No. 17 Aggies Return Home to Battle South Carolina

Saturday, October 23

Bryan-College Station

6:30 PM

Texas A&M

South Carolina

Tickets

Photo by: Craig Bisacre/Texas A&M Athletics

Oct 22, 2021 | Football

By: Athletics Communications

17th-ranked Texas A&M returns to Kyle Field for a two-game homestand that begins Saturday night with the annual battle with South Carolina. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. (SEC Network).

Game 8: Texas A&M (5-2, 2-2) vs South Carolina (4-3, 1-3)

Saturday, October 23 • 6:39 p.m. (CT)
Kyle Field (102,733)
TV: SEC Network
Radio: Texas A&M Sports Network, Sirius 134/XM 190
Live Audio: 12th Man Mobile app
Live Stats: Click Here

GAME NOTES (PDF)

What to Watch For

The Aggies and Gamecocks have only met as SEC foes as they face off for the eighth time on Saturday and A&M hunts for its third straight victory on the season.
A&M has outscored the South Carolina 78-9 in the last two meetings and has not given up a touchdown in the series since the waning minutes of the 2018 meeting.
Junior RB Isaiah Spiller remains one of the SEC’s top rushers as he ranks third with 659 yards on the year, while his 94.14 ypg average ranks fourth in the league ... He is 150 yards away from cracking the top 10 on A&M’s all-time career rushing yards list.
Junior Ainias Smith has been scoring in bunches this season, making at least two trips to the end zone in the three games he has scored in ... His six TD catches on the year tie him for 12th nationally.
Smith is two touchdowns away from tying Mike Evans in seventh on A&M’s career receiving TDs list as he enters the week with 15.
Junior TE Jalen Wydermyer is 16 yards away from passing Martellus Bennett’s record of 1,246 career receiving yards by a tight end as he enters the week with 1,231 to date.
A&M’s trio of DL Micheal Clemons, DeMarvin Leal and Tyree Johnson are a threat to any QB as Clemons has had at least 1.0 TFL in five straight games, Leal ranks 14th in the nation with 5.5 sacks on the year and Johnson has tallied 3.0 sacks through the Aggies’ back-to-back victories.
Senior PLK Seth Small ranks second on A&M’s all-time scoring list with 329 career points ... Small is also tied with Kyle Bryant at No. 2 with 60 career field goals and is within range of 2011 Lou Groza Award winner Randy Bullock’s school record of 63 three-pointers.

Quick Hits

Against Missouri, junior RB Isaiah Spiller (178) and sophomore RB Devon Achane (151) became the first duo to have 150-plus all-purpose yards each in a game since 2018 when Christian Kirk (219) and Trayveon Williams (151) accomplished the feat against Wake Forest.
Spiller and Achane became the first Aggie duo to average over 7.5 yards per carry with at least 10 attempts in the same game since Trayveon Williams and Trevor Knight did so against Arkansas in 2016.
Junior WR Ainias Smith ranks 12th in the nation and leads the SEC among players that have returned at least 10 punts as he averages 10.13 yards per return ... His 427 career punt return yards rank 12th on A&M’s all-time list.
Sophomore DB Antonio Johnson is second on the team with 51 tackles on the season, good for second among league DBs ... His 36 solo takedowns are the second-most by any player in the league.
Senior S Leon O’Neal Jr. is tied for second in the SEC with seven passes defended on the season, having broken up five passes and picked off two more.
As a team, the Aggies rank 14th in scoring defense, allowing just 16.4 points per game ... The unit is averaging 3.0 sacks and 7.0 tackles for loss per game on the year, both ranking in the top 25 nationally.
A&M came ready to score at Missouri, putting up 21 points in the first quarter, the most it has scored in the opening period since the Tennessee game in 2016.
Quick starts have been a harbinger of Aggie victories in the Jimbo Fisher era ... The Aggies are 23-4 when scoring first and a perfect 22-0 when leading after the first quarter.

Isaiah Spiller and touchdown celebration

Milestone Watch

Junior RB Isaiah Spiller is in need of 150 yards on the ground to crack A&M’s top 10 in career rushing yards, he enters the week with 2,641.
Junior WR Ainias Smith has 15 career TD catches and needs two receiving touchdowns to tie Mike Evans (2012-13) in seventh on A&M’s all-time career list.
Junior TE Jalen Wydermyer needs one touchdown reception to move into eighth on A&M’s career receiving TDs list, entering the week with 14 ... Wydermyer’s 14 career touchdown grabs are already a school record among tight ends.
Wydermyer is also chasing the career receiving yards by a tight end record at A&M as he is 16 yards shy of passing Martellus Bennett’s 1,246 career yards.
Senior PLK Seth Small is three field goals away from the all-time program record, having sent 60 attempts through the upright so far in his career.

