Two of the more intriguing games this weekend in the SEC feature Auburn’s trip to Mississippi State and Kentucky’s trip to Texas A&M. ESPN College GameDay host Kirk Herbstreit has had time to mull over his thoughts on each game and has already revealed which teams he likes to win each contest.

Starting with Auburn’s trip to Mississippi State, the Tigers may be a top 10 team, but they certainly haven’t been playing like it this season. Outside of the win over Washington in Atlanta in the season opener, the Tigers don’t have another performance worth bragging about five weeks into the season. Will that change this weekend against a struggling Mississippi State team? Herbstreit believes it will.

Here’s what he had to say about the Auburn-Mississippi State on the latest edition of his podcast, the Herbstreit & Fitzsimmons ESPN podcast:

“(Mississippi State) are talking about benching Nick Fitzgerald, going with the backup to spark the offense. The last two weeks against Kentucky and Florida, seven points and six points and I think it’s a combination of playing two really good defenses and they are searching on offense,” Herbstreit said. “Now they have to go up against Auburn, Auburn’s defense that’s as good as there is defending the run.

“Keep a close eye on what they do at quarterback. Do they hold on to Fitzgerald? Do they make a switch? That could be a story. I think Auburn up in the top 10, having the one loss, I feel like even though they are in the top 10, still feel like they are a little bit of a forgotten team in the SEC, I’m sure they’ll go in there and be very determined to deal with the cowbells and be able to get an impressive win. I think they win that game handily.”

Before lamenting how much disrespect Kentucky is getting nationally (keep in mind Herbstreit predicted Kentucky to lose to Florida and Mississippi State this season), Herbstreit stated his opinion that the trip to College Station will be Kentucky’s “toughest game” to this point in the season.

Despite that belief, the ESPN college football analyst is picking Big Blue to return home with a win on Saturday.

“I still think this Kentucky team’s for real,” he continued. “Terry Wilson — A&M has a great D-Line, and they have very physical linebackers, 240-pound type guys. They’re going to be determined to challenge that physical Kentucky running game led by Benny Snell. I think Terry Wilson will be the difference. I think his ability to kinda be the compliment to Snell running, and more importantly, he’s going to have to make some plays passing, and I think Kentucky will be able to get out of there with a very, very close win.”

“A&M is a good team, Kellen Mond has turned it over two interceptions in the last two games so four total, and this Kentucky defense, you mentioned Josh Allen, they’ve got athletes in that secondary that are ball hawks, so I think Kentucky can come up with a couple big turnovers to be able to get the ball back to Terry Wilson. I like Kentucky to win that one.”

So there you have it, Herbie is going with Auburn big over Mississippi State and Kentucky to beat Texas A&M in College Station.