3 players who have had the biggest role in shaping Texas A&M’s magical season
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It seems like every week Texas A&M plays a team it has struggled against or at a venue it hasn’t been successful at in recent years and, every week, the Aggies come away with another impressive victory.
This week’s victims were the Bayou Bengals from Baton Rouge, as A&M beat LSU at Death Valley for the first since joining the SEC in 2012. More importantly, it moves to 8-0 for the first time since 1992, a step closer to its first SEC title game appearance and 1 win closer to clinching its first College Football Playoff berth.
While many people are surprised by the Aggies’ 49-25 beatdown of the Tigers at their house, don’t count second-year head coach Mike Elko among them. As the Aggies head man is not about the past at all and firmly focused on the present 2025 version of the Aggies.
“We got to stop worrying about the past, thinking about the past and talking about the past. I’m excited about what this team is doing right now,” a frustrated Elko said in his postgame press conference.
“This team is doing some really special things. I think we should enjoy it, and I think we should stop focusing on last year.”
As A&M rides off into its bye week undefeated and ranked No. 3 in the nation, here’s a list of 3 players who have consistently produced and help shape the Aggies’ magical season so far.
1. Marcel Reed
It’s no secret that since Johnny Manziel was doing his thing in College Station over a decade ago, it has been hard for the Aggies to get a signal caller who can consistently deliver on the biggest stages when needed.
Enter Marcel Reed.
The redshirt sophomore has been consistent all season and his impact can only be measured by moments not stats. In A&M’s 2 biggest wins of the season, Reed has made a big play to give his team the lead for good or win while producing a nice stat line.
In A&M’s biggest win of the season against Notre Dame, Reed threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Nate Boerkircher while being heavily pressured with 13 seconds left to give the Aggies a huge 41-40 win in South Bend. The pass capped off the biggest night of Reed’s young career as he threw for a career-high 360 yards.
On Saturday night against LSU, Reed converted a third-and-4 early in the third quarter by running for a 5-yard touchdown to give A&M a lead it would never relinquish. Reed finished the game with 4 total touchdowns while throwing for 202 yards and rushing for 108 yards.
Unfortunately for Aggie opponents, big-play performances from Reed have been consistent all season long and are one of the many reasons he’s one of the faces who have helped turn things around at Aggie Land.
2. Cashius Howell
After sitting behind NFL first-round pick Shemar Stewart and NFL second-round picks Nic Scourton and Shemar Turner last season, Cashius Howell has been a force to reckon with in 2025. Howell has at least 1 sack in 6 of the Aggies 8 games and currently leads the SEC with 9.5 total sacks on the season.
Howell has been at his best in SEC play, as the elite edge rusher has a sack in every one of A&M’s conference games and multi-sack games in 2 of the Aggies’ 4 conference wins. With 2 3-sack games on his résumé while being a constant terror to opposing offenses, Howell’s name is surging up NFL Draft boards as he now might be a potential first-round pick based on how he ends his season.
In meantime, he must settle for getting big-time sacks to close games for the Aggies like he did against Auburn, all while being one of the faces of a program which is changing its trajectory every week.
3. KC Concepcion
Although he probably won’t break any of Josh Reynolds’ or Christian Kirk’s single-season receiving records this fall, KC Concepcion is the most consistent and explosive receiver A&M has had in a decade. The NC State transfer has caught a touchdown in 5 of the A&M’s 8 games and has 2 games this season where he has caught and returned a touchdown of 70+ yards.
Despite only 36 catches this season, Concepcion has an outside shot of 1,000 yards this as he’s averaging a productive 15.1 yards per reception while grabbing 7 touchdowns. Concepcion’s most explosive and biggest play of the season occurred against LSU in Week 9, as his 79-yard game-breaking punt return all but ended the game and the Tigers’ season all at once.
He may have come into the season as a question mark, but Concepcion has morphed into one of the biggest reasons the Aggies are changing the narrative and in the middle of a dream season.
Kendrick E. Johnson writes for various national outlets such as High School on SI, Yardbarker, ESPN Andscape and MMA Weekly. He is an independent print journalist, sports television reporter and multimedia journalist who has covered the NBA Finals, NFL, NCAA football, MLB, NHL, WWE and over 75 world championship boxing and UFC Fights nationally. Johnson has also covered every prep sport possible in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and all across the great state of Texas. He’s done numerous 1-on-1 interviews with some of the biggest names and personalities in sports from Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry and Shaq on the basketball side to Jon Jones, Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford on the combat sports side and John Cena, Jey and Jimmy Uso and Charlotte Flair in WWE.
