When I attended U.T. in the mid-seventies, I didn’t know anyone who was a student at Texas A&M. But just about all of my fraternity brothers had friends from high school who were attending A&M. My fraternity brother, John Scott, told me about a conversation with Aggie friends who were in disbelief when John told them that A&M wasn’t our biggest rival even though the Aggie “War Hymn “mentions U.T. five times. But A&M wasn’t. Incidentally, “Texas Fight” alludes to A&M once. Anyway, Oklahoma was Texas’ biggest rival. The OU game itself was the biggest event of the school year. They were a football powerhouse and, at that time, had four national championships. On the other hand, in the mid-seventies, Texas had been dominating the Aggies in football since the 1940s, losing to them just three times between 1940 and 1974. How could A&M have been the Longhorns’ biggest rival?

Unfortunately for Texas fans and alumni, we lost to the Aggies three times between 1975 and 1983. And then it got much worse. From 1984 to 1994, Texas lost to A&M ten out of eleven times. Obviously, it was a dark time in the rivalry for Texas, and we learned the stigma of losing to the Aggies with their male yell leaders who dressed like orderlies from an asylum for the criminally insane. Not only that, but there were the Aggie fans bending over and proudly pretending to be squeezing their private parts and swaying like they’re in the thrall of some Jim Jones like religious cult. How could we be losing to this bunch?

From 2000 to 2011, Texas put the Aggies back in their rightful place, winning 9 of 12. Now, we are renewing our series with our second-biggest rival, and there is much more than pride on the line. The winner will face Georgia in the SEC Championship game. If Texas wins, they’ll assure themselves a spot in the CFB Playoff regardless of the outcome of the SEC Championship game, and Texas A&M will be assigned to some lame-ass bowl. How sweet that would be.  If the Aggies win, Texas will have to hope for upsets this weekend a friendly playoff committee to make it to the CFB playoff.

Before I move on to the upcoming game, I thought I should mention that the Aggies haven’t won so much as a conference championship since winning the Big 12 in 1998. They have won one—count them—one national championship. That was in 1939.

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I’m very worried about this game because of Quinn Ewers. As much as it pains me to say, the Aggies are too good a team for Texas to beat with the way Ewers has played since he came back from his abdominal injury.  He’s one of the worst passing quarterbacks in the country when he’s pressured, and A&M is capable of pressuring him frequently. I fear this game could look like the Georgia game, with turnovers giving A&M short fields.

A&M has an explosive, if inexperienced, quarterback in Marcel Reed, who can hurt you running and passing. As opposed to Ewers, Reed pushes the ball downfield. Due to injury, they are missing their top running back, Le’Veon Moss, but Amari Daniels is a capable substitute with 640 yards on the season, averaging 5.1 yards per carry.

If history counts for anything, Texas won’t be rattled by the Kyle field atmosphere. Texas handled Michigan in Ann Arbor and survived Fayetteville even though the offense played poorly. Last season, they won in Tuscaloosa. And Texas has won five of the previous six games versus the Aggies in College Station.

I’m not expecting Ewers to have a sudden turnaround in this game. I hope he can be a competent game manager by not giving the Aggies short fields. If that happens, I think Texas can ride its defense to a close win.

Hook ‘em,

W.E.