The Texas A&M Aggies were on a business trip to the Orange Bowl Saturday.

After being left out of the Playoff, TAMU was on a mission to prove the selection committee and other doubters wrong. Nobody opted out, and everyone was locked in.

The Aggies ended up beating North Carolina 41-27 the same way it beat all of the other opponents this year — grinding out a victory. Texas A&M got stronger as the game went on and took over in the 4th quarter, outscoring the Tar Heels 24-7.

Freshman running back Devon Achane recorded 12 carries for 140 yards and 2 touchdowns — all coming in the second half. The freshman was filling in for the injured Isaiah Spiller.

Following the Orange Bowl loss to the Aggies, UNC head coach Mack Brown argued that the Aggies deserved to be in the Playoff.

“First, as we always do and should, congratulations to Texas A&M,” Brown said during his postgame press conference. “They’ve got a great team. We knew that coming in. They should be a playoff team. I think that watching them and watching Notre Dame, they’re so similar that you feel like that we should expand the playoff, number one, so more guys will continue to play at the end of the year and it’ll help the bowl games. And number two, Texas A&M deserved to be in the playoff, so give them credit for the year that they’ve had. They beat Florida. They lose one game to Alabama, like everybody else that’s played them has lost to them, and they’re big and they’re physical, and they do a great job coaching. They’ve got really, really good players.”

Texas A&M has a ton of talent coming back in 2021, too. The Aggies are a program on the rise.

Is the sleeping giant now awake?