By ROBERT CESSNA
For several players on the Texas A&M and Baylor football teams, Saturday's game at Kyle Field will be more like the Battle of the Babies instead of the Battle of the Brazos.
Texas A&M has played 27 freshmen, including a school-record 18 true freshmen. Baylor has played 25 freshmen, including 10 true freshmen.
Baylor is expected to start four freshmen, including quarterback Nick Florence. He'll be working against an A&M defense that is expected to start two freshmen and probably play at least eight more.
"We're not young anymore," A&M defensive coordinator Joe Kines said last week. "This late in the year, those guys who are freshmen are almost to the age of sophomores."
A&M junior Von Miller, who leads the nation in sacks, doesn't look at his younger teammates any differently than the upperclassmen.
"With the freshmen, like I said before, they really don't have the mindset of freshmen," Miller said. "I really don't talk to them as freshmen at all."
However, they have made freshman mistakes as A&M and Baylor have suffered through growing pains. Baylor is 4-6, including a 1-5 Big 12 record. A&M (5-5, 2-4) is 1-4 away from Kyle Field.
"With our young football team, certainly there's a comfort level [at home] that might not exist on the road," A&M head coach Mike Sherman said.
A&M is 4-1 at Kyle Field, with the loss a hard-fought 36-31 verdict against 12th-ranked Oklahoma State. The Aggies have suffered lopsided losses at Kansas State (62-14) and Oklahoma (65-10) and against Arkansas (47-19) at a neutral site.
"Particularly with us playing so many freshmen, the maturity level of how fragile they can be if things don't go quite well enough [is a challenge]," Sherman said. "[You have] to keep them engaged when things aren't going well."
Florence threw for a school-record 427 yards and three touchdowns in a 40-32 victory at Missouri two weeks ago, but threw three interceptions last week in a 47-14 loss against Texas as Baylor could manage only 240 yards.
"Honestly, I thought he battled hard," Baylor head coach Art Briles said. "We had a couple of misfortunate things that happened early. Other than that I thought he kept his composure over the course of the game."
Florence is playing because of a season-ending injury to Robert Griffin, who accounted for 297 yards and two scores in Baylor's 41-21 victory over the Aggies last year. He wasn't the only freshman who had a big day. Kendall Wright was Baylor's leading receiver with four catches for 71 yards and a touchdown, and freshman Ryan Tannehill led A&M in receiving with four catches for 67 yards.
Saturday's game won't be televised, but the players are understand there's more than beating a rival at stake. A&M will become bowl-eligible with a victory, while Baylor can do that by winning its last two games.
"We're going to leave it all on that field and so are they," Florence said. "They're in the same boat, so it's going to be a great game and we're excited."
TEXAS A&M FOOTBALL
* Saturday's game: Baylor (4-6, 1-5 Big 12) at Texas A&M (5-5, 2-4), 2:30 p.m.
* TV/radio: None/WTAW, 1620 AM and Sirius Ch. 154
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