Dec. 22, 2025, 8:52 p.m. ET
The way college football is played these days, a 10-3 final score shouldn’t happen too often. The rules have been totally rewritten to faciliate scoring, so when you have a total points scored of just 13, it’s definitely a combination of great defense and bad offense.
The #10 seed Miami Hurricanes simply played better defense and not quite as bad offense, in upsetting #7 seed Texas A&M in a first round playoff game this weekend. The Canes took care of business on the road, on a windy day in College Station, TX. No one really played that well for the Aggies on Saturday, and that includes their pair of first round prospects, wide receiver Kevin “KC” Concepcion and edge rusher Cashius Howell.
Both could still very easily become first round picks this April, but this isn’t the “closing argument” that anybody would want to make. It was an entire team loss for A&M, but the offense just wasn’t able to move the ball, all day long, and those issues went far beyond Concepcion, who had four catches for only 33 yards (8.3 yards per catch).
This was very out of character for the Charlotte, NC native, who averaged over 15 yards per reception this season. The junior wideout is an explosive player with great route running ability. A&M tried to get him involved in the run game too, as he had two carries, accumulating nine yards.
As for Howell, he had two total tackles, one solo. He never sacked Miami quarterback Carson Beck, nor dropped any Miami ball-carrier behind the line of scrimmage. On a day when defense ruled, this should have been his kind of game to realy wreck it. Given that Howell came into this one with 11 sacks on the season, his lack of impact in this one was very unexpected.
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However, other and better opportunities lay ahead, because Howell, like Concepcion, will have a great chance to showcase his abilities and skills during the predraft process.