Texas A&M is gearing up to take on the Kentucky Wildcats in just under 24 hours, and the Aggies remain huge favorites over first-year head man Will Stein’s crew. That said, there are a lot of things that Aggie fans want to see out of this team that has not yet manifested.
The Aggie offense has been a bit jittery, to say the least, through two games. Of course, the same was true last season as well before the Aggies got their huge victory over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in week three, which quelled a lot of those early concerns.
The most comparable early game to that one in this season, though, is next week’s showdown with LSU— so this is more akin to those early-season tune-up games, The Wildcats should not be overlooked, but the Aggies should come out of this one with a convincing victory— here are three reasons they not only do that, but win over many of the doubters this weekend.
Three reasons Texas A&M demolishes Kentucky this weekend
Marcel Reed puts it together
The Aggie quarterback is the man with all eyes on him so far this season. To this point, he’s been pretty up-and-down— there have been moments of brilliance, but not consistently so. For every perfectly-placed pass, there has been a complete misfire.
In fairness, the highs have looked better than anything we saw last year, outside of a few key plays. But a simple flash of promise here or there is not something the Aggies can hang their hats on for the duration of the season.
I think we see Marcel really put it together in this game against the Wildcats. He was very, very close in a couple of instances against Arizona State, but just didn’t quite make it happen— but in this one, I think we see Reed really explode for a huge day.
Young RBs get more in the rotation
With the continued presence of Jamarion Morrow on the injury report, Aggie fans have been worried about the running back position for this one— A&M is already down one contributor in Deondrae Riden, who is out for the season.
The silver lining here is that this could pave the way for the young Aggie backs— KJ Edwards and Carsyn Baker— to get some extra playing time as soon as this week. The fanbase has been clamoring for it, and Mike Elko even nodded to the possibility at a recent presser.
Edwards and Baker have the explosive ability to make things happen any time they touch the ball, and Kentucky can be had on the ground. A&M’s run game should get back on track in this one, thanks in no small part to what these two will bring in an increased role.
Defense clamps down
Alabama gave up only 10 points on defense last week to Kentucky in Lexington— Stein’s crew scored on a pick-six to make their final tally 17, but that was not on the Tide defense. I like the Aggie defense to do an even better job this weekend.
You have to think that Stein, who is a legitimately formidable talent as an offensive mind, will be able to scheme up some stuff to put the Aggie defense in conflict, but it shouldn’t look anything like what we saw from them last week against Arizona State. The Aggies should be able to put this offense in a vice grip and keep them from operating efficiently for most of the day.
Give the Aggie defense to go off in a big way in this one— they may not match last week’s production as far as defensive scoring, but they should choke out Stein’s Wildcats from beginning to end on Saturday.
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