Hurricanes’ Rueben Bain on trash-talking Aggies: 'Writing checks they can’t cash’

Rueben Bain Jr. generally doesn’t need any motivation when he steps onto the football field. The Miami Hurricanes’ edge rusher, a consensus All-American this season and likely first-round pick in the NFL Draft in April, is intrinsically driven to win every rep, to maximize every opportunity he has.

But if an opponent is kind enough to give him an incentive to elevate his performance, he won’t turn it away. He will write in his notebook and put it as the lock screen on his phone.

Enter the Texas A&M Aggies.

Ahead of the Hurricanes’ first-round playoff matchup with the Aggies, Texas A&M offensive lineman Trey Zuhn III made it clear he and his teammates weren’t concerned about Bain.

“I don’t think he’ll be a threat that we need to worry about too much,” Zuhn said. “We have great players. We have a great offensive line, so we’ll be able to handle him.”

Bain’s response on Wednesday?

“God bless those guys,” he said with a smirk.

And when they met on the field Saturday, Bain backed up his talk.

A career-high three sacks. A career-high four tackles for loss. A blocked field goal.

And perhaps most importantly to Bain, a 10-3 win for the No. 10 seed Hurricanes over the No. 7 seed Aggies at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas to stay alive in the College Football Playoff. Miami advances to the quarterfinals to face the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes in the Cotton Bowl on Dec. 31.

So... how did Bain feel after the game about the comments, considering his performance?

“Like I’ve said before, I don’t take kindly to disrespect,” Bain said. “I have the reminders on my phone. These last two weeks, I was ready to play some football. Some guys were in the media saying some things they shouldn’t have said, but they did so God bless them for writing checks they can’t cash.”

Bain has been at the center of so much of the Hurricanes’ defensive success this season even if he doesn’t have the pure numbers to show for it. The edge rusher entered Saturday with just seven-and-a-half tackles for loss and four-and-a-half sacks, but his production extends well beyond that.

According to Pro Football Focus, Bain entered the Texas A&M game with a team-high 58 quarterback pressures. While he might not have been finishing plays all the time, he was still being disruptive and setting the stage for the rest of his teammates to capitalize.

He shined on Saturday — and in big moments.

First came the blocked field goal. The game was tied 0-0 at that point early in the second quarter. Texas A&M had ripped off a 59-yard completion from quarterback Marcel Reed to Mario Carver — one of the rare miscues by the defense in the game — to get to the Miami 11-yard line. The defense held firm from there to force the Aggies to attempt a 22-yard field goal. What should have been a chip shot ended up finding Bain’s extended arm.

“Our guys responded in that situation,” defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman said.

Bain and the defense kept responding. Bain recorded all three of his sacks on Reed in the second half. Miami’s defense as a whole had seven sacks, tying a season high set against Syracuse.

The Hurricanes also forced three turnovers — including a pair of interceptions by Bryce Fitzgerald and a fumble recovery from defensive lineman Armondo Blount that was forced by nickel cornerback Keionte Scott.

Miami held Texas A&M to season lows in points (three), yards (326) and yards per play (4.3) — the latest stellar effort from the group under Hetherman, who is a finalist for the Broyles Award given annually to college football’s top assistant coach for the way he has overhauled Miami’s defense.

“We sat in the locker room for like 15 minutes [after the game],” Bain said, “just saying how crazy it was for us to win this game in this kind of way. From the first snap to the last, the defense came to play. That’s just the way it’s going to be.”

This story was originally published December 20, 2025 at 7:21 PM.