The Texas A&M Aggies are led by quarterback Kellen Mond, who is dynamic with a big arm. Mond excels when he extends plays and allows his receivers extra time to clear coverage. Head Coach Jimbo Fisher builds his passing concepts around Mond’s arm strength, having him throw deep combination routes that exploit zone-coverage rules and pushing outside verticals down the sideline against man-to-man.

When Mond can recognize coverage pre-snap, he’s decisive and accurate with his ball placement.

The Aggies suffered a huge blow when starting-running back Jashaun Corbin was lost for the season. Corbin was an excellent zone-scheme slasher, eating up yards in 5- to 7-yard chunks. He’s been replaced by freshman stud Isaiah Spiller — a 6-foot-1, 220 pounds with great burst. He is reminiscent of recent Oklahoma Sooner bell-cows Rodney Anderson and Joe Mixon; Spiller has a great all-around skill set and can catch the ball well out of the back field.

He’s averaged an explosive 8.8 yards per carry on the season thus far and has pair of 100-yard games already — albeit against lower-tier competition.

The Aggies are strapped with an extremely talented trio of junior receivers. Quartney Davis is perhaps the most complete receiver of the group. He’s a big, physical receiver who also runs really crisp routes. Davis can operate at either outside receiver spot or from the slot. He had a few drops early, and missed last week’s game with back tightness, but he will no doubt play and warrant respect this weekend.

Jhamon Aubson is cut from the same cloth as Davis. He has similar size and ability, but excels better bodying up defensive backs one-on-one and running after the catch. Aubson’s best trait is his ability to turn a short route into a broken tackle and big gain. The ‘x’ factor of the group is 6-5 Kendrick Rogers, who's been a stellar red zone threat for Mond and offers an instantaneous mismatch against any defensive back. His massive catch radius makes accurate back-shoulder throws and corner jump balls almost indefensible.

Tight end Glenn Beal is a big traditional, hand-in-the-dirt tight end. He won’t flex out and attack the seam the way Jace Sternberger did last season, but his effective reach blocking on the edge can spring Spiller on some outside runs.

The Aggies’ offensive line has been the most questionable part of the offense so far. Against Clemson they generated no push in the run game and let Mond get pressured way too often to be effective. The group is huge, averaging over 315 pounds. True freshman right guard Kenyon Green is a specimen, but has been mistake-prone and a liability. The returning bookend tackles, Dan Moore and Carson Green, mauled Texas State and Lamar, but graded out poorly against the defending champions in Game 1. They run a lot of power and zone “g” scheme in the run game, so the guards will be mobile. In pass protection, they are a deep vertical set team that almost forces edge rushers to bend inside — and can allow Mond to escape the pocket when they do.

Jimbo Fisher’s best hire as the Aggies’ head coach is undoubtably current defensive coordinator Mike Elko. His moving, 4-2-5 defensive scheme puts an emphasis on stopping the run and forces teams to be able to throw vertically to move the ball.

He will also challenge offensive lines by throwing multiple four-man front configurations at them.

Four-man fronts have to be built from the inside out; they depend on penetration from interior defensive linemen. Justin Madubuike is that disruptor for the Aggies. He explodes off the ball and often collapses the line of scrimmage entirely on one side of the ball. Elko will move him around playing him in one, three, slanting two and 4i alignments.

Nose tackle Bobby Brown III is a space hog in the middle; he can anchor and grab two blockers leaving his inside linebackers to run free. Jayden Peevy returns from injury for this game after being the team’s best lineman in week one. He’s taller and more athletic than the rest of the rotation and plays very active football pursuing down the line of scrimmage.

Senior defensive end Michael Clemons is a big, strong, anchoring end that isn’t easily kicked out nor reach blocked. Counterpart sophomore Tyree Johnson is the best edge rusher of the group.

True freshman and former five-star prospect DeMarvin Leal gives the squad another rush threat in true passing situations. This group is probably one of the nation’s top five defensive fronts.

The A&M inside linebacker group probably doesn’t get enough attention. They’ve been excellent this season! When the Aggies nearly shut down Travis Etienne completely in Week 1, it was Buddy Johnson and Anthony Hines III swarming him. Johnson was an outside linebacker by trade until bowl week last season — his speed and range plays well behind the space-eating defensive line. He reads and diagnoses blocks quickly and flows super quick to the football.

Hines excels as an impact tackler. He fits the run well, especially on cut-backs, and knocks ball carriers down on contact. Both have the range to play well in pass coverage also.

