KINGSVILLE, Texas – Looking to start the month of Oct. with their first home victory of 2017, the Texas A&M-Kingsville football team (1-4, 0-3 LSC) will square off with the West Texas A&M Buffaloes (2-3, 1-2) at Javelina Stadium on Saturday night at 7 p.m.

West Texas is attempting to shake off the doldrums of consecutive losses in conference play, as they fell by two scores to both Tarleton State and Eastern New Mexico. Coach Hunter Hughes began his first season at the helm with two wins in three tries, including victories over then No. 7 Colorado State-Pueblo and UT Permian Basin in West Texas's conference opener. Saturday will represent the second road trip of 2017 for the Buffaloes, who's only previous road game was against Tarleton.

The Hogs are coming off their best statistical offensive performance in more than a year, as they ran up 519 yards of total offense against Angelo State. They picked up 99 of those yards on one play, as Cade Dyal and Jordan Thomas combined on a school record 99-yard touchdown pass. Thomas finished the day with four catches for 117 yards, the second time he's topped the century mark this season. The senior from San Antonio has been among the Lone Star Conference's top pass catchers all season and he'll enter Saturday second in the LSC in receiving yards with 461 and tied for second with four scoring grabs.

In the run game, Jeff Carr became the third Javelina running back to top 100 yards in 2017, reaching 104 on 20 carries. Dyal will be making his fourth start for Kingsville and is coming off throwing for a career high 267 yards along with two touchdowns against the Rams.

West Texas has started a pair of quarterbacks this season in Ben Arbuckle and Justin Houghtaling, who has taken the majority of the snaps for the Buffaloes. The two of them have combined for 712 yards and three touchdowns, but they also have four interceptions between them and a completion percentage of 48.8%. TAMUK fans might remember Arbuckle from last season's meeting, when he threw for 354 yards and four touchdowns in Canyon.

The top skill position players for Hughes through five games have been his running backs. Junior Warren Witherspoon leads the roster with 227 total yards, including a team-high 191 on the ground. Jordan Johnson has started all five games at the tailback spot, totaling 139 yards and three scores with an average of 5.0 yards per carry. He's also added 97 yards receiving on 7 catches. On the receiving front, Markel Stewart leads the way with 160 yards on 10 receptions, both team-highs. Ja'Quarius Daniels has caught a pair of touchdowns.

The Buffaloes defense is in the top half of the league in points-per-game allowed and yards-per-game allowed and they're also tied for third in the LSC with five interceptions. The unit is led by senior linebacker Daelin Young, who entered 2017 following a second-team all-conference junior campaign. The native of Mesquite, Texas is on pace to do even better this year. He's tallied five sacks, tied for the league-high, to go with seven tackles for loss and 35 total takedowns and all three totals lead the team. In the defensive backfield, Isaiah Barnett and Kevon Thomas each have a pair of interceptions and Thomas returned one for a touchdown.

David Brown II's defense remains atop the LSC leaderboard with 17 sacks. Caleb Valentine leads the team with 3.5, but 12 other players have at least half-a-sack to their credit. Peyton Tilley and Braedon Robinson shared the team lead in tackles against Angelo State, with each student-athlete collecting 10. Trevor Moses remains the unit's top tackler with 36.

The all-time series between these two universities leans in favor of Kingsville, 17-14 with one tie, which occurred when the teams first met in 1939. When they crossed paths in 2016, the Hogs scored 44 of the game's first 51 points on their way to a 51-34 triumph. Prior to that, the Buffaloes had won six-in-a-row over the Javelinas and they've also taken the last three meetings at Javelina Stadium.

To catch all the action live, visit javelinaathletics.com, where you'll be able to find live video and audio with Mark Inserra on the call and up-to-the-minute stats. Once the final gun sounds, javelinaatheltics.com is also where you can find a complete recap off all the action in Kingsville.