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Wasson: Big brother Texas dispatches little brother Texas A&M to earn rematch with Georgia
By David Wasson
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The levels of hate crisscrossed the country in waves all day long Saturday, and even though it spilled over in a cloud of pepper spray up the road a piece earlier in the afternoon, nightfall in Texas delivered on a whole new level.
Because as any male who has ever had a male sibling knows, big brother/little brother hate smacks with a visceral intensity that geographical rivalry can’t possibly touch. In Saturday night’s case, it can make concrete and steel shake, it can see perfectly good bovines have their horns sawed off, and it can bend math to where 100,000 people equal a single 12th Man.
Despite all those factors, though, the natural order of sibling rivalry prevailed – with big brother in their clean all-whites once again taming their little brothers in College Station.
Third-ranked Texas punched its ticket to Atlanta for next week’s SEC Championship Game by walking down No. 20 Texas A&M in textbook form, spoiling the hopes and dreams of Aggies near and far with a grinding, physical 17-7 victory. In the process, Texas surely locked up a spot in the College Football Playoff while simultaneously evaporating any A&M hopes of making the 12-team Playoff field.
Texas and Texas A&M was once the third-longest running rivalry in the country before the Aggies bolted for SEC riches in 2012 – seemingly ending a 118-game clash that cleaved families, households and friendships. In that regard, Longhorns-Aggies isn’t altogether unlike some of the other rivalry games that dotted the landscape in the final weekend of the 2024 regular season. But renewing this deal seemed entirely unlikely until the Southeastern Conference decided to expand again and lured Texas (along with Oklahoma …) away from the Big 12.
That meant that Saturday night wasn’t just for bragging rights, it was also fraught with trophy ramifications. Because the 16-team SEC delivered more wild games and fantastic finishes than ever before so far in 2024, not to mention the successes of Texas and Texas A&M this season, the stars aligned to where Longhorns-Aggies meant a berth in next week’s SEC Championship Game to the winner.
That winner was Texas. The Longhorns fell out of the No. 1 ranking earlier this season in a water bottle-tossing home embarrassment against Georgia, but Steve Sarkisian’s offense stayed the course Saturday night. Running back Quintrevion Wisner rumbled for 186 yards on 33 bruising carries, quarterback Quinn Ewers largely disregarded a bum ankle, and even Arch Manning got into the act with a 15-yard tightrope TD run to the delight of the visitors.
The Longhorns also dialed up a precocious defense against Texas A&M freshman quarterback Marcel Reed – forcing Reed into short attempts and completions all night en route to just 146 passing yards. Combine that with a rush defense that limited the Aggies to 98 yards on the ground, and A&M felt like it was swimming uphill for 60 minutes.
Not that it was all Longhorns, alas. Ewers twice was careless with the football – first floating an ill-timed pass into the flat near the goal line midway through the 3rd quarter that got deflected and snatched out of mid-air by defensive back Will Lee III for a 93-yard house call that set the cadets into a bona fide tizzy. Later in the quarter, at nearly the identical spot on the field, Ewers was stripped of the rock on a scramble for another turnover – keying a Texas A&M drive that ultimately stalled out at midfield.
The Aggies kept grinding, and again had a golden opportunity to cut into the margin after Jahdae Walker blocked a punt deep in the Longhorns end with 7:48 remaining. Texas A&M matriculated to the Texas 1. But successive goal-line stops kept the Aggies out of the end zone to end the Kyle Field madness for good.
In the process, Texas also managed to avoid the traps/near-traps that befell other top-10 teams on this fateful weekend. No. 2 Ohio State put up scarcely any fight against visiting Michigan until after the game, which resulted in pepper spray deployment by cops and an unrecognized level of The Game hatred moving forward. No. 6. Miami ejected itself out of the ACC title game picture and into Playoff purgatory by completely eschewing defense at Syracuse. And No. 7 Georgia needed only 8 OTs to get past its little brother, Georgia Tech.
Ohio State and Miami tumbling will certainly shake up the Playoff seedings heading into championship week, but the Bulldogs were already locked into Atlanta before almost spitting the bit on the other side of town against the Yellow Jackets. Next weekend’s SEC title game winner will automatically earn a first-round Playoff bye, and the loser seems destined to be among the lucky 12 to earn seats at the adult table.
Texas A&M, on the other hand, will be like dinged-up SEC compatriots Alabama and (likely) South Carolina – bruised by too many blown opportunities to shine and toting too many demerits in the loss column. It’ll likely be Jacksonville or Tampa for the Aggies, tail between legs following so many what-ifs but still trending up from the 30,000-foot view via Mike Elko’s first season replacing Jimbo Fisher.
The natural order of life finally proved itself when the historically wacky SEC season finally hit the finish-line tape Saturday night. Texas did Texas things for most of the evening, and Texas A&M bent at the knee when push came to shove.
Little brother will surely grow up to be a man one day, of course. But every sibling rivalry knows deep down inside that big brother will always have seniority, bragging rights and a sense of dominance when it matters most.
An APSE national award-winning writer and page designer, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
