COLLEGE STATION, Texas \u2014 Texas A&M coach Mike Elko had to take a moment to compose himself when he was asked if this season was championship or bust or if his Aggies were simply happy to reach the College Football Playoff for the first time as they prepared for Saturday\u2019s game against Miami.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to be nice,\u201d Elko said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know that you define it that way,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re in year two. We\u2019re trying to establish a championship type of program. We haven\u2019t won a championship around here since 1939, so that\u2019s a lot of busts if that\u2019s the only marker. I think we\u2019re obviously in this thing to compete for a national championship for sure. We believe… we\u2019re one of the teams that\u2019s capable of going out there and winning it, but I don\u2019t know that you define seasons like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like the Aggies, the Hurricanes are in the playoff for the first time though their championship drought is much shorter than Texas A&M\u2019s. Miami has won five national titles with the most recent one coming in 2001.<\/p>\n
Seventh-seeded Texas A&M (11-1) knew it would get a spot in the playoff well ahead of the bracket announcement on Dec. 7 after losing its only game in the regular-season finale to rival Texas. For the Hurricanes, there was a lot more consternation, especially considering that they didn\u2019t get a spot last season despite an identical 10-2 record.<\/p>\n
The No. 10 seed Hurricanes got the last at-large spot over Notre Dame thanks to their 27-24 win over the Fighting Irish in the season opener.<\/p>\n
Miami quarterback Carson Beck, who is in his first season with the team after a transfer from Georgia, said making the playoff \u201cmeans everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what I came here for. \u2026 There\u2019s been a lot of adversity that we\u2019ve had to face as a team, that I\u2019ve had to face individually. In that moment to see The U come up on the TV, I obviously was extremely excited, and ready for the opportunity,\u201d he said. \u201cThis team is excited to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n
The only common opponent between these teams is the Fighting Irish, who Texas A&M beat 41-40 on Sept. 13 for Notre Dame\u2019s only other loss this season.<\/p>\n
The Aggies have pointed to that victory as a key moment in the season that helped build their confidence. It\u2019s a confidence that wasn\u2019t shaken despite the loss to Texas.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a rough loss, and you hate to lose that game, but we\u2019ve got hopefully four more games left,\u201d right tackle Dametrious Crownover said. \u201cWe can\u2019t afford the time to sit and sulk. We had our time off to sit and sulk about it, and now we\u2019ve got to go win a national championship.\u201d<\/p>\n
The winner advances to the Cotton Bowl to play No. 2 seed Ohio State on Dec. 31.<\/p>\n
Miami on the road<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes will have to buck a 20-year trend if they\u2019re going to extend their season.<\/p>\n
Going back to November 2005, the Hurricanes are 0-13 when they travel outside of Miami to play a team ranked 10th or better in the AP Top 25. In 10 of those games, Miami wound up losing by at least 13 points.<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes are 1-0 against Top 10 teams this season; they beat then-No. 6 Notre Dame in Week 1 at home.<\/p>\n
Coach Mario Cristobal called Kyle Field one of the best environments in sports and knows his team will have to be focused to deal with a crowd that\u2019s certain to exceed 100,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt comes down to your preparation because at the end of the day, this is going to come down to the 22 that are on the field, that are actually executing against each other, and execution is at a premium,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Moss back?<\/p>\n
Texas A&M star running back Le\u2019Veon Moss has missed the last six games with an ankle injury and is listed as questionable for the game. He had 70 carries for 389 yards and six touchdowns in six games this season, highlighted by career-high 139 yards in a win over Auburn.<\/p>\n
If he can\u2019t go, Texas A&M will continue to rely on Rueben Owens II to power the running game. He leads the team with 618 yards rushing but has managed just 76 yards combined in his last two games.<\/p>\n
Toney watch<\/p>\n
Miami wide receiver Malachi Toney needs 30 yards to post the eighth 1,000-yard receiving season in school history. The second-team All-American as a freshman, has had 25 catches for 272 yards in his last two games alone.<\/p>\n
Not gone yet<\/p>\n
Texas A&M offensive coordinator Collin Klein and defensive coordinator Jay Bateman have both taken jobs at other schools in recent weeks but will remain with the Aggies throughout their playoff run. Klein was named Kansas State\u2019s coach following the retirement of Chris Klieman and Jay Bateman was hired as Kentucky\u2019s defensive coordinator.<\/p>\n
Though both men will be with the team for the postseason and Klein will continue to call plays, their successors will also be helping out after Elko filled both positions with coaches already on staff. Lyle Hemphill was promoted from associate head coach for defense to defensive coordinator and Holmon Wiggins, who was the co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach, was elevated to offensive coordinator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLLEGE STATION, Texas \u2014 Texas A&M coach Mike Elko had to take a moment to compose himself when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[31374,123,125,124,110],"class_list":["post-90365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-highlands_news-sun","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}