It’s all in how you define offensive balance.

Iowa State football coach Dan McCarney and his counterpart at Texas A & M, R.C. Slocum, seem to be in disagreement over A & M’s balanced attack.

McCarney thinks the Aggies are a balanced offensive team .

He takes his Iowa State team (0-2, 0-5) to College Station, Tex., this weekend to find out if he is correct.

“There’s not a lot of adjustments that you can make (on defense),” McCarney said.

“You can’t get really fancy, because they can really hurt you both ways. [A & M is] very balanced,” he said.

Slocum doesn’t agree with McCarney’s comments. He feels his team has some work to do.

A & M (1-0, 4-0) has rushed for an average of 280.5 yards per game, 13th best in the nation but has only averaged 147 yards per game passing.

“I am concerned that we need to be more efficient in our passing game,” Slocum said.

And because of that concern, Slocum said, “We’ll continue to work on that, but not at the expense of our running game.”

Dante Hall has rushed for an average of 122 yards a game for A & M, ranked No. 15 by the Associated Press.

Aggie Sirr Parker has chipped in with 82.3 yards per game.

“They’re not real fancy with what they do with their offense, but they’re very physical, very effective, very tough,” McCarney said. “(They are) the best unit of running backs that we’ve seen so far this season.

He added, “They’re very deep and very talented, very fast and they just keep coming at you.”

McCarney said he is concerned that A & M will use last season’s disappointments as motivation this Saturday.

The Aggies struggled to a 6-6 record last season, ending the year with a 51-15 loss to arch-rival Texas.

On top of that, A & M did not go to a bowl game, a rare occurrence during Slocum’s tenure.

Slocum has a 78-21-2 record in eight seasons at the school.

“A & M is not used to staying at home over the holidays,” McCarney said. “They have one of the best winning percentages in all of college football.

This year, McCarney doesn’t think Aggie players will spend their time watching bowl games on the television.

“They look very hungry and very determined to make sure that doesn’t happen this year,” he said.

Slocum still has concerns going into the weekend game.

He is worried that his team might experience a letdown after beating then-16th-ranked Colorado 16-10 last week.

“A game like this is dangerous,” Slocum said.

“It’s a challenge to keep your team on an even keel. The win last week was fun, but it’s over. The challenge is, can we do it again this week?” he said.

Defensively, A & M is led by linebacker Dat Nguyen.

Nguyen had 11 tackles against Colorado, and has averaged 10.2 tackles in his three-year career at A & M.

He has led the team in tackles the previous two seasons, totaling 146 tackles last season.

“The great linebackers, the only time they’re on the ground is when they are tackling somebody,” McCarney said.

“The only time I ever see him (Nguyen) on the ground is when he is taking a back to the ground.”

The Cyclones take on the Aggies at 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon at Kyle Field in College Station.