Texas A&M’s College Football Playoff opener comes with a built-in advantage ... 100,000-plus Aggies packed into Kyle Field.
When Kyle Field is full and angry, Texas A&M doesn't just have home-field advantage; it has a weapon.
The Aggies might have missed out on a first-round bye after dropping their regular-season finale, but the consolation prize is nasty for anyone in their way ... a College Football Playoff home game in College Station, with more than 100,000 fans ready to act as the 12th Man against the Miami Hurricanes.
Miami head coach Mario Cristobal has seen it up close, and he's not pretending it's just another road trip.
"That's one of the best atmospheres in all of college football or pro football, I imagine," Cristobal said this week.
He's not speaking from second-hand reputation either. He's been to Kyle Field four times. Once with Miami, once with FIU, and twice as an Alabama assistant, and in his words, "all four times it's a maniacal scene."
Cristobal's record in College Station reflects how hard that place is to survive.
His FIU team took a loss there in 2010. His Miami squad fell 17-9 in 2022 in a rock fight where offense never fully got off the bus. Only as part of Alabama's juggernaut in 2013 and 2015 did he walk out with wins, and those Tide teams needed 40-plus points to quiet the building.
Even when you have superior talent, Kyle Field demands your absolute best.
"Great support, extremely loud," Cristobal added. "They do a great job. What can you say? It’s very well documented. So again, preparation has to be at its best."
That preparation piece is where the 12th Man is already impacting this matchup.
Miami has not played in front of a crowd north of 70,000 this season. Now, with everything on the line, they’re stepping into a stadium that can swell past six figures, against a fan base starving to see its program finally cash in on a breakthrough year.
For Texas A&M, that's the edge. Scheme matters. Matchups matter. But in a playoff game at Kyle Field, emotion and noise become part of the game plan.
On Saturday, when the Hurricanes run out of the tunnel and the maroon wave hits full volume, we'll find out just how much the "maniacal" scene Cristobal described shapes the first College Football Playoff game ever played in Aggieland.