Texas A&M got a taste of the College Football Playoff last season, and now the Aggies are trying to make that visit stick.
Mike Elko’s team went 11-2 in 2025, earned its first CFP berth, and then got knocked out in the opening round by eventual national runner-up Miami, 10-3. At SEC media days, Elko made it clear the bar has moved.
“Last year what we showed was that at our peak, we were good enough to play with and beat anybody in the country,” Elko said. “We also had too many times where we didn’t play at our peak.”
That’s the challenge now: not just getting back in, but doing enough once they arrive to finally win a playoff game. In a conference as crowded as the SEC, the first hurdle is simply getting back to the bracket. And for A&M, that means a season built on four big needs.
The first is more from Marcel Reed.
Reed put together a huge redshirt sophomore year, piling up 3,662 yards of total offense and 31 touchdowns. But the numbers came with some uneven stretches, especially when the opposition got better. His toughest games came in losses to Texas and Miami, when he failed to throw a touchdown and was picked off four times.
Now the Aggies are asking him to take another step as a passer. That’s not a small ask with so much turnover around him.
A&M lost 20 players to eligibility, including offensive linemen Trey Zuhn III and Chase Bisontis and receiver KC Concepcion. Collin Klein, who helped guide an offense that jumped from ninth in the SEC in yards per game to fifth in 2025, left for the head coaching job at Kansas State.
Holmon Wiggins, previously a receivers coach and co-coordinator, is now the offensive coordinator.
Klein’s attack leaned on Reed’s dual-threat ability and kept the run game central. Wiggins’ version could look more pass-heavy, and wide receiver Ashton Bethel-Roman said in March that it points toward an “Air Raid” offense.
Even with a reshuffled offensive line, Reed’s athleticism should still matter on the ground. But the bigger question is whether he can sharpen his work through the air.
He completed 62.1 percent of his passes last season and threw 25 touchdowns against 12 interceptions, and that ceiling will go a long way toward defining A&M’s offense.
That offensive line is the next piece of the puzzle, and it looks a lot different now.
For the first two seasons under Elko, the Aggies’ front was the backbone of everything. They were able to keep the same group together from 2024 to 2026, and that stability paid off.
This year, though, the group has been gutted. Zuhn, Bisontis, Ar’maj Reed-Adams and Dametrious Crownover are all gone to the professional ranks.
Mark Nabou Jr. is the lone returnee, with the other four jobs open to new faces.
A&M did bring in transfers Wilkin Formby, Tyree Adams and Coen Echols, so the room isn’t empty. Still, asking a rebuilt line to match the work of a veteran unit that finished as a semifinalist for the Joe Moore Award is a tall order. The Aggies don’t necessarily need elite play there, but they do need enough stability for the offense to function.
Then there’s the conference math.
Last year, five SEC teams made the playoff, but there’s no promise that kind of volume shows up again. The current 12-team format has already seen SEC teams with two conference losses make it in, though the Commodores and Longhorns were left out in 2025 because four SEC teams finished 7-1 in league play. Oklahoma got in with a stronger résumé, helped by losses to Texas and Ole Miss, both top-25 teams.
A&M’s path looks every bit as demanding. Road trips to Alabama, LSU and Oklahoma are waiting, and the Aggies can’t really afford to stack up more than two conference losses if they want to feel good about their playoff chances.
And finally, there’s Texas.
The home schedule is manageable enough, with Kentucky, Arizona State and Tennessee all demanding attention but none bigger than the regular-season finale against the Longhorns. A&M is going to have a hard time running the table on the road, which makes protecting Kyle Field essential. If the Aggies can do that, they’ll give themselves a cushion before trips to Bryant-Denny Stadium and Tiger Stadium.
But the rivalry game matters for its own reasons too. A&M has not beaten Texas since 2010, and the Longhorns have controlled the matchup since it resumed. This year’s Texas team is expected to be one of the best in the country, with Arch Manning at quarterback and a roster packed with top recruits and high-profile transfers.
That’s exactly why this game looms so large for the Aggies. If Texas is as good as projected, a win would do more than satisfy a rivalry itch. It would strengthen A&M’s résumé and could swing the whole CFP conversation.
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