{"id":69409,"date":"2025-11-29T07:54:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T07:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/69409\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T07:54:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T07:54:17","slug":"is-texas-a-college-football-playoff-team-after-upset-of-am-longhorns-make-their-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/69409\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Texas a College Football Playoff team after upset of A&M? Longhorns make their case"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN \u2014 On a night when CFP No. 3 Texas A&M<\/a> perched on the cusp of history, Texas didn\u2019t exactly pull the chair out from under its season, but the joke was on the Aggies, nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Consider the way the Longhorns trolled Mike Elko<\/a> in the closing seconds of their 27-17 upset Friday at Royal-Memorial Stadium<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the screen at the south end of the stadium, Elko\u2019s big mug suddenly loomed from some forgotten presser where he pronounced A&M \u201cthe state\u2019s flagship program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cue an ear-shattering \u201cPsych,\u201d then pandemonium.<\/p>\n

Sports Roundup<\/p>\n

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Now, in the big scheme of things, finishing 11-1 and missing out on their first undefeated regular season since 1992<\/a>, not to mention the Southeastern Conference title game next week, isn\u2019t the worst that could happen to the Aggies. The committee won\u2019t forget them in its final reckoning. A&M might not even fall so far that it will miss hosting a first-round College Football Playoff game.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Longhorns, at 9-3, would need a calculus of events to avoid becoming fodder for the Citrus Bowl, but tell that to Steve Sarkisian.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re absolutely a playoff team<\/a>,\u201d the Texas coach said. \u201cThere\u2019s a couple of things in there that are really telling stats. We\u2019re the first team since the 2019 LSU champs to beat three top-10 ranked teams in the same regular season. Chew on that. I think we have the No. 5-ranked schedule. Lost to the No. 1, No. 3 and No. 4 teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get it, we didn\u2019t beat Ohio State and we didn\u2019t beat Georgia. But when you look at the schedules of some of the teams in front of us, quite frankly, it\u2019s comical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quite frankly, Sark looks right at home in Austin politics. Not sure it\u2019ll make any difference with the committee, but there\u2019s no use in not trying.<\/p>\n

Texas hasn\u2019t often found itself in a position like the predicament it faced Friday in the wrap-up of what could politely be called a disappointing regular season. From preseason No. 1 <\/a>to an underdog in its final regular-season game, the Longhorns had been passed by A&M in the standings and stature.<\/p>\n

The last time the Longhorns went into this ancient rivalry ranked beneath the Aggies?<\/p>\n

Hint: Ricky Williams posted 44 carries, back when such a workload didn\u2019t violate Child Protective Services.<\/p>\n

Quintrevion Wisner didn\u2019t approach Williams\u2019 massive 259-yard output in the Longhorns\u2019 1998 upset of the Aggies, but he finished with 155 yards on 19 carries, most of it in the second half, when we got an idea of what Arch Manning<\/a> might be capable of when he has a running game.<\/p>\n

At one point in the second quarter, Texas had nearly as many yards in penalties (23) as it did passing (28). Manning had just 61 yards passing at the half on 8 of 23 attempts. He finished 14 of 29 for 179 yards and a touchdown and ran for another 53 and a TD, including a 35-yarder that finally broke the game open for Texas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Aggies had no answer for Texas in the second half. Marcel Reed<\/a> was 20 of 32 for 180 yards but threw two picks. He also led the Aggies in rushing with 71 yards, which was part of the problem.<\/p>\n

A&M went into the game statistically better than Texas on both offense and defense. The Aggies had the more explosive offensive players, particularly in KC Concepcion, a budding All-American. But, despite a 30-yard punt return that set up his 8-yard touchdown run in the second half, Texas limited him to 57 yards worth of catches.<\/p>\n

On the plus side for the Aggies, they\u2019re still viable CFP contenders<\/a>. Unlike Sark, Elko doesn\u2019t need to do any politicking. The loss of state bragging rights for the third time in a row and missing out on the SEC title game again won\u2019t go over well with the faithful, but the Aggies have built a nice r\u00e9sum\u00e9. Winning on the road against Notre Dame and LSU looks good, at least on paper.<\/p>\n

Sarkisian didn\u2019t call out the Aggies by name, but he noted that some of the teams in front of the 16th-ranked Longhorns didn\u2019t play a schedule as tough as Texas\u2019, \u201cand they\u2019ve got a nice pretty record to show for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team that played for a national championship last year lost to Northern Illinois at home,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no doubt in my mind that we\u2019re ready to play for a national championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

If it doesn\u2019t go over with the committee, he has at least persuaded his players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re gonna make the playoffs,\u201d Manning said. \u201cI don\u2019t know why we wouldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Taaffe, who came up with a game-clinching interception in his final game at Royal-Memorial, called the win over the Aggies \u201cthe best win in all of college football.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the committee should punish us,\u201d he said, \u201cfor giving college football what it wants to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not all of college football, of course. I can think of a fan base that\u2019s seen quite enough of this.<\/p>\n

Twitter\/X: @KSherringtonDMN<\/a><\/p>\n

How Arch Manning shook off early struggles, led Longhorns\u2019 second-half rally vs. A&M<\/a>Losing to Texas hurts, but the result didn\u2019t wreck Texas A&M\u2019s historic season<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Texas coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN \u2014 On a night when CFP No. 3 Texas A&M perched on the cusp of history, Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3688,27,260,29,537,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-69409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-colleges","9":"tag-texas","10":"tag-texas-am-aggies","11":"tag-texas-headlines","12":"tag-texas-longhorns","13":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}