Five days removed from the 13-year anniversary of Johnny Manziel delivering the most iconic performance in Texas A&M football history, Marcel Reed gave Mr. Football a run for his money.
Certainly, Manziel’s legendary 253-yard passing, 92-yard rushing, and two-touchdown day on Nov. 10, 2012, came against a more noteworthy opponent. After all, Manziel ran circles against a Nick Saban-coached Alabama team at the height of its dynasty — not a sub-.500 South Carolina squad underperforming preseason expectations.
Texas A&M also had to endure 30-plus minutes of bad football to set up its crescendo to the largest comeback in program history from down 27 points. Included in that stretch was Reed throwing two interceptions, both of which the Gamecocks converted into points.
However, Reed’s 439 passing yards and three second-half touchdowns in Saturday’s 31–30 win may carry more long-term significance than even Manziel’s performance in 2012. With this rally against South Carolina, Texas A&M all but secured a place in the College Football Playoff for the first time in program history.
Yes, the Aggies still need to beat Samford in next week’s customary SEC pre-Thanksgiving cupcake matchup. Six SEC teams face opponents from either the Group of Five or FCS, and Texas A&M draws the most overmatched of the bunch in the SoCon’s one-win Bulldogs.
That means reaching 11 wins — a virtual golden ticket to the Playoff — is essentially a formality. Texas A&M will head into the postseason with some unique insight into its mettle and character as a team.
“We have an identity of who we are,” Aggies coach Mike Elko said in his postgame press conference. “If we play to our identity, we’re a good football team. …If we start trying to play a different way, that’s not us. That’s not who we are.”
So who is Texas A&M? That’s a question that has long loomed over a program without a national championship since 1939.
Manziel’s tenure gave Texas A&M an identity built on swagger — an exceedingly difficult trait to fake. Just ask the Miami Hurricanes in their many failed efforts to recapture the glory days of the 1980s and early 2000s.
Because swagger is tough to manufacture, Texas A&M teams in the last decade have often lacked a real identity. That isn’t to say the Aggies didn’t find success under Jimbo Fisher, but they frequently embodied the label “also-ran.”
Even with the bravado that captured public imagination, the Manziel years never produced an SEC Championship Game appearance.
The 2025 Aggies’ place in the program’s first SEC title game isn’t yet guaranteed, but moving to 7–0 on the same day Alabama suffered its first conference loss and rival Texas was all but eliminated positions them favorably.
On the precipice of a first-ever SEC Championship opportunity, Texas A&M can now say it has an identity — one Elko defines as “blue collar.”
That stands in stark contrast to the Manziel days. It’s also a label that seems at odds with a team averaging 37.8 points per game (12th in the nation) behind a dual-threat quarterback.
However, Elko emphasizes that physicality and controlling the line of scrimmage define these Aggies. In 2025, Texas A&M may be a combination of early-2010s Johnny Football flair and 1950s Bear Bryant-era grit.
If the 2025 Aggies can claim a program-first SEC championship and a national title 86 years in the making, Marcel Reed’s performance Saturday will be remembered in Texas A&M lore alongside the names that built the program’s legacy.
