Tannehill, No. 8 Aggies Host Weeden, No. 7 Cowboys in Weekend's Marquee Matchup

Much to the chagrin of head coach Mike Sherman, who strictly adheres to the mentality that the first matchup of Top 10 teams at Kyle Field in 36 seasons is exactly the same as facing off against Idaho or SMU, his play-making senior free safety Trent Hunter already feels the difference on campus in anticipation of No. 8 Texas A&M’s Saturday afternoon tussle with No. 7 Oklahoma State.

“I can sit up here all day and say it’s not [different],” Hunter said. “‘It’ll be the same as last week and the week before that,’ but we all know this is conference play. It opens conference up and it’s one of those games we’ve been talking about since Big 12 media day.”

Only since Big 12 media day? How about since October 2, 2010, when the Aggies lost a heartbreaker in Stillwater, 38-35?

“It was definitely a tough game for us,” senior quarterback Ryan Tannehill said. “I went back and watched the game this morning and we really didn’t play well as an offense—a lot of missed blocks, just not executing well.”

One facet highlighting the Aggies lack of execution was the turnover margin—the Cowboys defense forced five takeaways, including four interceptions. But remember: Jerrod Johnson was quarterbacking the Aggies at the time while the team’s current gunslinger, who caught three balls for 68 yards, lined up in the slot. This is not the same team that traveled back to College Station with their heads hung low.

"It’s a whole different atmosphere, a whole different vibe,” senior defensive end Tony Jerod-Eddie said. “Everybody’s ready.”

Also overlooked last year was the fact that the defense had played only three games in new defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter’s scheme before trekking north to Stillwater. DeRuyter’s hybrid 3-4 caught on shortly thereafter and eventually stifled enough offenses to catalyze the Aggies' six-game winning streak that resulted in a Cotton Bowl berth.

Hunter believes that with another year under its belt, the defense is ready to fully embody the Wrecking Crew mentality.

“I feel like we’re a little more flexible this year,” Hunter said. “We’re able to move around and do things we weren’t able to do last year.

“With [sophomore joker] Damontre [Moore] and [junior outside linebacker] Sean [Porter], and all those young guys we’ve got coming off the edge this year, we’re more balanced and show different looks and we’re more comfortable with where we’re at right now. We’re playing so much faster than we were last year and with so much confidence.”

The Aggies will need every bit of talent stepping up in a big way if they hope to contain Oklahoma State’s Brandon Weeden, the remarkably savvy quarterback who leads the country with 384.7 passing yards per game and sits at the helm of the No. 1 passing offense in America. His prime target, wide receiver Justin Blackmon, won last year’s Biletnikoff Award as the nation’s top wideout and has caught 23 Weeden touchdowns over his last 15 games to go along with a special teams touchdown and a rushing score.

The Aggies are one of only three teams that rank in the Top 20 nationally in both total offense and total defense, and Jerod-Eddie knows that hitting Weeden hard from the first whistle could be the game’s deciding factor.

“We can’t let him get comfortable because he’ll kill us,” Jerod-Eddie said. “A sack is the dessert, but I mean knocking him down and making him know we’re coming, you know, trying to hit him every chance we get, that’s just as good.  As long as he feels us, like I said we have the greatest secondary in the country so if we make him throw some balls he don’t want to throw and throw them early then I think those guys on the back end will take care of it.”

In a matchup that could very well cause the lights of the Kyle Field scoreboard to be replaced, Tannehill knows how important it is to come out firing.

“I think a huge advantage about this week is being able to play at home and having the great fan base behind us,” Tannehill said. “I think early if we can get some points on the board and the defense can get a few stops then the momentum will really shift our way and we can use the crowd to our advantage.”

In typical Shermanian fashion, the gruff head coach stressed the importance of focusing on the game at hand—just like Idaho last week, and SMU before that.

“I told the players before the game last week, ‘We have 11 one-game seasons the rest of the way.’ There’s no bye, there’s nothing. 11 one-game seasons and that’s the way I look at it. This is a one game season and we’ve got to be 1-0 at the end of this week. By Saturday night, we’ve got to be 1-0 and then we’ll worry about the next one.”

Texas A&M’s conference season starts Saturday afternoon at 2:30 PM and all of Kyle Field will be cheering, hoping that it doesn’t end then too.