It’s the second meeting between the two schools, with the first time around to open up the 1950 season in Sacramento – the Aggies won 48-18. This year, this is Texas A&M’s tune-up before starting out the SEC world against Arkansas next week in Arlington. 2-0, the offense is working with a strong win over Arizona State and a dominant performance against Ball State. Nevada is trying to come up with something to kick into a groove after getting pasted by Arizona 44-20 last week.

Below we dive into the Texas A&M vs. Nevada prediction and full game preview.

Texas A&M vs. Nevada Prediction & Preview

Broadcast

Date: Saturday, September 19
Game Time: 12:00 p.m. ET/11:00 a.m. CT
Venue: Kyle Field (College Station, TX)
Network: SECN

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Why You Need To Care

Nevada could use a statement win. Beating Washington State last season was nice, but it’s been a while since the Wolf Pack did anything to make any sort of big splash – this would do it. However, the offense hasn’t been up to its normal snuff, and the defense hasn’t been able to pick up the slack and wasn’t even close in the 44-20 loss to Arizona. Now it has to deal with a red-hot A&M team.

The Aggies might not have been dominant in their win over Arizona State, but they put away a team many thought might be a real threat to win the Pac-12 title – and it might still be – and came back razor-sharp with a good, strong offensive day against Ball State. It hasn’t been a perfect start by any stretch, but this is looking like a team growing into something special for the long haul. About to go on a killer run of SEC games, this is it for the relative easy dates until the Western Carolina game in mid-November.

Why Nevada Will Win

If there was ever a time to get the running game working, this would be it. The Texas A&M defense has been fantastic so far compared to where it was at last season, but Ball State was able to rip off over six yards a crack and Arizona State was running relatively well, at least when it wasn’t getting stuffed for big plays behind the line. The talent is there for Nevada to start coming up with more big runs and more time crunching drives, and it’ll be a must to keep the A&M offense off the field. Good on third downs so far – and able to hold Arizona to 2-of-13 conversions last week – Nevada’s offense has to move the chains and has to try to grind this out, even if it goes against the team’s nature.

Why Texas A&M Will Win

The Nevada offense isn’t working. There’s no real passing game and the rushing attack was stuffed by Arizona. Tyler Stewart has been accurate, and he’s had a few decent moments, but for the most part there’s been way too much dinking and dunking and not enough effective drives. Against a team like Texas A&M, Nevada has to ramp up the downfield passing game and has to be prepared to roll in a shootout. It hasn’t looked capable of that yet.

Player Who Matters

The true freshman has been every bit as good as advertised. Texas A&M would’ve had one of the nation’s best receiving corps even without any more help, but in came super-recruit Christian Kirk, and he’s been dominant so far. He started out with six catches for 106 yards and a score against Arizona State, and followed it up with four grabs for 43 yards against Ball State. The rest of the receiving corps hasn’t been able to blow up yet, but once the attention starts getting paid to the true frosh, that’ll come.

What’s Going To Happen?

Nevada won’t be able to keep up. The defense isn’t there to handle the options the Aggies are about to throw out there, while the Wolf Pack attack doesn’t have the downfield passing game to get back in the game after getting scored on with a few big early haymakers.

Texas A&M vs. Nevada Prediction

It’s that time, folks. The Texas A&M vs. Nevada prediction is …

Final Score: Texas A&M 48, Nevada 17

Must See Rating: 5: Republican Debate, Second Round – 1: Republican Debate, First Round … 2.5