Miami beats Aggies, will play Buckeyes in Cotton Bowl

Sunday, December 21, 2025
Staff Reports
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The Miami Hurricanes (11-2) topped Texas A&M (11-2) by the final score of 10-3 Saturday in a College Football Playoff first round matchup to earn a trip to the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes (12-1) on New Year’s Eve.

Neither team scored in the first half Saturday. Miami got on the board first with a 21-yard field goal late in the third quarter. The Aggies tied the contest with a 35-yard field goal with 8:35 remaining in the fourth quarter.

The Hurricanes scored the game’s lone touchdown with 1:44 left in regulation on a Carson Beck throw to Malachi Toney from 11 yards out. After the ensuing kickoff, Texas A&M then drove the ball 70 yards to the Miami 5-yard line before throwing an incompletion, then an interception to seal the 10-3 Miami win.

Hurricanes’ junior running back Mark Fletcher Jr. ran for 172 yards on 17 carries, almost doubling the entire Texas A&M rushing effort. Beck finished the day, going 14-20 for 103 yards and a score. Toney had five catches for just 22 yards, with Keelan Marion making three receptions for a team-leading 33 yards.

Canes’ linebacker Keionte Scott paced the defense with 10 tackles, including two sacks and three tackles for loss, while safety Jakobe Thomas had nine tackles. Defensive lineman Akheem Mesidor added 1.5 sacks for Miami.

The Cotton Bowl will be played at Dallas’s AT&T Stadium, home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, on Wed., Dec. 31 beginning at 7:30 p.m. EST. It will be broadcast on ESPN.