Texas A&M – Kansas State Pre-game

The Texas A&M Aggies will hope to even their conference record Saturday when they meet the Wildcats of Kansas State. The game will be played at the Bill Snyder Family Stadium in Manhattan, Kansas.

The Aggies (3-2, 0-1 Big 12) lost their first Big 12 contest last week to Oklahoma State at Kyle Field. This will be the first road trip for the young Aggie football team. The Wildcats (3-3, 1-1 Big 12) trail in the all-time series 5-8. The Aggies have won five out of the last six games including a Big 12 Championship game. The Wildcats beat the Aggies in 2008 at Kyle Field, 44-30.

Texas A&M will be taking their high-powered, high-scoring offense against Kansas State’s rugged defense. Aggie quarterback Jerrod Johnson leads a big-play offense that has exploded for yardage of 20 or more 26 times this year. In fact, Johnson has broken one Big 12 record and stands to break another this Saturday. He has thrown 228 passes without an interception. That record dates back to last year’s Baylor game. He is within Kansas QB Todd Reesing’s record of 223 season attempts without a pick off. Johnson needs three passes without a pick to break Reesing’s record.

K-State must rebound from a crushing 14-66 defeat delivered by Texas Tech last week. They face mathematical elimination from the Big 12 North Division race, but they are still very much in the running for a bowl invitation. This is Coach Bill Snyder’s first season back at the helm at K-State. He coached at K-State from 1989 until 2005.

As with all of Snyder’s teams, K-State has fielded a superb special teams unit. The special teams units have blocked one punt, one field goal, and one PAT so far this season.

The Wildcat offense is led by quarterback Grant Gregory who threw two fourth quarter TD passes to lift K-State over Iowa State two weeks ago. He has only played in only five games.

Gregory will be target of A&M’s Von Miller who leads the nation in sacks with nine. That’s 1.8 sacks per game. Aggie defensive coordinator Joe Kines created the “Jack” position to feature Miller’s talents which includes one of the quickest first steps in college football. The Aggie fans and defenders have come alive watching Miller display a variety of moves to get to the quarterback.

The game will be televised on Fox College Sports. Sirius Satellite Radio will broadcast the game on channel 125.

> Check out the great Big 12 sports gear includingTexas A&M apparel & clothing available online through Big 12 Fans!

By Jay Goode
Big 12 Fans Texas A&M Correspondent

More Texas A&M articles from Goode:

Find more Big 12 football articles online through Big12-fans.com!