Echoes of College Station: Bringing 2024 Memories to Saturday's UK-A&M Game
By Jamie H. Vaught
KySportsStyle.com Magazine
In January of 2024, after several flight delays from Lexington via Detroit due to poor weather, my wife and I visited our son in San Antonio, Texas for a weekend trip.
While in Texas, I was scheduled to cover the Kentucky-Texas A&M basketball game in College Station—about three hours away—with an approved media credential. However, flight cancellations forced me to miss the afternoon game by several hours. Needless to say, I wasn't too happy.
And I was not the only Kentucky writer who missed UK's 97-92 overtime loss because of the flight delays.
Since we already had a motel reservation in College Station, we drove to Aggieland to explore the campus, including the 13,000-seat Reed Arena and the massive 102,733-seat Kyle Field, and visit the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library.
While at Kyle Field, we saw a statue of legendary 1957 Heisman Trophy winner John David Crow, who played for the Aggies under coach Paul "Bear" Bryant during the mid-1950s. A former NFL star, he was also the athletics director at Texas A&M.
Speaking of Kyle Field, it's where football coach Will Stein's Wildcats will face a very tough Aggies team for a rare matchup between both schools Saturday afternoon (ESPN, 3:30 pm ET). Kentucky has played Texas A&M only three times in the past, including the 2018 raod game when then-unbeaten No. 13 Wildcats lost 20-14 in overtime at Kyle Field.
UK's lone victory in the series took place during the 1952 season when Cats, then coached by Bear Bryant, prevailed with a 10-7 win in College Station. In the following season of 1953, UK dropped by a score of 7-6 in the season opener at Stoll Field.
Coming off a 45-17 loss to Alabama at Kroger Field last Saturday, the Wildcats now have a 1-1 mark. And Kentucky defensive coordinator Jay Bateman may be able to help his Cats find ways to defeat Texas A&M as he served as the DC for the Aggies for the past two years (2024 and '25).
Texas A&M third-year coach Mike Elko, nicknamed "Big Brain" for his football knowledge, has produced the second-best two-year start (19-7) by a head coach in school history. In 2025, Elko guided the Aggies to an 11-2 mark (7-1 in SEC) and its first CFP appearance. Also, it was the program's first 10-plus win season in more than a decade. Before coming to Texas A&M, Elko was the head coach at Duke for a couple of years.
Ranked No. 9 in this week's Associated Press Top 25 poll, Texas A&M is now 2-0, coming off a 48-20 victory over Arizona State and former UK quarterback Cutter Boley at home last Saturday before a crowd of 107,523. After the Kentucky game, the Aggies will travel to LSU for the Sept. 26 matchup.
Senior QB Marcel Reed is entering his second season as the full-time Texas A&M starter.
It's going to be a tough road matchup for UK. A quick prediction: Texas A&M by 17.
Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime sports columnist in Kentucky, is the author of seven books about UK basketball, including recently published “Unforgettable Journey with the Cats: Inside Kentucky Hoops Madness.” Now a retired college professor who taught at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro, he is the editor and founder of KySportsStyle.com Magazine. You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @KySportsStyle or reach him via email at KySportsStyle44@gmail.com.
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