Texas Handles Rival Texas A&M to Make SEC Championship in First Season

The Longhorns made changing conferences look easy with dominant, physical win after 13-year wait in the series and all but locked up a College Football Playoff berth.

Texas Longhorns wide receiver Matthew Golden motions after getting a first down against the Texas A&M Aggies. / Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

The Texas A&M Aggies waited 13 long years to extract the necessary measure of revenge against their fiercest rival, the Texas Longhorns.

Ever since Justin Tucker’s kick in 2011 framed what the victors called the “eternal scoreboard” in the in-state rivals’ last meeting, the Aggies have stewed. They have chirped. They turned their noses up and in the other direction. They even rebuilt their home field as a show of opulence and boasted loudly about the bold new era they embarked upon without the burnt orange in the SEC.

But most of all, they waited with anticipation for the day they could finally get one back between the lines on the Longhorns. They prepared as such, too, making sure there was not a luxury spared that could hold them back (nor a buyout too large to find the coach capable of doing it).

On Saturday night, back at Kyle Field to play No. 3 Texas yet again before a near-record 109,028 feverous fans, No. 20 Texas A&M had the opportunity, twice, to all but deliver on every one of those 13 years it spent waiting. Nine inches, give or take, from seizing momentum on a pair of fourth downs and delivering a much-needed catharsis to all that angst built up in a fan base that doesn’t know much outside it.

Each time, however, the Longhorns had a simple response to their far more experienced SEC foe in order to secure a 17–7 victory: No. 

Not just no, hell no in fact. You shall not pass.

“A lot of those guys have been hearing, since the day it got announced that we were going to the SEC, that we were going to struggle going into the SEC. That it was going to be hard. That we were going to come into this environment tonight—and it was going to be the toughest environment in college football—and we wouldn’t be ready for it,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “There was a lot of things that we were challenged with that had been brewing inside of a lot of people inside that locker room, coaches and players included. 

“That wasn’t a gimmick win. We didn’t hit trick plays, we lined up and played good, hard-nosed football and we executed. A couple balls didn’t bounce our way, but we won the game in a physical manner—which is what we know we needed to do in the Southeastern Conference.”

Win they did, and now it is the Longhorns, not their rivals with a 13-year head start, who will be playing next week in their very first SEC championship game—a berth in the College Football Playoff all but locked up in the process. The trip to Atlanta belies the fact that changing leagues is supposed to be hard. There’s far more involved than just updating a bunch of logos on uniforms and throughout the football facilities. 

At Texas, though, they’re making things look easy even when it’s not.

Longhorns tight end Gunnar Helm attempts to break a tackle by Aggies defensive back Dezz Ricks. / Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Against the Aggies on Saturday, the Horns were by far the more physical team. They were better prepared and largely far superior on just about every series, save a blocked punt and two turnovers in the red zone that breathed life into a game that was otherwise a runaway. Texas nearly doubled up A&M’s total yardage (458 to 248) and were equally balanced with over two bills on the ground and through the air. Defensively, they pitched a shutout despite corner Will Lee III returning a tipped pass in the third quarter 93 yards for the home side’s only touchdown of the night.

It was as complete as one could be despite the final score failing to properly indicate just how one-sided things were in the revival of the Lone Star Showdown.

“I get labeled this passing guy, but we run the ball in critical moments, late in games especially, and I thought that showed up tonight,” Sarkisian said. “We continue to play really good defense. I thought we did a good job limiting the quarterback from scrambling, we kept the ball in front of us. I thought we tackled really well tonight. All in all, that’s really who we are.”

Sarkisian has been meticulously planning for this Texas team to show up in moments like this one. The former Nick Saban assistant coach knew all about the physicality needed to make the move from the Big 12 to the SEC, and he assembled one of the best front sevens in the country. They recorded just three sacks, but were in the backfield after the snap on nearly every play and harassed freshman quarterback Marcel Reed into an ineffective 16-of-23 passing effort for just 146 yards. 

Normally incredibly elusive, the dual-threat QB was bottled up for 60 yards on the ground and basically was the A&M rushing attack (3.0 yards per carry) on a night where moving the chains turned into a battle of wills that the visitors won consistently. 

Not that the Aggies didn’t try. They attempted to set the tone early on the first drive of the game, quickly moving into the red zone after a couple of chunk plays got them to fourth-and-short just outside the Texas 10-yard line. Instead of taking the points, coach Mike Elko got the crowd behind him by going for it on a run up the middle. 

Stuffed. 

A&M tried again as the clock ticked down in the fourth quarter on another fourth-and-short from just behind the goal line. A touchdown would have made it a one-score game, the swaying fans sure to turn the stadium’s third-largest crowd into a rolling earthquake the rest of the way.

Tailback Amari Daniels never had a chance, swallowed up by Texas lineman Ethan Burke just as he had been a play earlier by Vernon Broughton and Jermayne Lole right at the line. 

“We were excited,” linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. said. “We feel like nobody is going to get into the end zone on us. If you feel like you’re going to just run right at us for one yard, I feel like you’ve lost your mind. That’s not going to happen.”

That mentality is not just brought about by fourth downs against your rival, but over the years and, especially, in training camp drills like the one Sarkisian instituted this year called “red zone lockout.” The premise is simple: live, good on good between first-team offense and defense with the ball at the 25 like there was just a turnover. 

One side has to score, the other needs a stop.

Against the Aggies, that situation came up with a berth in the SEC championship game on the line. 

“Sark harps on culture,” corner Jahdae Barron said. “We just keep building the culture, not just on the field but off the field.”

Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers celebrates with Sarkisian and teammates after beating the Aggies. / Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

Sarkisian also challenged his offense to match the intensity in recent weeks, with a series of up-and-down performances since losing to the Georgia Bulldogs not really showcasing the level he knew they were capable of. This was especially true in the run game, which has dealt with season-ending injuries to the team’s top two options but seemed to explode against the Aggies with 240 yards, including 33 carries for a career-high 186 yards from Quintrevion Wisner.

“We’re all fired up, couldn’t be more proud of how our team handled adversity and how we stayed poised and composed throughout the game,” said quarterback Quinn Ewers, who had a touchdown and an interception while playing through an ankle injury that limited him in practice most of the week. “It means a lot to us. It’s been tradition for a long time, then it went away for a little while. It’s back, and it’s fun to be on top.”

But it’s not back to where the program really wants to be. Despite being the biggest brand in the state most associated with football, success nationally in college football has not come as much, historically, in Austin as it has at other bluebloods. There were brief periods of dominance, such as under Darrell Royal in the 1960s and ’70s, and Mack Brown in the early 2000s. But it has mostly been fleeting on the 40 Acres in ways that have confounded most in the region for much of the past century. 

The move to the SEC was supposed to help change that. The promise of more meaningful games like the one Saturday (and some bigger checks, of course) would help enhance the Longhorns on and off the field so that winning would beget more winning at a place where resources never lacked but the will sometimes did. The program had to get better because it was not just going to a superior league than the Big 12 it left behind, but because the powers that be wanted to compete like they were capable of winning it, too.

Now, thanks to the SEC mentality Sarkisian has bred from arrival, the Longhorns have arrived on just such a doorstep. The challenge hasn’t just been accepted, it’s one game away from being accomplished—with all the glory that comes with it.

“Not quite,” says a smiling Kevin Eltife, the chairman of the UT system who largely helped engineer the school’s entrance into the SEC in July 2021, on imagining this moment many years ago. “In the first year, to get to the SEC championship, it’s pretty damn sweet though.”

Even sweeter, perhaps, than making the Aggies wait another year to taste the very thing the Longhorns got to on Saturday night.