As coach Mike Elko navigates a major impending coaching departure amid the program’s most successful season in recent memory, No. 7 Texas A&M football prepares to weather the storm against No. 10 Miami in its first appearance in the College Football Playoff on Saturday, Dec. 20.

After a year that saw the Maroon and White finish the regular season 11th in opponent-adjusted offensive efficiency, according to BCF Toys, 36-year-old offensive coordinator Collin Klein was announced as the next head coach at Kansas State, his alma mater, on Dec. 4. Klein will stay with the Aggies through the postseason as their offensive coordinator and playcaller.

“Collin’s not the only one, obviously,” Elko said at his Monday press conference. “I think it’s a very collaborative process that we go through on offense. I have a ton of confidence in Collin, in who he is as a man and who he is as a competitor, that he’ll give the focus and energy that he needs to to ensure that this thing is done the right way and finished the right way.”

Even with the offensive success in 2025, A&M is coming off its second-lowest-scoring game of the season against then-No. 16 Texas. Redshirt sophomore quarterback Marcel Reed struggled against a vaunted Longhorn defense in a zero-touchdown, two-interception performance.

For Miami, sixth-year redshirt senior QB Carson Beck was the big-ticket transfer acquisition brought in to save the Hurricanes following 2024 Heisman Trophy finalist QB Cam Ward’s departure to NFL purgatory with the Tennessee Titans. 

Despite at one point having first-round buzz before flaming out with Georgia, Beck has continued to be inconsistent for Miami. The Mandarin High School product has thrown for 3,072 yards, 25 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, including a four-interception nadir against Louisville.

“I think he’s an extremely talented quarterback,” Elko said. “You see that throughout the year. Obviously he does a really, really good job of delivering the football. They’ve got a really explosive passing attack, different variety of screens, short game, pushing the ball down the field, and I think he delivers it all very well, very accurate. … And so we have to go to work and come up with a good plan on how to try to create a little bit of indecision for him, at least try to muddy the waters a little bit as best we can.”

Beck’s primary weapon is the human embodiment of the word “twitch.” Freshman wide receiver Malachi Toney moves with a fluidity that makes it seem as if he doesn’t have ACLs, functioning as the versatile chess piece that gets moved around the formation in coach Mario Cristobal’s offense. 

Toney has racked up the fourth-most receiving yards in the Atlantic Coast Conference with 970 to go along with 10 touchdowns accounted for on offense.

“What an unbelievably talented football player,” Elko said. “ … He’s electric when he gets it in his hands. For a young kid, he runs routes exceptionally well. He makes contested catches. He’s an absolute dude of a young player and certainly will grow into being a top-5 pick, I’m sure, before this thing’s all over. … When you can’t identify where he’s going to be all the time, obviously that makes it a lot more challenging for a defense to find ways to leverage him and corral him.”

To deal with the Beck-Toney connection, the Aggies will need to lean on a pass rush that finished the year with the third-most team sacks by an A&M team in the College Football Playoff era but went dormant against the Longhorns with only two. 

Southeastern Conference sack leader redshirt senior defensive end Cashius Howell, fresh off First Team All-SEC honors, is likely to rush up against an elite tackle pairing in the brobdignanian 6-foot-9 senior left tackle Markel Bell and junior right tackle Francis Mauigoa.

Miami’s pass rush is no slouch, collecting 34 total sacks and 76 tackles for loss. Sixth-year redshirt senior defensive lineman Akheem Mesidor and likely first-round NFL Draft pick junior DL Rueben Bain Jr. combined for 11.5 quarterback takedowns off the edge.

“I think it’s the best combination of defensive ends that we’ve seen in my time here, probably going all the way back to 2018,” Elko said. “These two kids can absolutely destroy a game. They’re really, really talented. And then they’ve got a lot of really big, long, athletic inside bodies. I think they’ve only given up 79 runs or four yards or more in 12 games.”

With both defensive lines capable of taking over the game, Elko spotlighted how much the 12th Man can influence the outcome despite the early 11 a.m. kickoff.

“I think we have to understand the urgency of the moment,” Elko said. “ … The more opportunities we get to play in those types of games, the better it is for our program. … And it’s just another opportunity for us to go out and try to get it right. …  I think playing in Kyle Field is an advantage to the home team.”