COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M shut out Missouri State 50-0 on Saturday night at Kyle Field. The Aggies held the Bears to 67 yards of total offense, the fewest allowed under Texas A&M coach Mike Elko.
Missouri State managed 4 first downs and converted 1-of-10 on third down. The Bears gained 37 yards on 23 carries and ran 40 plays all night. Quarterback Skyler Locklear finished 8-of-17 for 30 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions. Missouri State lost all three of its fumbles.
Linebacker Noah Mikhail led Texas A&M with a career-high 7 tackles. Tulsa transfer Ray Coney added 6.
Texas A&M played without senior linebacker Daymion Sanford, who had surgery after a lower-body injury in the Maroon & White Game in April. Sanford started 10 games last season and finished fourth on the team with 57 tackles. Mikhail said Coney and Jordan Lockhart both played well, and that Tamarion Watkins made big plays after getting on the field late.
“I think as a whole, defensively, we play really well,” Mikhail said. “What the coaches have been stressing to us, I think we accomplished, focusing no matter what the situation is and then urgency. And I think that showed up a lot with everybody, running to the ball, trying to get the ball out, just all over the field. And that didn’t just show up with 11 players. It showed up with, like, 22.”
The Aggie defense was on the field for only 40 plays. San Diego State transfer Ryan Henderson recorded 1 sack, 2.0 tackles for loss, and a forced fumble in his first game with Texas A&M. Henderson had 7 sacks and 9.0 tackles for loss for the Aztecs last season.
Anto Saka recovered a fumble in the second quarter, his second straight game with a takeaway. Saka’s first career fumble recovery came in his 33rd and final game at Northwestern. In the fourth quarter, Henderson stripped Locklear on a sack and DJ Sanders recovered at the Missouri State 16.
Saturday marked the second time under Elko that Texas A&M has held an opponent scoreless and under 100 yards of total offense. The Aggies have held an opponent under 100 rushing yards 11 times in his tenure.
Marcel Reed And Isaiah Horton Connect On Texas A&M’s First Touchdown
Texas A&M took the opening possession 58 yards in 8 plays and scored when Marcel Reed found Isaiah Horton on a 15-yard touchdown with 9:32 left in the first quarter. It was Horton’s first touchdown as an Aggie and the 15th of his career.
Reed finished 21-of-30 for 233 yards with 2 touchdowns and no interceptions. He carried 7 times for 20 yards and was sacked twice. Saturday was the second time in his career he has completed 70% of his passes in a game with at least 30 attempts.
Elko said the receivers were inconsistent at times, and that drops, an offensive pass interference penalty, and a fumble all cost Texas A&M.
“It was good,” Elko said. “We talked about Isaiah being that big, tall X that we needed. I think you saw some of that today, maybe a little bit too much of it on the one catch, but he is. He’s a big physical receiver. He’s a big target, and he gives us options in the red zone, and so it was good to see those guys connect tonight. We’re going to need them to do that a lot this year for us to be what we’re capable of being.”
Horton caught 4 passes for 76 yards. His 36-yard reception from Reed in the second quarter was the only play of 20 or more yards by either team.
Reed had four or five targets who could turn a small play into a big one, and he got Mario Craver, Horton, and Terry Bussey into the end zone.
“I don’t even remember how, some of the throws, I don’t know if that was my favorite one, but it was a deep pass,” Reed said. “Me and Zay have clicked on those all offseason. Him being a vertical threat, a big body who can run and create space and make the throws easy for me, I think that’s a big thing. He took an inside release right there and got over top of the corner, and I just put it out there for him to go get.”
“Even when he’s matched, I can put it up there and he’ll go take it from the defender,” Reed continued. “I guess I’ll say that’s my favorite throw, but it’s always good when you connect one of your receivers on a deep ball.”
Horton spent camp on urgency and focus, and his read on the receiver group afterward was that the small details still have to get cleaned up.
“My first game as an Aggie was amazing,” Horton said. “It was a good feeling. The energy that I was told about from the crowd, it was there. I definitely felt it, especially coming out of the tunnel. So, yeah, it was a great experience for me.”
Craver caught 5 passes for 41 yards and a 12-yard touchdown with 29 seconds left in the first half. He has caught a touchdown pass in three consecutive season openers. Ten Texas A&M players caught a pass.
Bussey added 3 receptions for 34 yards. Kelshaun Johnson caught 3 passes for 25 yards, including a 6-yard grab on fourth-and-5 in the third quarter with Craver cramping. Micah Riley caught 2 passes for 13 yards.
