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Kentucky vs. Texas A&M: Game time, TV schedule, online stream, odds and more

Everything you need for Kentucky vs. Texas A&M.

USA Today Sports

How to watch Texas A&M Aggies vs. Kentucky Wildcats

Game Time: 7 p.m. EST

Where: Kyle Field in College Station, Texas

TV Channel: ESPN will have the broadcast

Announcers: Sean McDonough, Todd Blackledge

Live Online Stream: WatchESPN and the WatchESPN app.

Radio: Tom Leach, Jeff Piecoro and Dick Gabriel will have the call on the UK Sports Network.

Replay: SEC Network (check local listings) and ESPN+

Odds: The Aggies opened as 6.5-point favorites, and most sportsbooks have the home team favored by 6 as of Saturday morning. Go here for more betting trends and analysis.

Rosters: Kentucky | Texas A&M

Series: This will be just the third all-time meeting and the first in 65 years. Each team has won one of the previous two meetings. Kentucky won in College Station in 1952, and the Aggies won 7-6 in Lexington in 1953.

Prediction: Go here for all of our staff predictions on today’s matchup.

While we wait for game time, check out this pregame hype video:


The Kentucky Wildcats will look to continue their magical season when they travel to face the Texas A&M Aggies in Week 6.

Kentucky enters this weekend with a 5-0 record and tied for the SEC East least, a start no one could have envisioned. The Wildcats have been one of the biggest surprises in college football thus far, but they’re far from satisfied with what they’ve accomplished.

After all, when you’re 5-0, why not aim for 6-0, 7-0 or even higher than that?

That’s what Mark Stoops and his club are hoping to do, and that starts this weekend in College Station.

“We’ve played good, but the team is still hungry,” said Stoops this week. “They know we can play a lot better and we’re looking forward to that.”

Coming into the season, most ‘experts’ had Kentucky winning around six games, and several projections actually had the Wildcats losing seven games and missing out on the postseason.

Thanks to a vastly improved defense and Benny Snell becoming one of the best players in college football, the Wildcats now have a very real shot at making it to the SEC Championship game and possibly a New Year’s Six bowl game.

The collision course with the Georgia Bulldogs for the SEC East continues to be a realistic option, as Kentucky took care of business and beat South Carolina at home this past week. The Wildcats came out swinging in the first half as they beat the Gamecocks 24-10 in a physical game. The Wildcats’ 24-3 halftime lead was its largest vs. an SEC opponent since leading Vanderbilt 34-10 at halftime in 2005.

Kentucky is now one of the 14 remaining undefeated teams in college football, including just one of four SEC schools. The 5-0 start is the best since the 2007 team started at 5-0, and it marks just the fifth time in school history the Cats have opened the season 5-0 since World War II (also 1949, 1950, 1984).

Mark Stoops’ club is also 3-0 in SEC play for the first time since the 1977 team went undefeated in league play and the fourth time in school history (also 1949 and 1950).

To keep up their dream season, the Wildcats will need to have a strong finish to the regular season, which is far easier said than done. That’s the case Saturday night when Kentucky will look to win at Kyle Field as a near-touchdown underdog to the Aggies.

First-year head coach Jimbo Fisher has his team 3-2 through the first fives games of the season. The losses came against the nation’s top two teams in the coaches poll, Alabama and Clemson.

A&M is coming off a 24-17 win at home against Arkansas. It was not a very impressive performance against a terrible Arkansas team who has been dominated by most opponents.

It has been hard to get a real sense of how good the Aggies truly are by looking at their five games played. A&M had the chance to beat Clemson at home but came up just two points short, then they had a lackluster performance against a bad Arkansas team.

Saturday night it will be important for Fisher’s team to show if they are a for real or not. The performance on the field was not great, but an incident with Fisher and Aggie linebacker Tyrel Dodson made most of the headlines after the win against Arkansas.

Fisher grabbed Dodson’s face mask as he shouted at him. After the game, Dodson tweeted out that everything was fine but this story adds to the unsteady nature of Fisher’s inaugural season at Texas A&M.

Offense:

Texas A&M has a two player offensive attack that features junior running back Trayveon Williams and sophomore quarterback Kellen Mond. Each have ran for four touchdowns this season.

Williams is the third-leading rusher in the SEC behind Benny Snell and Scottie Phillips in terms of total yards. Mond threw for a ridiculous 430 yards in the Aggies loss to Clemson proving how explosive he can be.

Those numbers show that this team has the weapons to put up big numbers. A&M has scored 45 or more points in three of their five games this season and average 36 points per game. Kentucky’s defense has been up for any challenge this season, Mond and the Aggies will present another.

Defense:

Overall the Aggies didn’t play very well in their win against Arkansas, but the defense did do their part. A&M held the Razorbacks to only 11 first downs and a measly 55 rushing yards. Both sides knows that attempting to stop Snell will be the game plan, and A&M has proven to be effective at stopping the run.

Damon Sayles of 247 Sports detailed just how good Texas A&M has been.

“That front seven has been solid on the ground all season. Even against Alabama, the Aggies allowed only 109 rushing yards -- and 35 of those came on a run by Damien Harris. After the Arkansas game, the Aggies are now allowing an average of only 85 rushing yards per game, which would rank them nationally in the top 10 among FBS teams.” Sayles wrote.

Connections:

Mark Stoops and Jimbo Fisher are extremely familiar with each other, as Stoops was Fisher’s defensive coordinator at Florida State from 2010-2012 before being hired at Kentucky. Kentucky offensive coordinator Eddie Gran also was a member of that staff from 2010-12. He was Fisher’s associate head coach, offensive coordinator and running backs coach. Aggies linebackers coach Bradley Dale Peveto was on the UK staff in 2013 as the safeties coach and special teams coordinator.

I believe Kentucky will take the edge it has played with all season down to College Station and use it to their advantage. This team has taken on Snell’s personality of fearing no one and proving it on the field.

There was a ton of trash talking against South Carolina during last week’s contest, and it only seems to fuel the Cats. Stoops will have to keep the team reeled in and focused on another good week of preparation.

Losing Kash Daniel for the first half after his targeting ejection will be a big loss to compensate for, but Kentucky believes true freshman Chris Oats is ready for the challenge.