In Year 3 under head coach Mike Elko, Texas A&M football announced a special initiative for its annual Maroon & White Game: The “Aggies for a Cause” campaign, which gave 42 Aggies the opportunity to rep custom footwear endorsing a wide variety of organizations and causes they are passionate about.

So while both sides made highlight-reel plays in A&M’s iconic colors, it was their cleats — which spanned every spectrum of the rainbow — that popped most on the greenery of Kyle Field at 11 a.m.

“Yeah, I thought that was a cool deal,” Elko said. “I thought you saw a lot of kids out there with some different designs and just some different things that are true to them, and I think that all plays into what today is about. I think getting them the opportunity to go out there in unique cleats to represent causes that are really important to them was a little cool thing that we were able to come across and do today.”

The first notable pair was a deep red set donned by redshirt freshman long snapper Gray Evans. The Houston native dedicated his cleats to Blood Cancer United, just over a year after having beaten the disease himself. Evans was diagnosed with Stage 2 Hodgkin Lymphoma in February 2025 and rang the bell after four months of intense chemotherapy.

“As a cancer survivor myself, it’s awesome to represent all the people that have gone through blood cancer and are going through it and just be a light to them, show them that nothing’s impossible and that they can get through whatever they’re going through,” Evans said.

The next cleat that stood out was a pair featuring a smooth gradient from black to yellow with a cross and writing that read “One&All.” Causing havoc in the Steelers-esque cleats was sophomore linebacker Noah Mikhail, who housed an errant throw from freshman quarterback Helaman Casuga for a pick-six in the first quarter. After the game, Mikhail mentioned how much the opportunity to voice his support meant to him.

“One&All is my church back in California that I go to,” Mikhail said. “While I was in high school, I actually put on a youth camp, and the youth camp donations went to the church. Those donations were for summer youth camps for kids who couldn’t afford it. That’s something I’m really passionate about, just, you know, preaching to [the] younger generation about God and even if they don’t have opportunities to pay for it, making that possible.”

Graduate student wide receiver Isaiah Horton’s cleats were also hard to miss. He terrorized the defense throughout the scrimmage in a lovely set of cleats that faded from blue to highlighter pink, a white “Aggies” script on one side and the Jack and Jill of America organization’s logo on the other. The Alabama transfer opened up about his philanthropic choice after the game and what the organization means to him.

“Jack and Jill of America, that was an organization I grew up in,” Horton said. “It’s an organization, and we give back. We do it for the community, you know? We grow up in unfortunate families, and we just, you know, teach them things and learn new things and things of that nature.”

While the final score from Kyle Field read 15-13 in the Maroon team’s favor, the opportunity for self-expression also stood out for every Aggie. And regardless of color or cause, every player who participated enjoyed the chance to support organizations or philanthropy that they hold deep ties to.