COLLEGE STATION -- Texas A&M fans are tired of moral victories. They heard enough about that during the previous era. Competing with Alabama, competing with Clemson, that’s not good enough. Texas A&M wants to be one of these programs.

“Yeah well, we still lost the game,” one Aggies fan said dejectedly in the elevator heading down to ground level.

He was right. The final score was a loss. Texas A&M lost 28-26 to the No. 2 Clemson Tigers at Kyle Field. The Aggies are 1-1. Those are the only numbers that matter. But still, on this night, on this field, this team was different.

There was a clear opportunity for this team to quit in the fourth quarter. The Aggies trailed 28-13 heading into the third quarter, but fought back to cut it to 28-20 and drove down the field with barely two minutes remaining. But then, disaster struck.

Quarterback Kellen Mond completed a pass to Quartney Davis running down the sideline. Davis ran for the goal line and tried to jump. The ball flew out of his hands and out of the back of end zone. It was ruled a touchback.

The crowd was stunned. The Aggies were not.

“There was time on the clock,” Texas A&M coach Jimbo Fisher said. “It was that simple. There was time on the clock.”

The defense quickly forced a three-and-out against an offense that won the ACC and played in the College Football Playoff last season. That brought up the true sophomore Mond and the Aggie offense against the best defensive line in college football for one last shot.

Mond quickly found wide receiver Kendrick Rogers for a 10-yard gain to the Clemson 39-yard line. A play later, Rogers drew a pass interference that pushed the Aggies to the 24-yard line with just 52 seconds remaining on the clock.

Once again, Mond targeted Rogers. The ball bounced off a defender’s hands, and Rogers somehow came down with it for a shocking touchdown. Texas A&M was just a two-point conversion away from tying the No. 2 team in the country and likely forcing overtime.

Unfortunately, Mond made his first real mistake of the game, throwing an interception on the two-point conversion. The game was over.

“It hurts,” offensive lineman Erik McCoy said. “I’ll be the first to tell you it hurts. Losing a close game like that, it sits on your heart heavy.”

But while Texas A&M lost the battle, the war is off to a dang good start in the Fisher era.

Clemson was favored by 12.5 points heading into the game, according to CBS Sports. No one outside of College Station gave the Aggies a shot against arguably the best defensive line in recent college football memory. But even when things got tough, this team didn’t give up.

“There was just no quit,” McCoy said. “That’s something that we’ve just put emphasis on, just no quit. Just keep playing the next play, no matter what the result is, just play the next play.”

Plenty of credit goes to Mond, the newly entrenched starting quarterback at Texas A&M. We’ll hold off from giving him any sort of catchy moniker out of principle, but Mond was absolutely dealing against Clemson’s top-ranked defense.

Mond completed 23-of-40 passes for 430 yards and three touchdowns. He added another 33 yards on the ground, including a big 23-yard gain. He did it despite facing constant pressure from Clemson’s defensive front – including six credited quarterback hurries.

“[Mond is a] competitive leader,” Fisher said. “A guy who can put his heart and soul on the field. You always leave plays out there, but that man is a competitor.”

Texas A&M also managed to win the battle in the trenches on defense. Clemson mustered just 3.8 yards per rush attempt. Highly-touted running back Travis Etienne posted just 44 yards, and 28 came on one breakaway run.

There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the Aggies heading forward. This was supposed to be a rebuilding year, not one to compete with the nation's best. But two games into the Fisher era, the Aggies show little interest in waiting their turn. 

The tests only get harder, including a date with No. 1 Alabama in Week 4. But the resilience Texas A&M football showed on Saturday against the No. 2 team in the nation is what elite teams possess. 

“It was one heck of a football team we played,” Fisher said. “They were only one play better than us today.”