AUSTIN, Texas — A school that has spent most of the last century playing second fiddle in its own state entered the second half of its 12th game still perfect.
Thirty minutes from slaying its perennial tormentor.
Thirty minutes from its first SEC Championship Game.
Thirty minutes from exorcising generations of demons on behalf of its perpetually tortured fan base.
That it all imploded so quickly, so spectacularly, makes you wonder whether there is some unknown state statute that prevents Texas A&M from having nice things.
No. 16 Texas vanquished the third-ranked Aggies yet again on Friday, its previously dormant offense shaking free of a 10-3 halftime deficit to run away with a 27-17 upset. In doing so, the Longhorns knocked the SEC’s season-long first-place team out of the SEC championship. Gone, too, most likely, is A&M’s long-expected first-round bye in the College Football Playoff.
But most gallingly of all, the Aggies lost to freaking Texas. Again. Just like last year, when the Longhorns went to College Station and won an SEC elimination game.
Most of the Aggies’ players were still in preschool the last time A&M beat Texas in 2010.
“We’re tired of losing to the same team in back-to-back years, tired of not winning that trophy,” said Aggies linebacker Taurean York. “We wanted to go to the SEC championship.”
They really should have.
Texas A&M looked very much in control at halftime Friday, its pass rushers bringing back out the Ohio State/UTEP/Kentucky version of Arch Manning. The Texas star was 8-of-21 for 51 yards in the first half.
Unfortunately for the Aggies, though, they had to play one more half. Much of which was spent watching Texas running back Quintrevion Wisner run away from their defense. Or their secondary completely losing Texas receiver Ryan Wingo on a wide-open touchdown throw. Or tight end Jack Endries on an even more wide-open catch and run. Or Manning himself, running nearly 35 yards untouched to the end zone.
“We busted way too many things,” said York. “You can’t bust plays like that against an upper-echelon team like Texas.”
And to top it all off, Aggies QB Marcel Reed, who entered the game with realistic Heisman hopes, threw not one but two fourth-quarter interceptions to seal his team’s fate.
“It was by far our worst second half of the year,” said A&M coach Mike Elko. “We didn’t play Texas A&M football at all.”
Fortunately for the Aggies, there’s still plenty of room for an 11-1 SEC team in a 12-team Playoff. While Texas A&M will likely slip out of the top 4, it should still be high enough to host a first-round game at Kyle Field — a pretty cool consolation prize.
The Aggies’ biggest goal of all — winning the school’s first national championship since 1939 — remains very much intact. But after a Black Friday meltdown, it’s hard to envision this team reaching that pinnacle.
The dirty little secret of A&M’s 11-0 start was that the bulk of its wins were against an extremely favorable SEC schedule. Texas was the first current Top 25 team the Aggies had faced since their signature Week 3 win at top-10 foe Notre Dame, a remarkable feat given the SEC currently has eight ranked teams.
Somehow, all seven of A&M’s SEC wins came against teams that entered the final weekend of the regular season below .500 in the SEC: LSU (3-4), Missouri (3-4), Florida (2-6), Auburn (1-6), Mississippi State (1-7), South Carolina (1-7) and Arkansas (0-7). Combined league record: 11-41.
Sometimes, A&M did exactly what a great team should do against those types of opponents, most notably blowing out LSU so badly (49-25) that the school fired its coach the next day, or thumping a Missouri team playing its freshman backup quarterback (38-17).
Other times, it gave up 527 yards to now 2-9 Arkansas in a 45-42 scare, or fell behind 27-0 to now 4-7 South Carolina before staging a historic comeback.
Texas was a significantly tougher test than either of those teams, and this time, A&M didn’t pass it.
“We believe we can make it to the national championship,” said Reed. “We’ve had a couple of wake-up calls these past few weeks.”
Reed, who left with a rolled ankle late in the first half but returned quickly, is one of the biggest reasons to believe in the Aggies. He didn’t have his best passing game Friday night (he did run for 71 yards), but he’s had plenty of good ones the last two years. And he’s got two explosive playmakers in KC Concepcion and Mario Craver.
And they’ve certainly got players up front on defense. Manning got sacked twice and driven to the ground on other occasions. The problem is, the back end of that defense sometimes just … messes up all at once. And it did so at the worst possible time Friday.
“I told them in the locker room, you can’t come on the road, you can’t go play in the games we’re going to play going forward and not play good football for four quarters,” said Elko.
If there’s such a thing as a silver lining in getting embarrassed by your bitter rival and missing out on a conference championship, it’s that Texas A&M suddenly finds itself with at least three weeks off to regroup before the first round. The Aggies need only look at last year’s national champion, Ohio State, to see the potential benefits of a pre-Playoff reset.
Except there’s one big difference between the two. Ohio State has been there, done that. Texas A&M is about to try on its big kid clothes for the first time.
The Aggies gave us 11.5 games of evidence that they’re maybe, finally, all grown up. But that one dispiriting second half suggests the hex has not yet lifted.