The Daily Mississippian Sports Editor, Dylan Rubino
The showdown in the Lone Star State has every making of a trap game for Ole Miss.
The attention of the college football world shifts to the other side of the state Saturday, with Mississippi State facing the pressure against Auburn at home. College GameDay will be in Starkville and so will the 2:30 CBS SEC primetime game; the exact same setup as Ole Miss last Saturday.
A win against Texas A&M in Kyle Field will say a lot about the toughness and grit of the Rebels. To come back from such an important win and change gears for a different environment and different team will say a lot about the mental makeup for Ole Miss.
The Aggies offense is third in the country, averaging 47.8 points per game and fifth in the country in passing yards, averaging 395 yards in the air per game.
Quarterback Kenny Hill looked like a Heisman candidate in the early portions of the season, but he has come back down to reality with his shaky performance against Mississippi State. Hill threw 62 passes total in the game, forcing the ball many times down field resulting in him throwing three interceptions. Hill can fill up the stat sheet with the amount times he throws the ball per game but is also a suspect of forcing passes and turning the ball over.
The strength of the Aggie offense is passing the ball. The strength of the Rebel defense is defending the pass. This is the matchup I will be most looking forward to. The experienced secondary of Cody Prewitt, Senquez Golson, Mike Hilton and many more will have a game plan for Hill and the Texas A&M offense.
Upsetting Ole Miss at home will put the Aggies back on track to make a run for the SEC West crown. Texas A&M will certainly be motivated at home after the loss to Mississippi State and will certainly put up a fight on offense.
The Rebels will be ready in their first trying road game of the season. The Landshark defense will bend, but not break and Bo Wallace will lead the offense and expose the flaws of the Aggie defense.
OLE MISS 34, TEXAS A&M 21
The Battalion Football Editor, Patrick Crank
Under Kevin Sumlin, Texas A&M is 0-4 at home against ranked teams. Under Hugh Freeze, Ole Miss is 0-4 on the road against ranked teams. One of these streaks will end Saturday in College Station.
Ole Miss couldn’t be higher right now, and they have every reason to be. Aggie fans know how good it feels to beat Bama, as it galvanized our program two years ago and legitimized our decision to enter the SEC.
A&M didn’t play well last week, running into a physical, veteran team in Starkville that is playing at a high level under Dak Prescott. The Aggies showed their first signs of being young all season, making a lot of unforced errors en route to a 48-31 defeat that wasn’t near as close as the score.
The contest between these two this weekend couldn’t be on a bigger stage — a top-15, nighttime matchup on ESPN in front of a sellout crowd that is anticipated to set not only a Texas A&M home attendance record but a Texas state attendance record for a college football game.
The Rebel defense has more than lived up to its “land shark” moniker this year, allowing just 10.2 points per game. The Aggie offense, even without Johnny Manziel, is still averaging close to 50 points a game at 47.8 so far this season. It’ll be a battle of strength versus strength, which could make for fireworks.
Ole Miss will travel to Kyle Field for the first time since A&M joined the SEC, after the Aggies made two trips to Oxford the past two years and narrowly escaped with a pair of victories. As the college football world found out last weekend, Vaught-Hemingway Stadium is arguably one of the most underrated atmospheres in the country. I went to the game last year and was more than impressed.
Ultimately, I think this game will be won or lost depending on how the Rebels respond to a real road environment for the first time this season. Before Kyle Field was expanded, A&M downed No. 9 Nebraska 9-6 in front of a record 90,000-person crowd in 2010, and this game has the same type of feel leading up to it.
As good as he looked last weekend, I’m still not sold on Bo Wallace as a consistent quarterback week-to-week until he proves me wrong. In the end, I see another instant classic between the two schools, with Texas A&M coming out on top.
Prediction: Texas A&M 35, Ole Miss 31
