Back in the shadows of Texas, Texas A&M’s 12-year lead in the SEC can’t prevent an old nightmare

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – After Texas A&M’s final offensive possession went awry and the Aggies’ fate was finally decided, Texas fans happily seized the opportunity to rub salt into a fresh wound.

Thousands of orange-clad fans sitting near the southeast tunnel at Kyle Field each raised an arm with their index finger and pinky extended and looked right toward the Texas A&M student section. In rhythm, they rocked the “Hook ’em Horns” sign, releasing a chant that filled the crisp night air as more than 100,000 Aggies stood in stunned silence in the building.

“SEC! SEC! SEC!”

Thirteen years after Texas last broke the Aggies’ hearts in this stadium, and twelve years after Texas A&M first planted its flag in the SEC, the Longhorns forcefully announced their arrival and did something in their first year Aggies still had to do: Secure a spot in the SEC Championship Game.

That’s what will appeal to Texas 17 and Texas A&M 7 the most. Not the Longhorns’ fourth stop at the goal line with 4:36 left, which ended A&M’s last real chance to reduce the deficit. Not the numerous opportunities A&M missed after the mistakes at Texas. Not even the anemic offense that A&M put together in the biggest game of the season.

The fact is that after 13 seasons of Texas A&M’s SEC membership, the Aggies had no chance of distancing themselves from the shadow of their biggest rival.

It doesn’t matter that the Longhorns have spent many of those 13 years mired in the depths of college football. Forget that the Aggies also had a great showing in their first SEC season, leading Johnny Manziel, Mike Evans and Kevin Sumlin to an entertaining, action-packed 11-2 season that netted a Heisman Trophy and helped boost the coffers of the University to fill to the brim indicate that half a billion dollars could be spent to restore Kyle Field to the pristine stage it was on Saturday.

Texas A&M has been good, but not great, since it made its “100-year decision” — as then-president R. Bowen Loftin called it — to tip the Big 12 in favor of the SEC for all but two seasons, 2012 and 2020 leave. This year, under new head coach Mike Elko, was a chance for the Aggies to finally play for something real at the end of the season, a trip to the SEC Championship and an opportunity to stay in the College Football Playoff race. Instead, they will finish at 8-4 with three straight conference losses after sitting atop the SEC standings midway through the season.

“It sucks,” Elko said. “There is no sugarcoating it.”

One season into its run in the SEC, Texas has overtaken the Aggies. To be fair, the Longhorns had already done this, making the playoffs last year, while the Aggies fired Jimbo Fisher – the coach who was supposed to lead them to SEC titles and turn them into national title contenders – and committed to him more than $70 million in buyout funds to be paid in 2031.

Texas A&M could try to squash that contrast because Texas made that breakthrough as a member of the Big 12 rather than the rugged SEC. Things are different in this league. But since Steve Sarkisian arrived in Texas, the Longhorns have carefully and incrementally prepared for this moment and built their team, and it’s paying off.

Meanwhile, the Aggies had fallen well short of expectations in their final two seasons under Fisher, and Elko was brought in to fix the problem. The initial returns were promising. Despite a season-opening loss to Notre Dame, A&M was able to reel off seven straight wins to move into the lead of the SEC.

But some things can’t be fixed in one season. Texas has better offensive personnel than the Aggies. If Sarkisian had his choice of A&M receivers, there’s no guarantee that any of them would start for the Longhorns.

Texas is also further ahead on the crucial boundary – where SEC games are won and lost. Despite losing All-America left tackle Kelvin Banks to an ankle injury in the first quarter, the Longhorns persisted, replacing 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 underdogs, way too (much) lack of leverage, way too many simple execution errors,” Elko said. “They’re good, they’re talented and hats off to them for destroying us physically.”

On offense, the Aggies were unable to gain strong yards when they needed it most. On a fourth-and-1 at the Texas 10 on the game’s first 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 rush for 3 yards, but the Texas front held him and stopped him for 1 yard.

And the game-winning sequence at the Texas 1-yard line was a mano-on-mano victory by the Longhorns’ defensive line. By the time Daniels received the handoff from Reed at the 5, three Texas defensive linemen had already crossed the line of scrimmage. One of them was edge rusher Ethan Burke, who screamed untouched around the left edge to give Daniels a loss.

Ball game.

“We had a terrible, absolutely terrible performance,” Elko said in assessing A&M’s performance against the Texas defensive line. “We were physically beaten. And to win games in this league, we can’t do that.”

Throughout the season, Elko was determined to do his best in situations where he was four-and-short. It’s part of the identity he’s trying to build in his first year at Texas A&M. But the deficits on Saturday and elsewhere this season show that the Aggies still have a long way to go to achieve that goal.

“If we want to be the team we need to be, we need to be able to convert fours and ones,” he said. “You have to, and of course we didn’t do that.”

Even beyond those critical situations, moving the ball was a chore for the Aggies. After two plays of more than 15 yards on the first drive, A&M didn’t have another play like that for the rest 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 the game with five passes of more than 20 yards; A&M had one. The Longhorns had eight runs of 10 yards; The Aggies had one.

Texas A&M was beaten by a Texas team that was simply better.

Maybe the foundation Elko laid in year one will pay off in the long run. But on Saturday evening none of that mattered. Just the all-too-familiar scene of the Longhorns celebrating on the Texas A&M field.

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 aside the rival Aggies, increasing their series lead to 77-37-5 expand and move to Atlanta for a year-long rematch with Georgia. The Aggies, on the other hand, find themselves in a place that is 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 the ones you want to play in and one of the ones you don’t want to play in.

“We’re going to play one of those games that people really don’t care about and don’t watch.”

(Photo: Alex Slitz/Getty Images)