COLLEGE STATION, Texas — After Texas A&M’s final offensive possession went awry and the finality of the Aggies’ fate set in, Texas fans gleefully took the opportunity to rub salt in their fresh wound.
Thousands of burnt orange-clad fans seated near the southeast tunnel at Kyle Field each put an arm up, with index finger and pinky extended, looking to their right at the Texas A&M student section. In rhythm, they rocked the “Hook ’em Horns” sign while unleashing a chant that filled the crisp night air while 100,000-plus Aggies in the building stood in stunned silence.
“S-E-C! S-E-C! S-E-C!”
Thirteen years after Texas last broke the Aggies’ hearts in this very stadium and 12 years after Texas A&M initially planted its flag in the SEC, the Longhorns forcefully announced their arrival, doing something in their first year that the Aggies still have yet to do: clinch a berth in the SEC Championship Game.
That’s what will sting the most about Texas 17, Texas A&M 7. Not the Longhorns’ fourth-down stop at the goal line with 4:36 left that killed A&M’s last real chance at narrowing the gap. Not the multiple opportunities that A&M squandered after Texas miscues. Not even the anemic offense A&M fielded in the biggest game of the season.
It’s the fact that, 13 seasons into Texas A&M’s SEC membership, the Aggies’ chance to distance themselves from the shadow cast by their biggest rival just disappeared.
Never mind that the Longhorns spent many of those 13 years floundering in college football’s abyss. Forget that the Aggies, too, made a grand arrival in their debut SEC campaign, riding Johnny Manziel, Mike Evans and Kevin Sumlin to a fun, action-packed 11-2 season that yielded a Heisman Trophy and helped fill the university’s coffers to the point that it could spend half-a-billion dollars to make Kyle Field the pristine stage it was on Saturday.
Texas A&M has been good, but not great, since making its “100-year decision” — as then-president R. Bowen Loftin termed it — to leave the Big 12 for the SEC except for two seasons: 2012 and 2020. This year, under new head coach Mike Elko, was the Aggies’ chance to finally play for something real at season’s end, a trip to the SEC championship and an opportunity to remain in the College Football Playoff race. Instead, they’ll finish 8-4, with three consecutive conference losses after sitting atop the SEC standings at midseason.
“It sucks,” Elko said. “There’s no sugarcoating it.”
One season into its SEC existence, Texas has passed the Aggies. Truthfully, the Longhorns already had, making the Playoff last year while the Aggies fired Jimbo Fisher — the coach who was supposed to lead them to SEC titles and make them national title contenders — and committed to pay him more than $70 million in buyout money through 2031.
Texas A&M could try to wave that contrast away because Texas had accomplished that breakthrough as a member of the Big 12, not the rugged SEC. It’s different in this league. But since Steve Sarkisian arrived at Texas, the Longhorns have thoughtfully, gradually prepared themselves and built their team for this moment, and it’s paying off.
Meanwhile, the Aggies massively underachieved in their final two seasons under Fisher, and Elko was brought in to fix it. The early returns were promising. Despite a season-opening loss to Notre Dame, A&M rattled off seven consecutive wins to put itself in the SEC’s driver’s seat.
But some things can’t be fixed in one season. Texas has better offensive personnel than the Aggies do. If Sarkisian had his pick of the A&M receivers, there’s no guarantee any of them would start for the Longhorns.
At the line of scrimmage — where SEC games are won and lost — Texas is also further ahead. Despite losing All-America left tackle Kelvin Banks to an ankle injury in the first quarter, the Longhorns didn’t miss a beat, subbing in redshirt freshman Trevor Goosby with minimal issues. The front paved the way for a 240-yard rushing performance, 186 of which came from running back Tre Wisner.
“We (had) way too many misfits, way too (much) lack of leverage, way too many just simple execution errors,” Elko said. “They’re good, they’re talented, and hat’s off to them because they physically annihilated us.”
On offense, the Aggies couldn’t get tough yards when they needed them most. On fourth-and-1 at the Texas 10 on the game’s opening drive, the Longhorns stuffed A&M running back Amari Daniels for a turnover on downs. Late in the first half, A&M quarterback Marcel Reed tried to scramble for 3 yards, but the Texas front contained him and stopped him for 1.
And the game-deciding sequence at the Texas 1-yard line was a mano-a-mano beatdown by the Longhorns’ defensive line. By time Daniels received the handoff from Reed at the 5, three Texas defensive linemen were already past the line of scrimmage. One of them was edge rusher Ethan Burke, who screamed around the left edge, untouched, to hammer Daniels for a loss.
Ballgame.
“We did terrible, absolutely terrible,” Elko said in assessment of A&M’s performance against Texas’ defensive line. “We got physically beat up. And in order to win games in this league, we can’t do that.”
Throughout this season, Elko has been determined to go for it in fourth-and-short situations. It’s part of the identity he’s trying to build in his first year at Texas A&M. But the shortcomings on Saturday and in other instances this season show the Aggies still have far to go to reach that goal.
“If we want to be the team that we need to be, we have to be able to convert fourth-and-1s,” he said. “You have to, and obviously, we didn’t.”
Even beyond those critical situations, moving the ball was a chore for the Aggies. After two plays of 15-plus yards on the opening drive, A&M didn’t have another such play for the remainder of the first half. Finding open receivers downfield was difficult, and the Aggies spent more time going east and west than north and south.
Texas finished with five passing plays of more than 20 yards; A&M had one. The Longhorns had eight runs of 10-plus yards; the Aggies had one.
Texas A&M got beat by a Texas team that was simply better.
Perhaps the foundation Elko laid in Year 1 will pay long-term dividends. But on Saturday night, none of that mattered. Only the all-too-familiar scene of the Longhorns celebrating on Texas A&M’s turf.
Thirteen years and six days after Justin Tucker split the uprights to say goodbye to A&M, the Longhorns returned to Kyle Field on Saturday to push the rival Aggies aside, extend their series lead to 77-37-5 and dance their way to Atlanta for a rematch with Georgia. The Aggies, meanwhile, are in a place that’s all too familiar.
“There’s a big difference between the SEC Championship Game and the Music City Bowl and the Texas Bowl,” Texas A&M linebacker Taurean York said. “One of those you want to play in and one of those you don’t.
“We’ll be playing one of those games that people are really not caring about, people are not watching.”
(Photo: Alex Slitz / Getty Images)
