The No. 7 Aggies are preparing to host No. 10 Miami at Kyle Field in the first round of the CFP.

During the regular season, the Aggies rattled off 11 straight wins before a loss to Texas in their final game cost them a shot at the SEC title. A team that had hopes of a conference title and a first-round CFP bye was dropped to the current seventh seed.

“I don’t think any of that will really matter when we end up winning it all,” offensive lineman Trey Zuhn III told reporters confidently following the selection show.

A bold statement, sure. But this sentiment seems to ring true in the A&M locker room.

Under second-year head coach Mike Elko, this team just clinched the program’s first CFP spot after topping 10 wins for just the second time since joining the SEC more than a decade ago.

“We’re looking forward to hosting the game at Kyle Field,” linebacker Taurean York said. “We’re trying to get this bad taste out of our mouth (from the Texas loss) and go from there.”

With their rival in Austin finishing outside of the playoff field, A&M shifts its focus to Miami. The teams share some things in common: Both defeated Notre Dame, helping knock the Irish out of the playoff. Like the Aggies, the Hurricanes (10-2) also fell short of their conference title game after a hot start. Miami finished third in the ACC. 

It’ll be just the sixth meeting between A&M and Miami, with the Hurricanes winning the last meeting in 2023, 48-33. The Aggies last faced Miami at home in 2022, winning 17-9.

“This is the vision when I came to College Station. This is what we believe A&M football is about,” Elko, who recently signed a contract extension with the school, told ESPN Sunday. “Now we’ve got the stage to go out there and show we belong. This is an exciting opportunity for our program to do something we’ve never done before.”

The Aggies’ path to the national title is clear. A home win against the Hurricanes would set up a matchup against No. 2 Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl in Arlington. If the Aggies were to win that quarterfinal game against the Buckeyes, they would then travel to Arizona for the Fiesta Bowl for the national semifinals.

Despite the opportunities in front of them, A&M’s leaders know none of it matters if they don’t handle business on their home field first.

“One shot mentality for sure,” York said. “You gotta go get it now.”

Reach Texas A&M beat reporter Tony Catalina via email at Anthony.Catalina@statesman.com.