The Aggies paid homage to the 1975 Southwest Conference Championship team on Saturday as they looked to add another impressive SEC win to their growing resume.
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M fans and the rest of the college football world are just waiting on the Aggies to “Aggie” but this is not the Aggies of old, even if they play in some throwback threads to pay homage to the 1975 Southwest Conference Championship team.
It is no fluke that this A&M troupe is ranked as the #5 team in the country behind a Mike Elko-schemed defense and one of the most exciting offenses across the land.
Marcel Reed has led this high-scoring offense by riding the back of his two budding-star WRs Mario Craver and KC Concepcion, who sit at #1 and #3 in the SEC for receiving yards heading into Week 7.
Leading the cadets on the defensive side of the ball are Cashius Howell and Taurean York, both of which are creating a ton of buzz in NFL front offices as they are poised to play on Sundays.
The Aggies have started the 2025 campaign with their first 5-0 start since the 2016 season, putting up 40+ points in each of the first three games.
Along the way, A&M has already pocketed two SEC wins and a last-minute victory against the then #8-ranked Fighting Irish. Their impressive play has critics turning their heads and paying attention as they currently have the ninth-best odds to win the National Championship.
But all of that could change if they fumble a huge opportunity to beat the Florida Gators and continue to reign over the SEC.
Let’s get into the action!
The Gators’ QB DJ Lagway and the Florida offense carved up the usually stout Aggie defense on the first drive of the game, capping it off with an easy touchdown pass to Amir Jackson less than four minutes into the game. (0-7)
Marcel Reed said anything you can do I can do better, answering with a two-play drive that was catapulted by a 67-yard bomb to the #1 WR in the SEC Mario Craver on the Aggies’ very first play from scrimmage.
On the very next play, Reed made it look easy as he walked into the endzone after the o-line parted the Gators’ defense like the red sea for A&M’s first of many scores. (7-7)
The Aggie’s defense tightened up and forced a punt on Florida’s next drive to give the ball back to the offense, who took full advantage.
After several big plays where the Aggies were taking chunks of the field away at a time, Reed spread the ball a bit and got the true-freshman RB Jamarion Morrow the ball twice with the last connection ending with Kyle Field erupting as the Aggies began to pour it on. (14-7)
Reed began the game throwing a perfect 5 for 5 with 136 yards and two touchdowns to round out his stellar start to what began to look like both offenses could do whatever they wanted to do.
A&M’s defense bent after allowing Lagway to replicate a lot of what they did on the first drive, going down the field with ease and capping it off with a wide-open touchdown pass to Dallas Wilson. (14-14)
The Aggies made sure Florida didn’t forget about their tenacious ground game as Moss galloped across the goal line for his sixth touchdown of the season. (21-14)
The only difference between these two high-scoring offenses up to this point is the fact that the Aggies have converted on all three of their 3rd-down opportunities while Florida was only able to convert one of their four 3rd-down conversions after Tyreek Chappell stripped-sacked Lagway on the next possession.
Towards the beginning of the Aggies’ next offensive possession, you could hear and pen drop in Kyle Field as Moss went down and needed to be helped off the field after being tackled awkwardly.
That quickly took the air out of the drive and forced the Aggies’ punter to step onto the field for the first time all night.
Not only did Moss head to the locker room before intermission, but ESPN reported that KC Concepcion was in the injury tent on the sideline being treated for a hamstring injury.
Thankfully, Concepcion reentered the game before halftime and made some catches on the Aggies’ final few drives before the players jogged into the locker rooms to reload for what was shaping up to be an offensive shootout.
Heading into halftime, Texas A&M’s defense had notched 19 total sacks for the entire year. But they weren’t done adding to that number just yet, which is ranked third in the SEC for total number of sacks.
Cashius Howell began to cash out and leave his imprint on the game adding to the Aggies’ sack total, setting up a Lagway fumble recovered by the other NFL prospect on A&M’s defense Taurean York.
Reed and the offense weren’t able to capitalize with seven points but Randy Bond was able to redeem himself from an earlier miss 43 yards out, (24-14)
The Gators responded with a field goal of their own as they began to try to claw back into the game. (24-17)
After a high-scoring first half, the offenses simmered a bit and only put up a field goal each in the third quarter.
Reed’s first mistake of the game came on the first play of the fourth quarter when he threw a pass into rush-hour traffic in the back of the endzone as he was trying to put the Gators away. But instead, he gave them a chance to tie the game on their next possession.
The 12th man was in full effect and helped the Aggies’ defense force a turnover after almost intercepting Lagway on a 4th-and-6 attempt.
The offense became best friends with clock management after capping off a 13-play, eight-minute drive with a touchdown run from Ruben Owens II. (31-17)
On the very first play of the Gators’ next offensive drive, Dayon Hayes dis his best Howell interpretation after strip-sacking Lagway and recovering the ball to give it back to Reed and the offense to close out the game.
The offense drained the clock as much as they could before sending Bond back out to put a bow on another impressive SEC win. (34-17)
Kyle Field and the 12th man was in full force all night as this was the 10th straight game with 100,000+ fans in attendance.
The Aggies hit the road for a three-game stint away from Kyle Field staring with a matchup against the Arkansas Razorbacks next Saturday, Oct. 18 at Razorbacks Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas.