A week after getting throttled by one Mississippi state power Texas A&M completes the Magnolia State doubleheader when it hosts third-ranked Mississippi Saturday night at Kyle Field.
The Aggies are coming off a lopsided 48-31 loss to Mississippi State that dropped A&M out of the top 10 and was A&M's first loss against one of the Mississippi schools since it joined the SEC.
They'll have to show plenty of improvement Saturday if they don't want to see that losing streak move to two and it will have to come against a Mississippi program that's riding high after its 23-17 win over then No. 1 Alabama Saturday.
A&M had no answer for MSU quarterback Dak Prescott and now must try and slow down Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace. Wallace played against A&M in each of the last two losses but it a different quarterback his senior season.
"He is one of the few veteran quarterbacks that are in the league," Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin said. "This is the third time we've played. Bo has obviously had his ups and downs over his career. This year he's really played like a true veteran. He made plays to win the game last week in a critical moment in a big game so there's no substitute for experience. There's no doubt you see his leadership, his ability to be in the system. He's operating at a high level right now."
Texas A&M sophomore Kenny Hill has also been operating at a high level too. He had two interceptions on the season before being picked off three times by Mississippi State. But he was also hurt by several drops from his receivers. Hill still threw for four touchdowns and is third in the nation in both passing yards and touchdown passes.
While Mississippi doesn't have to game plan for Johnny Manziel, who hurt the Rebels in each of the last two games, that doesn't mean things are going to be any easier for Ole Miss.
"They're more athletic on defense and offensively you don't have the threat of a guy extending plays quite like a Manziel did," Mississippi head coach Hugh Freeze said. "I think they're deeper at receivers and really stretch you from sideline to sideline and their quarterback plays extremely well. The offensive line is one of the better ones I've seen in a long, long time."
Mississippi (5-0, 2-0) is also in unfamiliar territory. The Rebels have played the Aggies (5-1, 2-1) twice in conference play but both those games were at home, making this their first trip to Kyle Field since 1975. They'll make that trip as Sports Illustrated cover boys (along with Mississippi State) thanks to the win over Alabama and as one of the new "it" teams in college football.
Despite all the attention and the big win Freeze has liked what he's seen from his team.
"Every week you're either going to be on the bitterness of a difficult loss or you're on the high of an emotional win," said Freeze, who admitted to getting no sleep after Saturday's win. "Either one we try to treat the same and that is we have our normal Sunday meetings and we talk about our recent game and physically put in the trash and mentally hopefully then get back out and get going for the next one. It's worked for us on the bitter end. We've had some difficult losses in our two-plus losses here and bounced back from them playing really well."
