Utah State
For that reason, Texas A&M will no doubt dominate in this matchup. The Utah State Aggies are coming off of a win over UTEP (in an all-time transitive property matchup, given that the Miners will play Texas in a few weeks) as they come into College Station, but El Paso's finest make up one of the only teams in FBS that is worse than USU.
The maroon and white-clad Aggies should dominate in this matchup for three main reasons: home field, a continued offensive explosion, and the defense taking yet another step forward.
Utah State has never, in their program's entire history, played in front of a crowd like the one that will be there on Saturday. They have played in similar-sized stadiums before, as they matched up with Alabama and LSU in previous years, but Kyle Field's capacity is higher than any stadium they have ever visited.
Though it's set to be an early kick for the Aggies, it will still be a raucous crowd there to see A&M play one of only seven home games this season. Watch closely while Utah State is on offense to see if they can deal with that pressure.
The blue and white Aggies' offensive unit lost their best weapon this offseason in RB Rahsul Faison, who transferred to South Carolina. Quarterback Bryson Barnes spent last season as the backup behind Iowa transfer Spencer Petras, but played quite a bit at Utah in 2023. He's a career 6.5 YPA, just around 60% completion type of player, so the A&M pass defense will be a lot for him to handle.
On the defensive side, Utah State could well be entirely overwhelmed by KC Concepcion, Mario Craver, Ashton Bethel-Roman, and the rest of the Aggie receivers. I'll watch closely to see how the tight ends get involved in this one, but even if Marcel just throws screens to KC and Mario all day, with the way the A&M receivers were blocking, this should be an easy win.
Utah State finished 127th in the nation last year in rushing yards allowed per attempt, 102nd in the nation last year in passing yards allowed per attempt, and 128th in the nation in points per game allowed. In other words, Texas A&M's offense should not have a hard time against this defense.
On the flip side, I want to see some progress out of the Aggie defense. That unit started to play a lot better in the second half of last Saturday's game, but I want to see some domination the entire way through in this one.
It's been quite some time since A&M played an FBS team this bad, so this is a name-your-score kind of game. It will pretty much be dependent on how much Mike Elko wants to run things at full speed before taking out the starters. This should be an easy, dominant watch for A&M fans.