Celebration of a second one-point win this season was short-lived for undefeated Texas A&M.
A fourth victory by six points or less became reality in a stirring comeback by the Aggies (10-0) to take down South Carolina, 31-30. It sets up the SEC leaders for a stretch of two games in six days, starting Saturday at home against Samford (1-10).
The looming monster to close the regular season is a Black Friday trip to Austin where rival Texas would be thrilled to play Grinch and boost its shrinking at-large playoff chances.
Aggies coach Mike Elko said this week won’t be about combined prep for two games. His focus is stressing to players the risk of distraction — Senior Day at Kyle Field among them, talk of a trap or getting caught peeking ahead to the Longhorns — and using the opportunity to exemplify the team standard regardless of opponent.
“We talk a lot about playing to our standard, regardless of opponent. I told the guys this morning: It’s not something we’ve been good enough at,” Elko said. “So this is an opportunity for us to take a maturity step and go out there and play the game at the level that we’re capable of playing it regardless of who we’re playing. That’s gonna matter a lot for me in terms of how we approach this one.”
Elko isn’t completely ignoring the thrilling 27-point comeback to beat the Gamecocks and spare the season’s biggest goals of reaching the SEC Championship, College Football Playoff and the big game at the end in Miami.
“You can think back to a lot of our recent seasons, and you can point at games that we lost. That had we won would have completely changed the script on the season, right?” Elko said. “Whether that was last year against Auburn or last year against Notre Dame, where we had chances in the fourth quarter and we didn’t get the job done. And that ultimately was the reason why it was not as successful a season, right?”
The Aggies are 10-0 for the first time since 1992.
An immense amount of ground is left for Texas A&M to cover to reach its first SEC Championship game. With wins over Samford and Texas, the Aggies are in that game. But a loss in the final two weeks would mean A&M can only play for the conference title if both Alabama (vs. Auburn) and Ole Miss (vs. Mississippi State) trip in their rivalry weekend games.
A comeback bid for Samford fell short last week.
Under the direction of interim head coach Scot Sloan, who was promoted from defensive coordinator on Nov. 10 for the final two games of the season, Samford hasn’t won in a month. The Bulldogs have lost four in a row and sit eighth in the Southern Conference on the heels of a two-touchdown loss against Austin Peay (30-16) last week. Samford trailed 30-3 entering the fourth quarter, the same deficit A&M faced at halftime against South Carolina.
Playing up a level wasn’t pretty. Samford opened the season with a 42-7 loss at Baylor.
Sloan is looking for a team willing to finish with fight even against the best team on Samford’s schedule. He said last week’s game boiled down to three plays that turned the outcome.
“In a football game, you never know when they’re going to happen,” Sloan said. “It may happen in the first quarter, or it may happen at the end in a two-minute drive when the game’s on the line. I thought our guys did fight.”
But they are not shy about airing it out, and have a conference-high 483 passing attempts to average 287.2 yards per game with 15 touchdowns. Turnovers — including 19 picks — have contributed to the Bulldogs’ undoing.
It’s a senior day of sorts for Bulldogs linebacker Jaden Mosley, who leads the team in tackles and looked the part against Baylor with a team-best 12 tackles and nine solo stops. He has 97 tackles this season and 25 total tackles for loss the past two seasons. This week, he’ll get a shot at taking down a Heisman candidate.
By knocking back South Carolina, Texas A&M stands atop of the SEC and redshirt sophomore quarterback Marcel Reed might have cemented his spot as a Heisman Trophy finalist in a three-TD, 439-yard day, overcoming two interceptions. Reed has 28 total touchdowns (six rushing) and 2,632 passing yards this season.
“When we’ve needed him to step up and make plays to win football games, he’s done it,” Elko said. “There’s been a lot made of some other people across the country when they’ve had opportunities to step up and make plays, and they were rewarded for it. I’d like to see our quarterback rewarded for it the same way.”
Reed credits the Aggies’ defense for constantly coming up with stops and sees nothing between Texas A&M and its goals — except for the Aggies.
“I think just our biggest competition all year has been ourselves,” he said.
Elko said wide receiver Ashton Bethel-Roman, who had 139 receiving yards last week, is planning to play through a sore ankle. It’s possible senior running back Le’Veon Moss could play in his first game since Oct. 11 vs. Florida. Rueben Owens, who was banged up in the South Carolina game, also is on track to play.
Moss had three TD runs at Notre Dame and six rushing scores in six games played in 2025. Owens has 570 rushing yards, five TDs and averages 5.8 yards per carry in 2025.
–Field Level Media
