No. 24 Aggies battle No. 13 Hurricanes in primetime on Saturday night

All the cliches for rebounding from a disappointing college football loss to were unpacked at Texas A&M this week.

The Aggies got a wake-up call. They must get back on the horse. They have to grow up.

The No. 24 Aggies (1-1) better be wide awake and full-grown on Saturday night at 8 p.m. at Kyle Field, or they could get bucked off again by No. 13 Miami.

A once-promising season is in danger of becoming a broken promise. That’s primarily because of a broken offense, which managed just one touchdown in a 17-14 loss to Appalachian State last week.

In an attempt to make repairs, LSU transfer Max Johnson will replace Haynes King as starting quarterback. Also, sophomore center Bryce Foster — a freshman All-American last season — returns to the lineup after missing the first two games with mononucleosis.

Jamie Maury, TexAgs

Center Bryce Foster is expected to return to the starting lineup after missing A&M’s first two games.

More may be required to make a quick fix. Perhaps the main adjustment involves attitude.

“You could tell in the locker room after the game people were not happy after the loss,” senior receiver Ainias Smith said.

The alarming loss set off an alarm.

“It was a wake-up call,” junior guard Layden Robinson said.

He later added: “I have confidence that we’ll get right back on the horse. That will determine our character. How we get back up after we get knocked down. It’s not always about how you are in a victory. It’s how you are in the losses.”

They’d better show that character lest risk being reduced to a caricature of a team thought to be a national championship contender just two weeks ago.

The slow start is becoming a disturbing trend. Two seasons ago, the Aggies started 1-1 but rebounded to post eight consecutive victories.

Last season, they opened with three unimpressive victories before losing their first two Southeastern Conference games. However, they rebounded to beat Alabama to start a four-game winning streak.

Here they are again.

Fisher said youth is a common denominator in last year’s slow start and this year’s.

“We’ve started young players,” he said. “Last year, we had a freshman center (Foster). This year, another freshman center (Matthew Wykoff). You’ve got a left tackle (redshirt freshman Trey Zuhn) that’s young. A quarterback in both years first time starting. Hopefully, that’s it. We’ve got to make sure we get those guys executing. I thought we would have played a little bit better.”

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Mario Cristobal is off to a 2-0 start in his first season in Coral Gables.

The Aggies are hoping to play a lot better against Miami, which has had some early issues of its own.

The Hurricanes opened by blowing out overmatched Bethune-Cookman. But last week, they were in a battle with Southern Miss before pulling away in the fourth quarter for a 30-7 victory.

Miami is led by sophomore quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, who is considered a future first-round draft choice. He passed for 2,931 yards and 25 touchdowns last year.

Thus far this season, he has thrown 454 yards and three touchdowns.

Although Van Dyke’s passing acumen poses a serious challenge, the Aggies are more focused on themselves.

Can they create running room for explosive running back Devone Achane? Can Johnson bolster the passing game? Can the pass rush consistently pressure Van Dyke? Can the Aggies prevent third-down conversions, which they struggled to do last week?

How do they accomplish all those goals?

“It’s fundamentals,” Fisher said. “It goes back to hard work and fundamentals.”

There’s another cliche.