How about the most bitter rivalry in the history of our state?
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Black Friday’s meeting carries as much weight as it did this time last year when both teams were vying for a spot in the SEC championship game. There’s so much meat on this football bone between the No. 17 Texas Longhorns and the No. 3 Texas A&M Aggies that even the most famous steer in America is garnering headlines in the aftermath of a must win.
Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning (16) warms up ahead of the Longhorns’ game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Darrell K Royal Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Nov. 22, 2025.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
After giving Longhorns linebacker Liona Lefau a red-eyed glare for tossing the ball into his sacred dwelling behind the South end zone in celebration of a 52-yard scoop-and-score that highlighted Saturday’s 52-37 win over Arkansas, Bevo and Longhorn Nation can now turn their attention to the Aggies and the biggest quarterback pairing of the season.
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Arch Manning versus Marcel Reed. The matchup within the matchup has the kind of universal appeal that will attract another million sets of TV eyeballs outside of our football-crazed state in a century-old rivalry that will provide the perfect background as we finish off those Turkey Day (burp) leftovers.
The stakes? Enormous. The Aggies can qualify for a spot in the SEC title game simply by winning while the Horns, desperate at 8-3, must beat the Aggies and get help from other teams — and perhaps forces outside of the planet — just to get the College Football Playoff selection committee’s attention. The postseason remains possible, but the odds of punching a ticket are beyond slim. A loss means a bowl game the fans would rather not talk about.
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Outside of defying near insurmountable odds to crash the CFP, nothing would make Texas happier than sending the Aggies scurrying back to College Station with loss No. 1, possible exclusion from a first conference title game appearance and the failure of not running the table for the first time since winning it all back in 1939.
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It all sounds a bit petty, but such is life in a blood feud. One finds whatever motivation needed to achieve the desired outcome and for Texas, it can’t happen if its most electric offensive player isn’t playing at his very best. Manning, in the midst of a career heater, gives the Horns a puncher’s chance to beat their rival for a second straight year and a third straight time dating back to Justin Tucker’s walk-off field goal at Kyle Field in 2011. Arch has played his best football over the second half of the SEC slate and more will be needed against the SEC’s lone 7-0 team.
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Former Texas star Vince Young attends a football game between the Longhorns and the Kentucky Wildcats at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Nov. 23, 2024 in Austin.
Tim Warner/Getty Images
Before Saturday, no quarterback in Longhorns history had scored touchdowns via rushing, receiving and passing in the same game until Manning put it on display against the Hogs with Vince Young and former Georgia conqueror Sam Ehlinger standing nearby. Manning threw for 389 yards and was a touchdown away from tying Casey Thompson (2021) and Clyde Littlefield (1915) for most touchdowns responsible for in one game (7) by a Longhorn.
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Manning is playing as well as any signal-caller in the country and he’s doing it at the perfect time of the year with 13 total touchdowns and just two interceptions over his last four games. In the same timeframe, he’s averaging 328.5 passing yards and has completed 65% of his passes.
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In addition, he has a star-studded support system.
VY provided counsel at the team hotel Friday and yelled encouragement while standing behind coach Steve Sarkisian on the sideline a day later. Manning couldn’t wait to leave Saturday’s interview session to go and bounce some ideas off Ehlinger, who was waiting somewhere in the Moncrief-Neuhaus team facility. A true student of the game, Manning is a sponge eager to soak up any edge he can get from two of the best to do it around here.
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With one pivotal game left in the regular season, he has emerged as the player Longhorn Nation thought he would be straight out of the shoot, but it admittedly took him some time to grow into the position.
“Arch been ballin’, dawg,” UT edge rusher Colin Simmons said. “Confidence level has gone through the roof. I’ve very proud to call him my QB1.”
Marcel Reed (10) of the Texas A&M Aggies throws the ball during the first quarter against the Texas Longhorns at Kyle Field on November 30, 2024 in College Station. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)
Tim Warner/Getty Images
Sometimes one can quantify the measure of a leader by how he reacts when the walls are crumbling around him. Video surfaced of Manning passionately imploring his teammates on the sideline to keep fighting during the embarrassing 35-10 loss at Georgia, a beatdown that fell mostly on the shoulders of a defense that gave up 21 unanswered fourth-quarter points.
