COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The Kentucky Wildcats scored 21 straight points after halftime and beat the No. 9 Texas A&M Aggies 31-21 on Saturday at Kyle Field in the Aggies’ Southeastern Conference opener. The announced crowd of 105,186 was the 14th straight at Kyle Field of more than 100,000.
The teams were tied 7-7 at halftime. In the third quarter, Kentucky outgained Texas A&M 196-20, held the ball for 11:18, and picked up 10 first downs to none, carrying a 28-7 lead into the fourth. Texas A&M fell to 2-1 and 0-1 in SEC play, and Kentucky improved to 2-1 and 1-1. The loss tied the all-time series at 2-2 in the programs’ fourth meeting and first since 2018.
Texas A&M coach Mike Elko opened his postgame news conference by crediting Kentucky and taking the blame himself.
“Hats off to Kentucky. They came in here, and they beat our ass,” Elko said. “Not good enough from us on any level, coaching, playing, performing, physicality, anything.”
“It’s on me. I own it. It’s my program. I’m in charge of it,” Elko continued. “And we have to get it fixed.”
Texas A&M finished with more total yards than Kentucky, 423-408, and more first downs, 23-18. The Aggies were also penalized 2 times for 10 yards, while Kentucky was flagged 7 times for 59.
“There’s no positives. Not an ounce of a positive anywhere. There’s a product that’s not good enough,” Elko explained. “That starts with me. I did not do a good enough job of coaching this team, preparing this team, and getting this team ready to play this week. I don’t take any positives from this game.”
“And I don’t want to take anything away from Kentucky. Hats off to Kentucky,” Elko added. “I hate when coaches get on the podium and don’t give respect to the team that beat them. Kentucky came in here, and they whooped us. And so, that should be the story of the game.”
Kenny Minchey And CJ Baxter Lead Kentucky’s Third-Quarter Run
Texas A&M drove to the Kentucky 11 on its opening possession before Rueben Owens II was stopped for no gain on fourth-and-1. On its next drive, Sam Greene intercepted Marcel Reed at the Kentucky 22. After Adam Zouagui missed a 39-yard field goal early in the second quarter, the Aggies went 79 yards in 14 plays, helped by a pass interference penalty at the goal line. Freshman Carsyn Baker scored on a 2-yard run with 5:18 left in the half, the second rushing touchdown of his career.
Kentucky answered right away. Kenny Minchey hit DJ Miller for 53 yards, and Henry Boyer caught a 3-yard touchdown pass with 1:59 left to tie it.
Texas A&M scored on 3 of its 4 trips inside the Kentucky 20, but the first-quarter stop and the interception left the Aggies with 7 points after two long early drives.
“We just didn’t finish. We moved the ball pretty well early. We got in the red zone and didn’t capitalize,” Reed said. “So that was the biggest thing.”
“And that gave them some momentum swing early in the game. They held onto it,” Reed continued. “So, yeah, we’ve just got to finish.”
Minchey opened the second half with a 42-yard touchdown pass to Kenny Darby, capping a 7-play, 75-yard drive. After a Texas A&M three-and-out, Kentucky went 83 yards in 9 plays, and CJ Baxter scored from 3 yards out with 3:55 left in the quarter.
Elko expected his team to come out after halftime the way it traditionally has, and it did not.
“I think maybe we expected things to happen. I think when you expect things to happen, you can get in a lot of trouble in this game,” Elko said. “And so, I think at 7-7, obviously, we didn’t feel great about how we had performed or where we were. I expected us to come out in the second half like we have traditionally done.”
“And it kind of felt like we came out in the second half without the energy that we needed,” Elko detailed. “And sometimes you attribute that to just kind of expecting it to go a certain way, and it certainly — football never happens like that. And so, again, that’s on me. It’s my job to get the energy right. I didn’t do a good enough job with it.”
Trailing 21-7 on their next possession, the Aggies went for it on fourth-and-2 from their own 33. Reed’s short pass to Baker fell incomplete. Kentucky scored four plays later on Baxter’s 2-yard run with 16 seconds left in the quarter.
“I think for sure. I think the momentum of it was something,” Elko said. “It’s a deal where we feel like if we have the look, we’re going to try to run the play. If not, we’d have taken the look and punted it. The look was there. We felt like the play was there. Obviously, it wasn’t.”
Reed completed 3 of 6 passes for 17 yards in the third quarter.
“I’ve just got to get my foot down, my back foot down, keep my knee bent, and I make the throw,” Reed explained. “I missed a lot. And those are the ones I wish I had back and could get back, and make sure I get those throws down, so they’re layups for me.”
“But those should be throws that I make easily, and I didn’t make them, and they were costly,” Reed added. “So, I’ve got to fix it.”
