Fresh off the first bye week of the season, the well-rested No. 9 Texas A&M Aggies (4-1, 1-1) will head to Oxford, Miss., to take on the Ole Miss Rebels (3-2, 1-2) on Saturday. The Rebels recently dropped out of the Top 25 after losing their last two games, while the Aggies are looking for their third-straight win and tenth consecutive road victory.
The Aggies will be without senior defensive lineman Kirby Ennis, who tore his ACL two weeks ago in Arkansas and is expected to miss the rest of the season. Texas A&M is expected to have junior safety Floyd Raven Sr. back, who Sumlin said is “probable” to play.
With an offense that has yet to score under 42 points in a game, the Aggies lead the SEC in three major offensive categories – scoring (49.2 points per game), passing (365 yards per game) and total offense (586.4 yards per game).
Sophomore quarterback Johnny Manziel is averaging 297.8 yards passing per game and leads the team in rushing with 62.8 yards per game. Eighteen different players have caught a pass and nine have hauled in a touchdown reception in the last five games.
“We encourage [Manziel] to win,” said head coach Kevin Sumlin. “We’re not telling him whether to run or throw on every play. That would limit his game.”
The Aggies are second in the SEC in third down conversion percentage – converting for first downs 56.7 percent of all third down plays – and lead the conference with an average of 29.4 first downs per game.
The Ole Miss defense, through its first five games, has allowed only 175.8 yards rushing per game. The Rebel rushing defense struggled with its last two losses against top-ranked Alabama and unranked Auburn, giving up an average of 268 yards per game on the ground.