Texas A&M ran 47 times for 236 yards. Rueben Owens II carried 17 times for 77 yards. Carsyn Baker ran 7 times for 52 yards and scored on a 12-yard carry in the fourth quarter, the first rushing attempt of his career. KJ Edwards added 5 carries for 44 yards. Jamarion Morrow ran 8 times for 29 yards and a 2-yard touchdown, and Bussey scored on a 10-yard run in the third quarter, his third career rushing touchdown and his first since 2024.
Elko said Owens ran behind his pads and played the way the Aggies need their feature back to play, with bigger opponents ahead of him.
“It was cool. It really was. It was both sides of the ball,” Elko explained. “I thought Carsyn and KJ looked really dynamic back there with the ball in their hands. Those two kids are going to play a lot. I think they’ll play much more meaningful reps as we move forward.”
“I think tonight there was kind of a little bit of a plan,” Elko continued. “We kind of anticipated it going like that where it would be Rueben and Jamarion in early and then Carsyn and KJ late. I think as we project forward, I think you’re going to see all four of those kids rotate a little bit as we head into this thing.”
Brady Hart replaced Reed in the fourth quarter and completed 4-of-8 passes for 36 yards and a touchdown. His 15-yard scoring throw to Aaron Gregory was the first passing touchdown of his career. Gregory caught his first career pass in the third quarter and his first career touchdown in the fourth.
Mike Elko Points To Texas A&M’s First-Half Penalties
Texas A&M was flagged 8 times for 75 yards, and 6 of those penalties came in the first half. Two holding calls wiped out plays on the same second-quarter drive. A 26-yard completion to Horton in the first quarter came back when Horton was called for offensive pass interference.
After the opening touchdown drive, the Aggies punted twice and lost a fumble on their next three possessions. Horton lost the ball at the Missouri State 15 late in the second quarter, after replay overturned the ruling on the field of a 16-yard catch.
Tyler White punted 50 yards to the Missouri State 6 in the closing minute of the first quarter. Jmariyae Robinson fumbled the return, Mekhi Miller was flagged for an illegal bat, and Texas A&M was awarded a safety with 26 seconds left in the quarter. The Aggies had not recorded a safety since 12th Man Cullen Gillaspia blocked a punt to the back of the end zone against Alabama in 2017.
Elko’s halftime message was that Texas A&M had to stop shooting itself in the foot and that the first-half mistakes could not continue.
“We obviously played a much better second half,” Elko said. “I think there was maybe if there was anything that I really strongly challenged them on, it was the penalties at halftime. It was good to see. I think we had two penalties for 20 yards. And really the one penalty in the second half was us blocking a guy too well on punt return and blocking him out of bounds too far. And so some of those aggressive penalties aren’t the same as some of the stuff we were doing in the first half that can’t happen. And so, yeah, I thought you saw us settle in a little bit and maybe start playing the way we needed to in that aspect.”
Texas A&M led 19-0 at the break and scored on its first five possessions of the second half. The Aggies held the ball for 43:03 and went 7-of-8 in the red zone.
Reed said Texas A&M’s mantra this season is finish, and that the fourth quarter is where the team has to find another level.
“That was a goal pregame,” Reed explained. “I wanted to put up more, honestly, but definitely not satisfied. We left some money on the table a little bit, but I think 50 is a good clip for the point average when you get later on in the season.”
Illinois transfer David Olano made a 28-yard field goal in the second quarter and went 6-of-6 on extra points. Asher Murray closed the scoring with a 47-yard field goal at the 4:04 mark, the first field goal attempt of his career.
Elko said wide receiver Madden Williams will miss the season with a lower-body injury and will have surgery. Safety Tawfiq Byard tweaked his lower body in practice during the week and should return soon, Elko said. Sanford was a week away from playing, and Elko said the play of Coney, Mikhail, Lockhart, and Watkins through camp let the staff wait on him.
Saturday was the first meeting between the two programs. Missouri State, in its second season at the FBS level, became the first Football Bowl Subdivision opponent Texas A&M has faced from that program. The 50-point margin was the largest of Elko’s tenure and the largest for Texas A&M since a 62-3 win over Lamar in 2019. In a shutout, it was the program’s largest margin since a 67-0 win over Prairie View A&M on Sept. 10, 2016.
The announced crowd of 107,782 was the largest season-opening attendance in Kyle Field history and the ninth-largest overall. Saturday was the 12th consecutive game at Kyle Field with more than 100,000 in the building.
Texas A&M hosts Arizona State on Saturday, Sept. 12. Kickoff is set for 11 a.m. CT on ABC, and the game is the second meeting between the programs.
