Utah State (1-0, 0-0 Mountain West) at No. 19 Texas A&M (1-0, 0-0 SEC)
- Kickoff: Saturday, 10:45 a.m. MDT
- Venue: Kyle Field (Capacity: 102,733)
- TV: SEC Network
- Livestream: Watch ESPN
- Radio: Aggie Sports Network (KZNS 1280 The Zone)/Sirius XM Ch. 382.
- Series: Utah State trails, 0-1.
The trends
For Utah State: The Aggies are coming off a season-opening 28-16 win against UTEP at home, the first win of the Bronco Mendenhall era.
Utah State was a little hit-and-miss in the game, strong in the first half in all phases, with a real slowdown on offense in the second half. Even with that, though, the Aggies handily defeated the Miners.
Utah State showed considerable growth defensively and teased a talented special teams unit as well. And when on, the offense moved well, with quarterback Bryson Barnes seeming to have a good handle of the new system.
For Texas A&M: The Aggies, the nationally known ones, are ranked No. 19 in the country and picked up a season-opening 42-24 win at home against UTSA last weekend. Texas A&M QB Marcel Reed was excellent in the victory, throwing for nearly 300 yards and four touchdowns.
Texas A&M is in its second season under Mike Elko, and won eight games last season. The expectation in College Station is always higher than that, although ESPN’s FPI projects the Aggies to win seven or eight games.
What to watch for
There should be two lines of thought for Saturday’s game.
- What does Utah State need to do to pull off the unprecedented upset?
- What does Utah State need to do to show improvement from Week 1 to Week 2?
On the first front, there are keys to every major upset. Utah State will need to win the turnover battle. Getting a few extra possessions would go a long way.
USU also needs to shorten the game. More time on the clock means more possessions for Texas A&M and Reed, which will likely mean more points on the board. Utah State needs to have an effective run game, be it with running back Miles Davis and Javen Jacobs or quarterback Barnes.
Some elite special teams play won’t hurt either. A special teams touchdown or excellent punting (winning the field position battle), would set up the Aggies to pull off the groundbreaking upset.
As for what Utah State needs to do to improve from Week 1, limiting penalties (even small ones) would be notable. Better protection of Barnes would also be a step in the right direction, after UTEP sacked the Aggie quarterback six times last weekend.
A more effective — consistent — rushing attack would engender optimism about a group of running backs who’ve been described as the strength of the team. And more pressure on the quarterback wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Key player
Marcel Reed, sophomore, quarterback, Texas A&M:
The outcome of Saturday’s game will likely fall on the shoulders of Reed. The sophomore from Tennessee had an up-and-down freshman season for Texas A&M, but he showed flashes of greatness.
Against UTSA, Reed was excellent. He completed nearly 65% of his pass attempts for 289 yards and four touchdowns. He also rushed for a team-high 39 yards, proving the engine for Texas A&M’s offense.
If Reed plays like he did against the Roadrunners this Saturday, Utah State will be in for a long day. If he reverts back to how he played — at times — as a freshman last season, the Aggies have a shot to pull off the shocker.
Reed has immense talent. He was a four-star prospect coming out of high school and a top 20 QB prospect nationally.
That type of player has the chance to be special. Utah State has to hope that he isn’t special Saturday.
Quotable
“You always look for relative points of reference or realistic points of reference. Fun to watch UTSA, I think they do a nice job. And it’s a really a helpful game for us. Liked their plan, they did a really nice job. Obviously, the game went Texas A&M’s way, but it was very competitive for a long time. Any time you play an opponent, you look for what worked and see if you could replicate, see if those matchups might be similar.” — Utah State coach Bronco Mendenhall
“Known Bronco for a long time. Just following his career, not as much personally. Obviously a tremendously successful head coach, did a great job at BYU. Coached against him when he was at UVA when I was the defensive coordinator at Wake Forest. Have always followed his program(s) from afar. This will be the first time going against him (as a head coach). ... I think he (Mendenhall) is a tough hard-minded head coach and his teams show that. There is a blue-collar toughness to how they play. They play extremely hard, physical and they are very disciplined.” — Texas A&M coach Mike Elko
Next up
- Utah State: vs. Air Force, Saturday, Sept. 13, at 7:45 p.m.
- Texas A&M: at No. 9 Notre Dame, Saturday, Sept. 13, at 5:30 p.m.
Utah State schedule
- Aug. 30 — Utah State 28, UTEP 16
- Sept. 6 — at Texas A&M
- Sept. 13 — Air Force
- Sept. 20 — McNeese State
- Sept. 27 — at Vanderbilt
- Oct. 11 — at Hawaiʻi
- Oct. 17 — San José State
- Oct. 25 — at New Mexico
- Nov. 8 — Nevada
- Nov. 15 — at UNLV
- Nov. 22 — at Fresno State
- Nov. 29 — Boise State