COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham answered with one word and a laugh this week when the topic turned to defending Texas A&M quarterback Marcel Reed: “Pray.”
Saturday’s kickoff at Kyle Field is set for 11 a.m. CT on ABC. Both teams are 1-0. Texas A&M fell two spots to No. 10 in the AP Top 25 on Tuesday.
“But no, he’s a really good player,” Dillingham said, according to The Associated Press. “He’s athletic, but what people don’t give him credit for is he has unbelievable touch on his deep ball and on his intermediate passing game. Like his touch to the sideline on field throws, he can throw a field-out route that’s caught on the sideline, slash the tick, and it is just, it looks like it’s supposed to look.”
Dillingham said Arizona State did not contain the quarterback well enough at times in its 70-7 win over Morgan State on Saturday.
“If we don’t do that this week, he’ll throw it for 400 and run it for 400,” Dillingham said. “He’ll set the record.”
In Texas A&M’s 50-0 win over Missouri State the same night, Reed completed 21-of-30 passes for 233 yards with 2 touchdowns and no interceptions in just over three quarters. He was sacked twice in the first quarter behind a line with one returning starter from 2025.
At his Monday press conference at the Kyle Field Media Center, Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said Reed keeps moving past quarterbacks on the program’s all-time passing list who were viewed as very successful at Texas A&M.
“I wish people would start to appreciate who he is, what he does, and how successful he’s been for us as a starter,” Elko said. “He’s now 12-1 as a regular season starter over the last two years. I don’t know what his overall record is but it’s really good for a starting quarterback at Texas A&M.”
Two of Reed’s 9 incompletions against Missouri State were drops, Elko said, and a couple more were throwaways he agreed with.
Reed started all 13 games last season. He completed 234-of-377 passes for 3,169 yards with 25 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He ran 104 times for 493 yards and 6 touchdowns. Texas A&M opened 11-0 last season. The Aggies lost 27-17 at Texas on Nov. 28 and lost 10-3 to Miami in the first round of the College Football Playoff at Kyle Field.
Isaiah Horton And Ray Coney Debut For Texas A&M
On the opening drive Saturday, Isaiah Horton caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from Reed for his first catch at Texas A&M. Horton finished with 4 receptions for 76 yards and 1 touchdown. His 76 yards led Texas A&M. Later in the game, Reed found him down the sideline for a 36-yard gain.
Horton transferred from Alabama, where he played last season after three years at Miami. His career-long catch came against Texas A&M, a 52-yard touchdown for Miami in 2023. He spent his first two high school seasons at Ensworth School in Nashville, Tennessee, before finishing at Oakland High School in Murfreesboro. Reed played high school football at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville.
Reed is excited about what is ahead for Horton and for the offense.
“Me and Zay clicked on those all offseason,” Reed said, according to The Associated Press. “Him being a vertical threat, a big body who can run and create space and make the throws easy for me, that’s a big thing… even when he’s matched I can put it up there and he’ll go take it from the defender.”
Missouri State finished with 67 total yards, the fewest Texas A&M has allowed under Elko. The school’s game notes list it as the program’s lowest total allowed since 1978. It was the second time in Elko’s three seasons that the Aggies held an opponent scoreless and under 100 yards.
Ray Coney, a senior linebacker, wore the green dot as the defense’s communicator in his first game with the Aggies. Elko said Monday that the role came with Coney’s position at middle linebacker more than anything else. Coney transferred from Tulsa, where he made 129 tackles last season and earned first-team all-conference honors. Before that, he spent two seasons at East Tennessee State.
Coney’s expectation for Texas A&M’s younger players is an older mentality, now that they are on the field.
“We’re not treating young guys like young guys,” Coney said. “We treat young guys like no, you’re playing, so we need to all be on the same page. You need to have an older mentality, now that you’re playing. We’re holding everybody accountable to a higher standard.”
Arizona State Brings Cutter Boley To Kyle Field Before London Trip
Elko listed Arizona State’s strengths on Monday as a talented defensive line, two NFL cornerbacks, two NFL wide receivers, aggressive special teams, and “a quarterback who’s really big and talented.”
Against Morgan State, Cutter Boley went 21-of-27 for 387 yards and 6 touchdowns in his first game with Arizona State. The 387 yards set a program record for passing yards in a Sun Devils debut, Field Level Media reported. Boley spent the previous two seasons at Kentucky, where he threw for 2,498 yards and 17 touchdowns in 15 games.
Arizona State went 8-4 in the 2025 regular season. In 2024, the Sun Devils won the Big 12 and reached the College Football Playoff quarterfinals.
Saturday is the second meeting between the programs and the first on either campus. On Sept. 5, 2015, Texas A&M beat No. 15 Arizona State 38-17 at NRG Stadium in Houston. Arizona State is the first Big 12 team to play at Kyle Field since the Aggies’ last Big 12 season in 2011. Texas A&M is 46-4 in non-conference home games since 2010.
In 2019, Dillingham was Auburn’s offensive coordinator and Elko was Texas A&M’s defensive coordinator. Auburn won that game 28-20 at Kyle Field on Sept. 21. Elko said Monday he still remembers how Auburn tried to attack his defense, but that both coaches have changed a lot schematically since then.
Kyle Field hosts Texas A&M’s “Red, White and Blue” game Saturday for the first time since 2021, marking the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11 and the country’s 250th celebration. Fans in each deck of Kyle Field are asked to wear one of the three colors.
Arizona State leaves for London after Saturday’s game. The Sun Devils play Kansas on Sept. 19 at Wembley Stadium in the Union Jack Classic, with kickoff at 11 a.m. CT on FS1. The game counts as a Kansas home game. It is the first FBS game played in the United Kingdom.
Before this trip, Arizona State’s only game outside the United States was against Houston in Tokyo in 1990. The Sun Devils’ road schedule this season covers more than 17,000 miles of travel, compared with about 9,000 in 2025.
After the Morgan State win, Dillingham said the Sun Devils have an enormous challenge in front of them.
“Going from London straight to A&M there are some natural distractions,” Dillingham said. “We’re not hiding away from that. There’s nothing we can do about it. So, we’re going to embrace it.”
Texas A&M opens SEC play against Kentucky at Kyle Field on Sept. 19, with kickoff set for 2:30 p.m. CT on ESPN.
