The primary third of the season was very profitable for Texas A&M.
The No. 6 Aggies are 4-0 for the primary time since 2016, they usually have matched their highest rating within the AP ballot over the previous 4 seasons.
The following check comes Saturday night time in opposition to Mississippi State in School Station, Texas.
“What I might say about our gamers is it has been a tough go for the children which have been on this program for 4 years,” second-year Aggies coach Mike Elko mentioned. “They’re studying that they’ve the flexibility to manage the outcomes of video games, and that is a robust mindset.”
The Aggies beat then-No. 8 Notre Dame 41-40 on the highway two weeks in the past and gained their Southeastern Convention opener in opposition to Auburn 16-10 at dwelling final Saturday.
Texas A&M held the Tigers to 177 complete yards and did not permit a conversion on 13 third downs or two fourth downs.
However there stays room for enchancment.
Texas A&M was penalized 13 instances for 119 yards in opposition to Auburn, per week after being penalized 13 instances for 86 yards.
“It is one thing that we’ve to get fastened and addressed,” Elko mentioned of the infractions. “We can’t proceed to win video games if we do not remedy that downside.”
The Aggies confirmed extra self-discipline of their first two video games of the season, committing seven penalties in a gap win in opposition to UTSA and solely 5 the next week in opposition to Utah State.
Though Texas A&M might by no means set up a cushty lead in opposition to Auburn, senior working again Le’Veon Moss helped the Aggies keep in management by speeding for 139 yards and scoring the workforce’s solely landing.
Mississippi State (4-1, 0-1 SEC) is coming off its first lack of the season, 41-34 in additional time in opposition to visiting Tennessee final Saturday. The Bulldogs are nonetheless in search of their first convention win beneath second-year coach Jeff Lebby.
Even so, Lebby mentioned the workforce confirmed “a ton of development” within the loss to the then-No. 15 Volunteers, the Bulldogs’ closest SEC defeat in his tenure.
“The factor that I used to be most happy with was, definitely, how issues had gone from play one to play 87,” Lebby mentioned. “Our guys continued to play and believed that we had been profitable the soccer sport the whole time. There was nice vitality.”
Fluff Bothwell had his second consecutive 100-yard speeding sport, ending with 134 yards and his fifth and sixth speeding touchdowns of the season.
The Bulldogs are set to play their first sport outdoors of Mississippi. They started the season with a highway victory in opposition to Southern Miss earlier than taking part in 4 consecutive dwelling video games.
Lebby mentioned the timing of the go to to School Station is “fairly good” as a result of Mississippi State has an open date subsequent week earlier than visiting Florida per week later.
“I feel the best factor about occurring the highway on this convention is we have 74 guys getting on the airplane to go play in entrance of over 100,000 folks,” Lebby mentioned. “It is about us being all in and having the best mindset and mentality to go play one play at a time and provides us one of the best probability to go win.”
–Area Degree Media