Minchey completed 14 of 18 passes for 252 yards and 2 touchdowns without an interception. He went 8-of-8 for 110 yards in the third quarter. Miller caught 5 passes for 96 yards, and Darby had 2 for 64. Baxter ran 19 times for 87 yards and 2 touchdowns and added a 28-yard catch.
Elko traced the big pass plays to his defenders’ eyes.
“I think we got — had a lot of eye violation issues. Did a really, really poor job of putting our eyes where they needed to go,” Elko said. “Obviously, they hit a couple, for sure, where they beat us. But felt like most of the ones in the second half it felt like were gimmes, and you can’t have gimmes in this conference.”
“And so, we’ve got to figure out how to be better,” Elko noted.
Kentucky ran for 156 yards, including 58 on 6 carries by Jason Patterson. His 22- and 14-yard runs set up Baxter’s first touchdown.
“Poor. Really, really poor. Poor across the board,” Elko said of the run defense.
Kentucky defensive coordinator Jay Bateman held the same job at Texas A&M for the previous two seasons.
“I’m sure it helped for sure. It certainly didn’t hurt. Jay’s a good football coach, obviously,” Elko said. “I’m sure [this] one was personal for him. And they did a good job, and they beat us.”
Reed has been seeing that defense for two years in practice.
“Honestly, I don’t think it helped that much. I just don’t think we executed the way we needed to,” Reed said. “Even if it were to be a problem, that’s a defense that I’ve seen a lot. So we should have been able to execute pretty well. I’ve been seeing that defense for two years. So, yeah, we have just got to do better.”
Kentucky safety Jordan Castell led all players with 13 tackles and made a fourth-quarter interception.
Mike Elko Says Marcel Reed Is Pressing
Reed ran for a 5-yard touchdown with 11:37 left to finish a 13-play, 75-yard drive and cut it to 28-14. Zouagui answered with a 52-yard field goal that, according to The Associated Press, deflected off the upright and through. On the next Texas A&M drive, Reed ran 40 yards on fourth-and-13 to the Kentucky 38, but three plays later Castell intercepted him at the 7.
“Tried to force a ball. I think we were down two scores at the time and tried to make a big play that probably didn’t need to make in the moment, but I tried to make,” Reed said. “So, can’t force it next time. So, that’s all.”
Reed hit tight end Micah Riley for a 5-yard touchdown with 3:45 left, but Kentucky recovered the onside kick. The Aggies’ final drive ended on downs at their own 27.
Reed completed 26 of 49 passes for 236 yards with 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions. He also led the Aggies with 80 rushing yards on 10 carries, and the 40-yarder was the team’s longest run of the season. His touchdown pass was the 47th of his career, tying Corey Pullig for fifth in Texas A&M history. His 316 yards of total offense brought his career total to 7,241, moving him past Stephen McGee for fifth in program history.
Junior receiver Mario Craver caught a career-high 11 passes for 119 yards, the first time an Aggie has had 10 or more receptions in a game since 2023.
“I thought he competed. But like I said, this game is about winning,” Elko said. “And so we made a lot about — yeah, whatever. This game’s about winning, and so we didn’t win.”
Reed is in his third season as Texas A&M’s starter.
“It’s a plethora of things. I think probably more than anything, it’s a kid who’s pressing,” Elko said. “There’s a lot of noise. He feels like he’s got to defend himself a lot. That’s not an excuse, but that’s a reality.”
“I think you can see him pressing. You can see the stress in him when he’s trying to throw, because he’s trying to be perfect, because if he’s not, for whatever reason, that’s just how it is with him,” Elko continued. “And so, I’ve been trying to get him unlocked and unhinged and relaxed. I think that’s why he plays better in two-minute because of the back-against-the-wall type mentality, and he can just relax.”
“But I’ve got to get him mentally to a place where he can really cut it loose and feel free and play,” Elko added. “I think that, more than anything, right now is the issue with him. It’s like a pitcher sometimes who struggles to throw strikes. It’s just growing on him. And he’s got to be able to relax and play the way he’s capable of.”
Reed agreed with the pitcher comparison.
“It definitely felt like that. That was a good analogy, and I think the way for me to get out of that is just kind of calm myself down and obviously tell myself I can make those throws because I know I can make those throws and just do it,” Reed said. “I got out of rhythm. I think my base was bad, and I’ve got to fix that.”
For Reed, the problem right now is more mental than physical, and he said he can control it.
“Right now, it definitely feels more mental, and I can control that. So, I’ve got to fix that immediately, and just build my confidence back up,” Reed said. “It’s not like I lost it or anything, but this one definitely hurt. It’s not fun losing, and that’s a conference game. But I can make those throws and I will make those throws down the stretch.”
Texas A&M ran its no-huddle offense on both fourth-quarter scoring drives.