The third facet of the linebacking corps for the Aggies is the “rover” position, which would have been called the SAM in an old-school 4-3. Against any two-back or tight end inclusive personnel groupings, Elko will roll with Ikenna Okeke at the rover spot. He’s built like a big safety and tracks well outside the tackle box. When opponents go to spread personnel groupings, the team will go to a nickel package and drop safety Derrick Tucker inside over the slot.

Elko’s defense may be best personified by how they play the safeties. The Aggies start in a two-high shell seemingly every snap and roll one safety down after the offense begins its cadence. The rolling safety might be a strong-side alley fitter one play and a run-down interior box player the next; it’s an advanced and challenging concept for an offense to predict. Leon O’Neal and Demani Richardson will be those two guys when the game starts this weekend. Both are tall defensive backs, built like running backs or big receivers, who can play in space and get dirty in the box.

The Aggies will return their best cover corner this weekend after a two-game suspension — Debione Renfro. He will join cornerbacks Rodney Elam and Myles Jones, who both have two interceptions on the season already.

Punter Braden Mann is a weapon. He won the 2018 Ray Guy Award and can flip the field at any given chance. Place kicker Seth Small is perfect so far this season, but hasn’t attempted anything longer than 32 yards. Last season he missed four field goals of less than 40 yards.

This is a bad matchup for both offensive lines. Neither has been stellar this season — and both are facing elite defensive fronts. A&M rushes the passer better than Auburn does with their front, but Auburn has multiple players who can disrupt the run game in the backfield. If one of these groups can force multiple turnovers this weekend, they could determine the outcome in what looks to be a major defensive struggle.

Elko is going to attack Malzahn’s offense by putting eight in the box and forcing Auburn to throw for yardage. Auburn must be willing to throw on first down — and do it effectively. Otherwise, the the run game will suffer. Catching a safety rolling down with a vertical seam route could result in a much-needed, big play.

Mond is great when he knows what he sees. Steele will need to disguise some coverages on long-yardage downs and make him hold the ball decipher what he sees under duress.

Mann may wind up being the biggest weapon of the game. Auburn has struggled covering punts and is prone to conceding what would otherwise be advantageous defensive field position. Mann makes punt returns irrelevant and can drop the ball in a bucket, pinning offenses deep.

Bo Nix v. the 12th man

This will be Nix’s first true road test against a hostile crowd and in the Texas heat. How well he handles the game, protects the football, finds receivers and gets prime yardage on the ground will mean everything to Auburn. Elko will throw a lot at the true freshman, challenging his eye discipline on zone-read plays and baiting him with rolling zone coverages on passing downs. Nix will have to play beyond his youth for Auburn to have a chance.

Kendrick Rogers v. Noah Igbinoghene

Iggy has been stellar in man coverage and will no doubt draw Rogers in any redzone situation. Rogers will have a huge size advantage, so the AU corner will have to use superior quickness and technique to push Rogers out of position and thwart his massive catch radius. Redzone points will come at a premium for both squads — and both defenses statistically perform well when the field of play shrinks.

Gus Malzahn v. Jimbo Fisher

Ever since Fisher’s Seminoles stole the natty away from Auburn during Malzahn’s first season, the Auburn coach has seemed to take his matchup with Jimbo very personally. The two are polar opposite personalities, but Malzahn seems to be more aggressive, fiery and downright angry when coaching against Fisher. Two years ago in College Station Malzahn went after every punt, dialed up trick play after trick play and managed time masterfully to overcome the Aggies at home. Will his demeanor and methodologies be that same saltiness this time around?

WR Will Hastings. He must be big for Auburn to win. Hastings ability to execute option routes inside against safeties and nickel backs could be what Nix has to lean on to create yardage in the passing game.

QB Joey Gatewood. This freshman will no doubt have the opportunity to provide some short-yardage spark for the Auburn offense. I’d wager he throws a pass or two set up off run actions that have been put on tape so far. With redzone trips most likely being scarce, field goals won’t do. Auburn will need touchdowns and Gatewood may be the guy to get them there.

The quarterback who makes the fewest mistakes, and most plays, will decide this game. TAMU’s ability to roll out its own elite defensive front that will make life in the trenches hard for AU and doesn’t bode well for an offense that hasn’t displayed a true identity.

To quote the immortal Bunker legend @DocDumpsta, this game is “winnable-loseable."

I hope I’m wrong, but being objective I can’t see Nix as a true freshman in his current form behind a struggling offensive line being able to make enough plays for AU to win this one. It will be a close, hard-fought, throwback SEC-style game, but in the end I think the Aggies and the 12th Man prevail.

Texas A&M 23, AU 16

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