One of the biggest teas of Week 2 of college football isn’t about whether No. 16-ranked Texas A&M can hang with Marcus Freeman‘s No. 8-ranked hungry Notre Dame. The real tease? Whether Mike Elko‘s secret sauce can finally cash in against big-timers. The Aggies are 2–0, hot off a 44–22 smackdown of Utah State, but now comes South Bend, a snake pit matchup against Freeman’s Fighting Irish. And just 24 hours before kickoff, the biggest SEC insider in College Station spilled the beans on A&M’s ace card. Spoiler alert: it’s not what most folks thought.

When Billy Liucci hops on the mic, Aggieland listens. And this week on TexasAgs with Steve and Seth McKinney, he didn’t mince words—naming Marcel Reed his ‘Freak of the Week’. Liucci spelled it out: “Offensively, my freak of the week is – I’m gonna go with Marcel Reed in this one.” He doubled down, saying that last year Conner Weigman had folks believing until the injury bug bit, but by season’s end, it was Reed proving he could flip the script at QB. His point? In a matchup where Notre Dame is breaking in a true freshman, Texas A&M actually holds the quarterback advantage.

Now, here’s why that hits different. Reed wasn’t perfect last season—completing 147 of 240 passes for 1,864 yards, 15 touchdowns, and six picks. But he flashed dual-threat juice, tacking on 547 rushing yards and seven TDs. Fast forward to 2025, and this isn’t the same cat. Reed’s been straight up surgical through 2 weeks: 509 passing yards, 7 touchdowns, zero interceptions, and 66% accuracy. Sprinkle in 105 rushing yards and another score on the ground, and suddenly, he looks like the missing praying Elko’s been needing.

And it’s not just Reed cooking solo. Texas A&M is spreading the wealth—averaging north of 40 points per game, torching defenses with a balanced 300+ yard split between run and pass. Against Utah State, they piled up over 550 yards, six sacks, and nine tackles for loss, flexing both sides of the ball. Factor in that the Aggies are No. 6 nationally in returning production, tops in the SEC, and you see why this offense is balling. Continuity, added with Reed’s evolution? That’s a cheat code.

Notre Dame, on the other hand, is still trying to shake off the rust. After falling 27–24 to Miami in their opener, they’ve had a bye week to regroup, but freshman QB C.J. Carr is still green. He low-key balled against Miami—19 completions for 221 yards and two scores—but also tossed a pick and never really unlocked the Irish run game. And Billy Liucci isn’t sleeping on Carr: “While I’m not discounting CJ Carr after a bye…I think this is going to be a better A&M defense than what they’ve shown so far.” Translation? He thinks the Aggies are about to make South Bend a nightmare classroom for Carr.

Elko’s boys know this is the type of swing game that defines a season. After fumbling a 7-1 record to an 8-5 finish in 2024, the leash is tighter in big 2025. Win it, and a 10–2 record is alive. Lose it, and 9–3 becomes the ceiling. That’s why Liucci called Reed not just a freak, but the advantage A&M carries into this game. “Good throws are good throws. Quicker decision-making is quicker decision-making. A greater willingness to take off and run is a greater willingness to take off and run. And the leadership we’ve seen from him—I like that as my freak,” he preached. It’s the Aggies’ confidence in plain English.

Mike Elko kept it real about the ‘awkward’ Riley Leonard situation

The Reed advantage isn’t the only storyline floating into South Bend. Mike Elko’s got history here—specifically with Riley Leonard. Last season, in his first game as Aggies head coach, he had to line up across from his former Duke quarterback. Talk about awkward. Elko admitted back then, “The irony of playing against him in the opener, certainly, isn’t lost on me.” Leonard, in Notre Dame gold, out-dueled his old coach in a one-possession thriller. That sting still lingers.

This time around, though? Leonard’s off cashing NFL checks with the Colts, meaning Elko doesn’t have to battle both Notre Dame and his own past in the same game. He even called last year’s matchup “a great game,” but admitted the whole Riley dynamic was just weird. “Obviously, it was our first game as a staff, and you had all the awkwardness of going against Riley Leonard, our former quarterback,” Elko told NBC Sports recently. Now, with Leonard gone, Elko’s focus is squarely on the Irish—not ghosts from Durham, TX.

But that doesn’t mean the fight got any easier. Notre Dame still trots out blue-chip talent, especially in the backfield with Jeremiyah Love, who embarrassed defenses in 2024. Though he was held to just 33 yards in the Miami loss, he’s exactly the kind of back who could give A&M’s blitz-heavy schemes trouble. Last year, his burst made Elko’s defense pay in crunch time. Expect Coach Freeman to lean hard on him as a counterpunch to Carr’s growing pains.

Elko, for his part, knows how razor-thin these margins get. “It was a great game, went down to the fourth quarter. They made a few more plays than we did. I think this one is going to be very similar,” he said, essentially warning fans to buckle up for another late-night heartbreaker. But what he didn’t say—what insiders like Liucci are hinting at—is that with Marcel Reed balling, this might be the year A&M flips that script.

Bottom line? Last year, Elko was stuck in an emotional tug-of-war—coaching his debut against the QB he once recruited and mentored. This year, he’s got a clear runway.