Once Johnny Football had burned across the cosmos like Halley’s comet and Aggies the world over had waited in vain for another sign from the heavens, it looked as if the ancient fireball might make its 75-year return before Texas A&M was nearly so good again. Bowen Loftin’s ballyhooed “100-year decision” to move to the SEC proved to be a financial bonanza. But, as football goes, the book title seemed less a legacy than a prophecy.
Then, to make matters worse after more than a decade of mediocrity under Kevin Sumlin and Jimbo Fisher, Texas joins the league and goes all the way to the semifinals in its first year.
Texas! The bur under A&M’s saddle for more than a century. Texas! The school that had looked down its nose against A&M from the inception of the Southwest Conference through the formative years of the Big 12.
Texas! The school its athletic director once unabashedly called “the Joneses,” as in the family everyone else tried to keep up with.
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Texas!
Frankly, this season looked to be more of the same. The Aggies were coming off a disappointing finish in Mike Elko’s debut, and the Longhorns were the preseason No. 1. But a lot has happened since the Longhorns said goodbye, Columbus.
Going into Friday’s regular-season finale in Austin, the third-ranked and undefeated Aggies hold the upper hand over the 16th-ranked Longhorns, as well they should. A&M is better on offense (15th nationally to Texas’ 72nd), defense (16th to 39th) and in quality wins. The Aggies beat Notre Dame, LSU and Missouri, all ranked at the time, on the road. Texas has played a tougher schedule than A&M, but the Longhorns can hardly use it as proof of what they’ve accomplished. Their only road wins? Kentucky and Mississippi State. Makes you think the Aggies could handle Royal-Memorial’s hostilities just fine.
Texas can’t even hold its history over the heads of the Aggies. Even though the Horns enjoy a 77-37-5 record in the series, A&M holds a 15-14 lead since Jackie Sherrill turned around its fortunes in 1984.
As far as personnel goes, NFLDraftBuzz.com lists about the same number of prospects from both schools in next spring’s draft. More top-end players at Texas. Except at the skill positions, where Marcel Reed, KC Concepcion and Mario Craver give the Aggies their most explosive offense since Johnny Manziel had everyone on skates.
Texas’ hopes rest in keeping Reed in front of them, the running game bottled up and getting the kind of game from Arch Manning that has turned around his season.
Steve Sarkisian probably won’t be sending Manning out on any pass routes like he did against Arkansas, but mission accomplished, just the same. He gave Elko’s staff something it had to account for in practice. Every minute spent in a rabbit hole is one less spent on meat-and-potatoes stuff.
Texas’ priorities are simple: Protect Manning, establish a running game and make Reed a one-dimensional threat. The Aggies mostly have to confuse Manning, thus giving Cashius Howell and the rest of the pass rush time to close in.
Everything sets up for A&M to win, unless, of course, you count the unpredictability of a rivalry game. Otherwise, the last time they started a season 11-0, in 1992, they beat the Longhorns in Austin, 34-13.
From a purely logistical standpoint, A&M doesn’t have to win Friday. A loss would not knock them out of the SEC title game unless Alabama and Ole Miss both lose, and that ain’t happening. But the committee would still give A&M a seat at the table with just one loss. The quest for their first national title since 1939 would still be viable.
But, given everything the Aggies have built this season and how far they’ve come so fast under Elko, can they really afford to sully that by losing to Texas now?
This is what they’ve been waiting for ever since the Longhorns got into the SEC over their early objections. They were sick of Texas’ shadow. After simmering in it for decades, they thought they’d put the Longhorns behind them with their shift east, only to find themselves looking at Texas’ backs last year.
More than at any time in my memory, A&M seems poised to go where it hasn’t since the days of Jarrin’ John Kimbrough and Wild Bill Conatser. And, no, I didn’t cover them. Love the nicknames, though.
When he was hired two years ago, Elko made a promise, and he’s pretty much lived up to it.
“We are not going to talk about it anymore,” he said of their age-old title chase.
“We are gonna be about it.”
Couldn’t tell you how many Aggies have told me it all seems too good to be true. They’ve been let down before. Battered Aggie Syndrome is a real thing.
Reed has a message for the doubters: Don’t hold the past against him and his teammates.
“Believe in the Aggies for once,” he said.
Seems like the year to do it, too, but then I’ve been wrong before.
Twitter/X: @KSherringtonDMN
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