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He’s invested in this thing.
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Manning may keep it lowkey in interviews, but to steal a term from Simmons, he’s got some dawg in him. He has taken ownership of this team.
“I wanted him to do that earlier in the season, truth be told,” Sarkisian said. “But I don’t think he was ready to do it because I always felt like Arch — and he’ll be the first one to tell you — wanted to earn the right to start picking guys up and telling them what to do. And to do that, he felt like he had to play really well. And I said, ‘No, you’ve already earned that. You’re the starting quarterback. We need you to do that.’ But I think that’s just speaks to who he is as a person. He wanted to earn it all, and he’s definitely earned that right now.”
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When I told Manning of Sarkisian’s comments, he nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, it was always a little uncomfortable trying to be this vocal leader when you’re playing not very well early on in the season,” Manning said. “So I guess I can have a little more credibility now.”
Biggest QB matchup of the weekend
Manning will go nose to nose with A&M’s Heisman candidate Reed, who hasn’t achieved Manziel cult status just yet, but could lead this program to special places not even Johnny Football reached.
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Both born in SEC country within three months of one another in 2004 — Manning in New Orleans and Reed in Nashville — they will occupy the same area code for the first time since last fall in College Station when Manning did on one scramble what Reed couldn’t do in four quarters, and that’s reach the end zone.
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Manning was the rock star among reporters and fans alike in Atlanta at SEC media days. With hordes of media documenting his every move as the new face of the national preseason No. 1, he was at ease with the expectations of being a Heisman contender and successor to venerable three-year starter Quinn Ewers. The growing pains have played out on the most public of stages and Manning has never shied away from taking responsibility for his on-field struggles.
Now 13 starts into his career, he’s carrying himself with a quiet confidence.
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Experience has taught him that the SEC is a minefield and he understands why the Horns will enter their biggest game of the season as a home underdog for the first time since the 2022 team that lost 20-19 to 20-point favorite Alabama.
“Really going through the tough games and the struggles, I feel like you need that as a quarterback,” Manning said. “It’s not easy, but trying to overcome it and really just going through those, seeing different looks, experiences, playing against tough teams, has helped me a lot.”
Manning’s emergence has been needed since the suddenly porous defense has given up 35.2 points and 434.2 yards over the last four games. Over a full season, those averages would rank 131st and 127th, respectively, among the nation’s 136 teams.
While Manning hasn’t captured the nation’s imagination like some had predicted, he has the look of next season’s breakout star. The numbers are fine: 2,954 yards of total offense, 27 touchdowns (19 passing, seven rushing, one receiving), seven interceptions and a 62.4 completion percentage.
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Marcel Reed has ascended to superstar status
Atlanta happened months ago and now the roles have reversed. Manning dominated the preseason headlines; Reed wasn’t even therenin the 404 as coach Mike Elko decided to bring in more experienced teammates Taurean York, Will Lee III and Ar’maj Reed-Adams.
To a man, they agreed the Reed they practiced with all summer was miles better than the man who led an immobile offense that failed to reach the end zone in a 17-7 home loss to the Horns that cost the Aggies a spot in the conference title game and a chance to reach the playoff. Now it’s Reed getting the Heisman hype when it matters most while his 11-0 team, picked eighth in the SEC media’s preseason poll, is already a lock for its first CFP appearance.
Reed threw three first-quarter touchdown passes and took the rest of the day off two minutes into the second quarter of Saturday’s 48-0 win over 1-10 Samford, and he will walk into Austin believing he’s the better quarterback. His numbers will attest: 3,142 yards of offense, 31 total touchdowns (25 passing, six rushing), eight interceptions and a 61.8 completion percentage.
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The quarterbacks’ numbers are similar. Let’s hope for fireworks Friday.
By the way, I loved Elko’s decision to remove Reed from a noncompetitive game and not chase Heisman stats. After all, why leave him in there during the appetizer when the main course will come in a marquee matchup against a more prominent opponent on the other sideline with an entire nation watching?
A Longhorns sideline at that.
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