Texas A&M Aggies Primed For Win Over Ball State

The No. 16 Texas A&M Aggies football team prepares for an over-matched Ball State Cardinals team at newly renovated Kyle Field in College Station.

It’s games like these that set the stage for huge upsets in college football. While fans of the Texas A&M Aggies aren’t really interested in hearing that, it’s simply a fact that might make Saturday’s game a bit more interesting.

If not, expect head coach Kevin Sumlin‘s crew to improve to 2-0 on the young season while giving the newly renovated Kyle Field a proper opening. The $485 million upgrades to this storied venue deserve nothing less, right?

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Tell that to a fan of the Dallas Cowboys who witnessed the grand opening of their $1 billion football palace in Arlington completely ruined by the New York Giants back in September 2009.

Fortunately, Ball State isn’t quite the same match up for the Aggies as the Giants were for the Cowboys, although we’ll find out more about that latter part on Sunday night.

These Aggies are primed for a big win against a Cardinals team that won a shootout against FCS program Virginia Military Institute by a score of 48-36 last weekend.

While Ball State quarterback Jack Milas had a career performance last week, there’s a serious issue concerning his opponent this week when compared to last week’s challenger.

The name that jumps out in my mind is Texas A&M defensive end Myles Garrett.

If you saw last week’s opener against the Arizona State Sun Devils down in Houston, then you know exactly why I bring up this young sophomore who exploded at College Station last year with 11.5 sacks.

Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports compares Garrett to former South Carolina Gamecocks phenom-defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, now about to enter his second season with the NFL’s Houston Texans. This is a lofty comparison between a player like Garrett and the first-overall selection in the NFL draft.

Frankly, this is probably the biggest area of concern for Ball State. It will be critical that Cardinals sophomore running back Darian Green offers a similar contribution against the Aggies that he did against VMI last week.

If this happens, it may fall on either – or both – of the Texas A&M quarterbacks to help generate some points.

Dallas Morning News contributor Brandon Wheeland grabbed the following from Sumlin regarding the use of sophomore quarterback Kyle Allen and freshman backup Kyler Murray against the Sun Devils last week:

"I heard the word ‘yanked’ – no one yanked anybody… The explanation to Kyle Allen was ‘hey, you’re going back in.’ They were able to talk to each other. Knowing that he [Allen] was going to be going back in probably calmed them both down a bit."

Assuming that’s the whole truth, especially given the fact that the Aggies offense sputtered early in the season opener, it will be interesting to see how much time Murray sees against a Cardinals squad that could easily fall behind early.

Kyle Field will see some stiff tests later this season with teams like Mississippi State, Alabama, South Carolina and Auburn still on the way to College Station.

Ball State on Saturday won’t be much more than a pop-quiz to be followed by plenty of celebrating thereafter.

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