This the second article in a series previewing the 2023 football opponents for Texas A&M Football. Click here for last week’s article.
Last year’s matchup between the Miami Hurricanes and Texas A&M football in week 3 was—believe it or not—a top-25 game. It aired on ESPN in prime time, with Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit making their first announcing appearance in College Station since the 2014 Ole Miss game.
As we now know, though, both teams would end with tumultuous seasons, quarterback questions, and 5-7 records. This was quite the letdown for what was one of the more hyped non-conference matchups of the offseason.
This year, however, could be far different. Both the Hurricanes and Aggies are trendy picks to bounce back from poor 2022 campaigns. The 2022 Texas A&M football recruiting class began to come into their own at the end of the previous year. For the Hurricanes, a returning Tyler Van Dyke brings with him the promise of elevated quarterback play, and head coach Mario Cristobal’s own recruiting acumen looks to begin paying dividends in Coral Gables sooner rather than later. Aggie fans are aware of Texas A&M’s recruiting struggles and successes in the 2023 class, but, for their part, Miami netted two five-star offensive lineman in that cycle to help shore up their unit up front—addressing one of their top needs coming into this year.
Texas A&M Football Matchup History vs. Miami
To refresh the memory of Texas A&M football fans, last year’s game was a defensive slog that ultimately ended with a score of 17-9 in favor of A&M. The Aggies controlled most of the game, going up 17-3 at the beginning of the second half, but struggled scoring for most of Max Johnson’s first start in the Maroon and White. This was also a game for which the Aggies were without Denver Harris, Smoke Bouie, Chris Marshall, and Evan Stewart following a suspension that was announced only hours before kickoff. Of course, only Stewart remains of those four—with Harris and Marshall garnering a second suspension that lasted the whole second half of the season. Devon Achane and Ainias Smith made up most of the Aggie offense on that night, and DJ Durkin’s unit made life hard on Tyler Van Dyke. If the young freshmen in the A&M secondary had had better hands on that night, it would have been a multiple-turnover evening for Van Dyke.
The two programs have had little on-field history in the whole scheme of things. They first played in 1944, when the Aggies won by a margin of 70-14. They would not play again until a home-and-home in 2007 and 2008—Miami won both games. The winner of this upcoming matchup will go up 3-2 in the all-time series.