“I think we just kind of keep the defense off balance. I think that’s a good thing about our offense,” Reed said. “But we tried to go tempo. It’s hard to sometimes when you lose a couple guys and you’re short on bodies.”
“But yeah, we were doing a good job with the tempo, and like I said in the beginning, we’ve just got to finish the drives,” Reed noted.
Texas A&M was already without receiver Ashton Bethel-Roman and running back Jamarion Morrow. Receiver Terry Bussey was injured on the game’s opening kickoff return and was carted off, and running back KJ Edwards left later with an injury after running 5 times for 28 yards.
“That’s probably going to be a long one. We’ll hold a little bit ’til Monday,” Elko said of Bussey. “But there’s no signs that indicate that’s good right now.”
Reed spoke to Bussey as he was being carted off and saw him again before his news conference.
“I just told him I loved him. Like I said, it hurt me to see that first play, after all the work Terry’s put in,” Reed said. “He’s been a really big guy for us, had a great game last week, and we’re expecting a big game from him this week.”
“But yeah, he went down and I just told him that we got his back, we loved him, and I did see him just a second ago before I came in here,” Reed continued. “I think he’s getting looked at tomorrow for sure. So whatever happens, that’s what it is.”
Texas A&M had planned to play Edwards more this week, and that plan grew with Morrow out.
“KJ went down. He was unavailable. Obviously, we had a plan to play him coming into this week. Certainly with [Jamarion] Morrow out, that plan increased even more,” Elko said. “But he was going to play this week no matter what, and then he got injured and was out for the rest of the game, and so he was unavailable.”
Elko said the attrition was no excuse.
“It certainly didn’t help, but our job is to have the next guy up and ready,” Elko said. “And we’ve got to be ready, and we’ve got to go out and make plays.”
Ten different Aggies caught a pass, including graduate tight end Houston Thomas, who made his first reception at Texas A&M.
“Obviously, it hurts to see that. Knowing Ashton was already out of the game, and then Terry goes down first play, it’s not ideal,” Reed said. “But we’ve got some athletic guys, great receivers behind us, and they’re ready to come in and work. So, it’s always been a next-man-up thing for Texas A&M football, and we’ve just got to trust those guys to do what they can do.”
On defense, senior end T.J. Searcy recorded the fifth sack of his career. Senior safety Dalton Brooks made 6 tackles and passed 150 for his career. Senior safety Marcus Ratcliffe matched a season high with 7 tackles, and fifth-year cornerback Julio Humphrey set a career high with 6.
Reed said the Aggies’ preparation was no different this week than in the first two.
“I think the first three weeks have been okay. We’ve got to clean up some things, obviously. But new system and — we’ve got to execute better,” Reed said. “I mean, honestly, it’s up to us, it’s up to me. And I’ve got to take ownership of all this stuff. So we’ve got to do better preparing and coming out, starting fast, and just maintaining it.”
“No, I don’t think there was any difference this specific week. I think honestly, all the weeks have kind of been the same, but I don’t think the weeks have been good enough,” Reed said. “So we definitely have to fix that, especially being SEC ball now. We’ve got one loss in-conference already, so we don’t need anymore. We can’t afford anymore. We’ve got to get it fixed quick.”
For Reed, fixing it starts with his own role as a leader.
“I’ve just got to be a leader. I’ve got to be vocal, and I’ve got to make sure everybody is doing what they’re supposed to do, including me, and it starts with me,” Reed said. “So, I’ve got to do my part. I’ve got to be the one who’s accountable and dependable so that everybody else is doing the same thing.”
“The biggest thing I have to fix is making the easy throws,” Reed continued in a separate answer. “I think the biggest thing as a team is we just need to — everybody do their one-eleventh. There’s always one thing that goes wrong. Whenever we’re clicking, we’re clicking. It’s the greatest offense in the world. But when we’re not, it’s horrible. We’ve got to fix it quick.”
Elko’s message to the locker room was to man up.
“You figure out who you’re about in adversity. Everybody will quit on us. That’s how this thing works,” Elko said. “It’s never been about everybody. It’s only been about the people inside that locker room, and the people inside that locker room got to make a decision about how they want to come together and how they want to move forward.”
“And so, it will be a pivotal seven days for us in terms of how we respond, how we come back, how we prepare, and how we get ourselves ready to go down to Baton Rouge and play a really good football team,” Elko added.
Reed called the loss a learning experience.
“We got it out of the way. It’s a learning experience, and we’ve just got to come back even stronger,” Reed said. “We have a big opponent next week in a hostile environment, so we’ve got to get right back to work starting tomorrow and prepare our minds for going to Baton Rouge.”
Texas A&M visits No. 7 LSU on Saturday night. Kentucky hosts South Alabama.
