Aggie Preview

So, next up is Texas A&M.

The Aggies have been going through it a little.  They paid a kabillion dollars to Jimbo Fisher, who won 64% of his games but struggled the last two years and they don't pay you a kabillion dollars to do that, and he was let go.

The new man is familiar to us:  Mike Elko.  Elko was BG's d-coordinator during the Clawson years and should have replaced Clawson, but Kingston had other ideas.  Anyway, he went to Wake Forest, Notre Dame, A&M as DC, Duke as Head Coach and then A&M as a head coach.

They lost their opener to Notre Dame, smoked McNeese State and then went to the Swamp and picked up a compelling win @ Florida. They are #25 in the AP Top 25.

BG never played A&M.  BG has one win against a team that was in the SEC at the time, which is over Kentucky during the Brian McClure/Denny Stolz to SD State season.

BG has not played a team from Texas since 1988 (TCU). BGSU has also played at Baylor (1981), North Texas (1964), UT Arlington (1971, 1975), UTEP (as Texas Western, 1960) and West Texas A&M (1962, 1965, 1969).

The Aggies are 2-0 against the MAC, with wins over Kent and Ball.

A&M is a 22.5 point favorite.  Lots of BG fans, emboldened by the Penn State game and then adding Stewart back into the mix, believe the Falcons have a shot in this one.

Offense:

A&M has 2 QBs.  Connon Weigman was the starter and was injured for the Florida game.  He was replaced by FR Marcel Reed for that one, and the fan base has a full-blown crush on him.  Weigman is more a drop-back QB and Reed is a dual-threat guy.  Elko is not talking about who it will be.

They are really more a running team anyway.  They have run on 65% of their plays.  They are 21st in the nation in yards per rush  (BG is #4).  Meanwhile, they are #105 in passing efficiency.

They are 54th in scoring offense and 58th in yards per play.

They are +3 in turnover margin.

Defense:

The defensive numbers are not stellar.  Elko can't be happy with that.

They are 50th in scoring defense and #58 in yards per play allowed.

They are 79th in rush defense and 84th in yards per rush allowed. 

They are 45 in pass efficiency defense.  They have a lot of new faces in their secondary.

They are 108th in the nation in sacks.

Special Teams:

Their kicker was 44 of 59 on FGs.  He made 26 last year, one of the top in the nation, making 5 of 6 from beyond 50.

They have really good punting.  They are #2 in the nation in net punting.

Their return game is nothing special.