Texas A&M is chasing a return trip to the College Football Playoff. Arizona State is trying to figure out who's even playing quarterback for them by the time September rolls around.
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ASUTA&M
ASUTA&M
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Best BetTexas A&M
Texas A&M brings back its starting quarterback and most of its offensive skill talent from a Playoff team, while Arizona State is still sorting out who's even taking the first snap. That kind of continuity gap at the sport's most important position is usually decisive early in a season, especially at home.
Arizona State
+Won the Big 12 with this staff last year
+Loaded transfer class, 16 from power conferences
+Omarion Miller headlines a talented WR room
−Only 11 of 34 regulars return
−Starting QB job still unsettled entering fall
−Brutal, travel-heavy 2026 schedule overall
Texas A&M
+Marcel Reed returns after Playoff berth
+Skill talent intact: Horton, Craver, Owens II
+Program targeting a top-tier national ceiling
−Lost 13 starters off Playoff roster
−Still early in reshaping a new-look roster
−Road to LSU looms right after this game
This one's a study in contrasts. Texas A&M went 11-2 last year and made the program's first-ever Playoff appearance under Mike Elko, and Marcel Reed is back to try to push them further. Arizona State is coming off a Big 12 title run of its own but enters this game having lost its starting quarterback, its top receiver, and most of the two-deep that got them there — Kenny Dillingham is rebuilding on the fly.
The quarterback picture is the whole ballgame for Arizona State. Sam Leavitt is gone to LSU and Jeff Sims is out of eligibility, which leaves a genuinely open competition between Kentucky transfer Cutter Boley, UCF/Fresno State vet Mikey Keene, and a couple of younger arms fighting for snaps behind them. Boley entered spring as the presumptive favorite after a solid freshman season in the SEC, but Dillingham hasn't crowned anybody publicly, and this early in September there's real risk the staff is still settling into a rhythm with whoever wins the job.
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ASU Arizona State
TA&M Texas A&M
Texas A&M, by contrast, knows exactly who's throwing the ball. Reed returns with a full offseason under his belt and weapons around him in Isaiah Horton, Mario Craver, and running back Ruben Owens II. The Aggies did lose 13 starters off that Playoff roster, so there's still plenty for Elko to sort out — but the most important position on the field isn't one of the question marks.
Arizona State Sun Devils
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Texas A&M Aggies
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
Arizona State Sun Devils
Sep 5?vs Morgan State—
Texas A&M Aggies
Sep 5?vs Missouri State—
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Kyle Field in September is never an easy building to walk into, and this is A&M's second non-conference tune-up before SEC play opens against Kentucky the following week. Arizona State, meanwhile, is dealing with one of the most brutal travel schedules in the country this year, and a trip to College Station to face a Playoff-caliber roster is about as tough a proving ground as a first-year starting quarterback could draw.
Neither team is desperate yet this early in the season, but the stakes are still real — A&M wants to prove last year wasn't a one-off, and Arizona State wants to show its Big 12 breakthrough can survive a roster overhaul. Whoever's better by December likely traces some of it back to how this one goes.
