Leading up to this week’s showdown with Texas A&M, Saturday Down South’s Drew Laing breaks down the battle between the Aggies and the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Texas A&M Aggies

Week 5 vs. Arkansas (3:30 p.m. ET on CBS)

THE SKINNY: With the departure of key guys like Jake Matthews, Mike Evans and Johnny Manziel from last year’s team, the Texas A&M offense was expected fall back somewhat. Combine that with a young defense and the Aggies weren’t expected to make a whole lot of noise in the SEC this season. Well, throw those perceptions out the door. Texas A&M exploded onto the scene this year with a blowout road win against a top-10 ranked South Carolina to open the season and have followed that up with three routs against cupcake teams. It’s Texas A&M who now finds themselves ranked in the top 10, thanks to the poised and confident Kenny Hill, who is running the SEC’s highest scoring offense (55.3 ppg). Yes, the defense is young, but they are very talented and have excelled at putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks. They possess speed and athleticism at virtually every position and have all the pieces to stay in the top-10 all season long.

KEY PLAYER: Kenny Hill. The sophomore quarterback clearly has been the Aggies’ best player this season, much to the surprise of college football fans. Hill was even looked at as the possible backup to true freshman Kyle Allen when the two were in competition for the starting job before the season. But thanks to a rocket arm, good poise in the pocket and a strong offensive line, Hill has excelled, throwing for 1,359 yards, 13 touchdowns and just one interception. In A&M’s spread attack, it’s Hill’s performance that’ll dictate just how successful the Aggies can be on any certain day. If he’s on Saturday, it’ll be incredibly tough for a questionable Arkansas secondary to keep A&M from scoring points at a high rate.

WHAT TO WATCH: How Texas A&M handles the Arkansas run game. A lot of eyes will be on how Arkansas handles Texas A&M’s offense, but as much attention should be placed on the Aggies’ defense Saturday. They’ve shown some vulnerability to the run this season and with a lot of underclassmen receiving significant playing time, it’s unclear just how they’ll respond to SEC’s most powerful running attack. Last season, the Aggies were last in run defense, allowing 222.3 yards per game, which is one of the reasons why they’ve injected so much youth into this unit. Saturday will be their first real test against the run, so there’s obviously some concern to how they’ll defend the three-headed rushing attack of the Razorbacks.

FINAL SAY: The key for the Razorbacks will be to keep Texas A&M’s offense off the field as long as possible. They’ll do that through long drives and an offensive game plan that’s predicated on the run game with a little play action mixed in to keep the defense honest. There’s no question that the Aggies will score points against the Razorbacks, and probably a lot of them. However, this Arkansas team can score in bunches, too. It’ll be a high-scoring game, but I believe Arkansas’ strength at both offensive and defensive line combined with a tough running game and underdog mentality will allow the Hogs to get the upset against the No. 6 ranked Aggies.