Breaking Down the Texas A&M Aggies

It’s time to look at the squad Nebraska faces this Saturday night, led by head coach Mike Sherman, who I expected to find immediate sucess at Texas A&M, but instead has had to wait until year number three to see the desired results.

The biggest difference between this team and the Aggies of the past two seasons is the improvement of the defense. Allowing only 22.1 points per game, good for 4th in the Big 12, is a refreshing difference from years past where they ranked among the worst of the conference.

The Aggies boast the #1 rushing defense in the Big 12, which is good enough for 13th in the country (Husker fans will tell you that’s because they haven’t faced Nebraska yet). This should be the key to the game, how well Nebraska’s ground game will be able to execute.

The weakness of the Aggie defense may be found through the air, where they rank 8th in the Big 12. Von Miller, who led the Big 12 with 17 sacks last year, has posted only 5.5 this year, but is still a player to keep an eye on.

The difference between the Aggies team that struggled at the beginning of this 2010 season and the team that has now won its last four games (including wins over Oklahoma and Baylor), was the replacement of Preseason Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, QB Jerrod Johnson.

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Enter junior QB Ryan Tannehill (around halftime of the KU game-which started the four game winning streak) who ranks 2nd in the Big 12 in passing effiency (behind OSU’s Brandon Weeden). Tannehill has racked up 10 touchdowns to only 3 interceptions in his time under center.

Tannehill’s main target is WR Jeff Fuller, a 6’4 monster who ranks 3rd in the Big 12 in receiving yards per game (92.3). He’s the latest big time receiver to test their luck against the best pair of corners in the nation, Nebraska’s Prince Amukamara and “Da Fonz” Alfonzo Dennard.

The bigger question might attain to the Texas A&M running game, the more struggling phase of the Blackshirts defense. The Aggies rank 5th in the Big 12 in rushing offense, and are led by junior RB Cyrus Gray, who has topped 100 yards in each of the past four games.

You may be noticing a pattern. They have won their last four games. Ryan Tannehill has started the past four games. Cyrus Gray has rushed for 100 yards the past four games. No secret about what the Aggies will try and do on Saturday night.

The last  factor in this game is the crowd expected in College Station for Saturday night. They’re calling it “12th Man Day” in reference to their crowd who is commonly referred to as The 12th Man, which includes a tradition of one Aggies player wearing the #12 jersey. They have already sold nearly 30,000 student tickets, creating what is believed to be the biggest student section ever for the game.

On top of that, Bo Pelini had this to say earlier this week….

"Our fans are better than the Aggie fans. They have a good culture around their program. They support it well. They’re into it. It’s a unique environment. I don’t know what they call that, I know they have some type of thing on Friday night, like cheer practice or whatever, so there are certain unique traditions with every program, and I think they have their own. They do a good job with it."

What do you guys think, do you have any problem with what Pelini had to say?

Game preview coming tomorrow. Go big red.