Three-Headed Monster

Juniors WR Ainias Smith and RB Isaiah Spiller, along with sophomore RB Devon Achane, have become a relentless force for the Aggies, scoring 16 of the team’s 21 TDs so far this season.
The trio led the offense in week one with Achane and Spiller racking up 124 and 113 rushing yards, respectively, and Smith adding 100 receiving yards ... Achane and Smith also each made a pair of trips to the end zone in the victory.
In the win over No. 1 Alabama, the three Aggies scored four of the team’s five touchdowns as Smith had a pair of TD grabs, including the game-tying score with three-minutes remaining to position the Aggies for victory ... Spiller added a first quarter run into the end zone before Achane took a 96-yard kickoff return to the house in the third quarter.
At Missouri, the three players combined to score all five of A&M’s touchdowns, with Smith and Achane each making two trips to the end zone ... For the second time this season, Spiller and Achane each recorded over 100 rushing yards.
Smith and Achane are the only players on the roster to have scored a rushing and receiving touchdown in the same game ... Smith did so against Arkansas and at Tennessee last season, while Achane hauled in a 52-yard pass and used a 3-yard run to return to the end zone on the very next drive at South Carolina.

It's Spiller Time

Junior RB Isaiah Spiller has remained as one of A&M’s most consistent performers in the backfield ... He ranks in the top four in the SEC with 669 rush yards on the year, averaging 94.14 per game.
Spiller has rushed for over 100 yards in a game four times this season and 14 times in his career, most recently rushing for 168 yards at Missouri ... Only Cyrus Gray (2003-06, 15) and Trayveon Williams (2016-18, 14) have tallied the same or more 100-yard games since the Aggies made the move to the Big 12 in 1996.
Spiller has been a go-to in the end zone for the Aggies, scoring a touchdown in five of the last six games, including a 25-yard run to the end zone against No. 1 Alabama and a 67-yard sprint to the end zone against No. 16 Arkansas.
After adding 26 yards through the air against the Razorbacks, Spiller is one of only six current players in the Power 5 to have tallied more than 500 receiving yards and 2,000 rushing yards in their career ... He is the sixth Aggie RB to reach the 500+ plateau in career receiving yards, most recently Trayveon Williams did so with 561 yards from 2016-18.

Achane is Off the Chain

Sophomore RB Devon Achane wasted no time settling into his second season in Aggieland, picking up where he left off after last season’s Orange Bowl MVP performance when he put up 140 yards on 12 carries and two scores.
Achane ranks second in the SEC averaging 6.88 yards per carry, while also leading A&M’s kickoff return team that ranks No. 2 in the nation, averaging 45 yards per return.
Achane put his speed on display in the win over No. 1 Alabama when he returned a third quarter kickoff 96 yards to the end zone.
Against Kent State, Achane rushed for his second consecutive 100-yard game (127), with both games featuring a 60-plus yard sprint for a touchdown ... In the win over New Mexico Achane’s success came through the air as he caught all three passes that came his way and finished the day with 45 yards and the second receiving TD of his career.
The talented sophomore also runs track for the Aggies, already receiving NCAA All-America selections in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay ... In his first season, Achane clocked the 11th fastest time in A&M history in the 200m (20.31), along with a 10.22 100m.

Swiss Army Knife

Junior WR Ainias Smith has been called a “Swiss Army Knife” by head coach Jimbo Fisher because of his do-it-all ability on the field.
Smith leads the Aggies with 319 receiving yards on 29 catches this season ... His six receiving touchdowns on the year put him in a tie for 12th nationally.
Smith has recorded six multi-touchdown games in his career, three this season ... Most recently, Smith caught a pair of scoring passes against No. 1 Alabama, including the game-tying score with three minutes remaining, before making two trips to the end zone in the first half at Missouri.
Smith is already the only player in Texas A&M history to gain 250+ yards as a receiver, rusher, punt returner and kickoff returner, and is one of 10 players in SEC history to reach the plateau ... Smith is one of three SEC players to have accomplished the feat in the past decade.
Against Mississippi State, Smith became the third player in SEC history to rack up 1,000 receiving yards while also gaining 250+ yards as a rusher and returner (punt and kickoff) ... The others are Kentucky’s Randall Cobb (2008- 10) and LSU’s Skyler Green (2002-05).
A&M’s go-to on punt return, Smith currently ranks in the top 20 nationally and leads the SEC in punt returns and total yards, boasting a league-best 10.13 yards per return average among players with 10-plus returns... He is quickly climbing A&M’s all-time career chart, entering the week ranking 12th all-time with 427 yards on 47 returns.

Wydermyer Setting the Standard

Junior TE Jalen Wydermyer continues to set the bar for A&M tight ends, as his 14 career TD receptions are the most in program history by a tight end.
Against Colorado, Wydermyer became the fourth tight end all-time at A&M to tally over 1,000 receiving yards in his career.
Entering the week, Wydermyer ranks 27th on A&M’s all-time career receiving yards list with 1,231 ... He is 16 yards shy of Martellus Bennett’s tight end receiving yards record of 1,246.
Wydermyer scored six touchdowns in each of his first two seasons, the second-most in a season by a tight end in program history ... He continues to chase Jace Sternberger’s 10 TD receptions in 2018.

Johnson Makes Presence Felt

Sophomore DB Antonio Johnson has emerged as one of the SEC’s top tacklers among DBs in his first season as the Aggies’ starter at nickel.
Johnson has tallied 51 tackles on the season, which is the second-most on the team and among SEC defensive backs ... His 36 solo takedowns are the the second-most by any defensive player in the league.
On the season, Johnson has led the team in tackles in three games, including against Mississippi State when he tallied a career-high 15.
Johnson is second on the team with five passes defended on the season and recently recorded the first interception of his career when he picked off Missouri in the first quarter and returned the ball 6 yards.