Western Carolina quarterback Troy Mitchell will return to his home state on Saturday. Mitchell, who grew up in nearby Houston, is the school's all-time leader in total offense with 8,891 yards in his career. He earned Southern Conference player of the week honors this week after throwing for 305 yards and three touchdowns and running for 55 yards and two more scores against Furman.
Sumlin knew about him when he was in high school but admitted this week that he didn't recruit him -- but probably should have.
"He's one of greatest players in their history at quarterback," Sumlin said. "Will be excited to come in here. Probably have a lot of people here. He's an exciting player."
STOPPING THE RUN
Texas A&M's defense is focused on shoring up its run defense after giving up a season-high 311 yards rushing last week. But it certainly wasn't the first time the unit has struggled in that area and the Aggies rank 115th in the nation by allowing 218.3 yards rushing a game. They've allowed more than 230 yards rushing in each of the last four games.
NEWSOME'S WORK
Western Carolina running back Detrez Newsome could be a problem for an A&M defense struggling to stop the run. Newsome has 857 yards rushing with eight touchdowns this season. He's coming off a big game where he rushed for 184 yards.
PILING UP TACKLES
Texas A&M free safety Armani Watts leads the Aggies and is fourth in the SEC with 88 tackles. He had 13 tackles last week for his fifth game this season with at least 10 tackles. His best game came against Mississippi when he piled up a career-high 20 tackles, which were the second-most in school history for a defensive back. He's 12 tackles away from becoming the first A&M player to reach 100 tackles since 2010
