Thirteen years ago, future Hall of Fame kicker Justin Tucker nailed a 40-yard field goal that sent Texas to an emotional 27-25 victory over Texas A&M. The next year, the Aggies joined the SEC and the game went dark.
Since that moment, the rivalry has been dormant, but never quiet. There’s been the battle over recruits, featuring memorable battles for Kyler Murray, Malik Jefferson, Anthony Hill Jr. and countless others. There’s the comparison of records, especially after Texas A&M elevated itself in the SEC. Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte famously hung out in a cemetery in Snook, 12 miles outside of College Station, to poach Texas A&M baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle.
But after Texas decided to join the SEC (news that was leaked first to a Texas A&M beat writer, by the way), everything changed. The game is back.
“I think it’s long overdue,” former Texas A&M quarterback Stephen McGee said this week. “I think I’m in the group that felt like it should have never gone away.”
In its first SEC season, No. 3 Texas will travel to face No. 20 Texas A&M at Kyle Field in the renewal of the rivalry, the 119th meeting between these two teams. The winner of the matchup will play in the SEC Championship Game against Georgia on Dec. 7. But far more importantly, the game will set the table for the future of both programs heading into the future of the SEC.
“I actually didn’t feel that great about going into the SEC,” former Texas wide receiver Quan Cosby said. “What I felt phenomenal about was this game being back. I felt like, man, I’m way too young for my school’s conference to be gone. And the whole SEC bias type stuff, I was in the Big 12 and a very good Big 12, so I didn’t feel great about all of that. But then I was like, hold on, we get to play them again? And we still get to play OU? This is a no brainer.
“This game means enough to change a conference.”
Battle of peers, culture clash defines rivalry
Texas and Texas A&M are separated by only 100 miles and were founded within five years of each other in the late 19th Century. The pair played the first ever organized intercollegiate football game in Texas in 1894 at an old horse track in Austin. Since then, the teams have played 118 times (Texas leads the series 76-37-5). They claim seven combined national championships and 51 conference titles, most of which came in the shared Southwest Conference.
Like many in-state rivalries, Texas vs. Texas A&M is a pure clash of cultures. There’s the metropolitan Austin school against the rural ag school. It’s white-collar attitude against blue collar. Texas A&M is known best for their military precision, while the University of Texas Keeps Austin Weird.
“You’re talking about the most football-rich state in the world,” McGee said. “Nowhere is football more important than it is in the state of Texas. All you’ve got to do is go to a high school football game on a Friday night to see how important football is to people in every community. Then when you think about Texas A&M and Texas, you’re taking the best of the best of all those communities which have put their heart and soul in their kids.”
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North Carolina coach Mack Brown coached Texas for 16 seasons, including the program’s 2005 national championship. He held a 10-4 record in the rivalry, including a stretch of six straight wins from 2000 to 2005.
“There were divorces over it, there were times people wouldn’t eat Thanksgiving dinner together,” Brown told reporters. “I love rival games. I hated it when the Texas-Texas A&M game was not played anymore. I think it’s really cool that not only are they playing it again, but they’re playing again in the same conference.”
Former Texas A&M coach R.C. Slocum was an assistant coach at Texas A&M from 1972-1988, with only a one-year gap in the middle when he coordinated USC’s defense in 1981. In 1989, he was promoted to head coach and led the program to three Southwest Conference titles and a Big 12 title in 1998 that still remains the program’s most recent.
“Underneath the rivalry part, there are a whole lot of good people who see the rivalry for what it is — Texans celebrating a sport we love,” Slocum told Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine. “I’d tell every recruit, ‘Pick out which of these two in-state schools fits you the best and you’ll never regret it.'”
One of those many recruits was Rod Babers, a playmaking defensive back out of Houston Lamar in 1999. He credits Slocum for helping him see the light as a recruit and realize that he needed to stay in the state of Texas, especially so his parents could come see his games. For him, the metropolitan allure of Austin was too much to pass up.
Still, despite going 3-1 against the Aggies and playing in Slocum’s final game, a 50-20 loss to No. 10 Texas in 2002, he always held a soft spot for his rivals. Many of them went through the recruiting process with him. Plenty even played with him in high school.
“There’s a lot of familiarity with the rosters because they recruited all the same players,” Babers said. “With Texas A&M, you live and work with these folks, these Aggies. If you lose to the Aggies, you hear about it all year long. When the rivalry really gets going again, I think that’s what will make it unique for the future generation like it did for me.”
Unforgettable memories of the game
McGee started his first college football game for Texas A&M at one of the most inopportune moments in history. The Aggies were set to host Texas in 2005 — as in Vince Young, three first round picks in the secondary, eventual national champion Texas.
“I was super nervous,” McGee said. “I can remember that day, I was so thankful that we had maroon pants. I was so excited, I was afraid I was going to pee my pants.”
Texas was beating its conference opponents by 36.7 points per game heading into the matchup, including a 66-14 thrashing of Kansas one week earlier. But in his first start, McGee delivered with 108 yards and two touchdowns on the ground as the Aggies played the Longhorns to a 40-29 game, and had the ball with a chance to tie the game late in the fourth quarter. McGee went on to lead Texas A&M to victory in each of the next two seasons, the first consecutive wins for Texas A&M since 1994.
After cheering for his fighting Texas A&M Aggies for three years from the stands, Joseph Parrish walked onto the team as a senior offensive lineman with one year of eligibility. Parrish grew up in the middle of the rivalry with half of his family as Longhorns and the other Aggies. One of his grandmothers lived down the road from legendary Texas coach Darrell K Royal in Austin for a stretch.
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He was there when McGee nearly led a monumental upset at Kyle Field. A year later, he looked at the matchups and felt good about the game plan. He really felt like the Ags could win. So of course, he told his Austin grandmother.
“You expect your grandmother to be on your side,” Parrish said. “She just laughed at me, patted me on the back and said, ‘Okay baby, whatever you say.’ That’s how big the rivalry is between my family. It was so funny, I couldn’t even get my own grandmother on my side.”
He was right. McGee, Mike Goodson and Jorvorskie Lane combined for 241 yards rushing and two touchdowns in a 12-7 stunner, the first Aggies win in Austin in 12 years.
Former Texas running back Fozzy Whitaker was on the sidelines watching when Tucker’s field goal sailed through the uprights in 2011. When the game happened, there was no telling whether the game would ever be played again. There was an intensity knowing how much the game meant to the state and to every fan watching.
“The amount of jubilation that kind of overcame all of us on the sideline was just one of those surreal moments that you kind of dream of being in that type of situation,” Whitaker said. “For it to play out the way that it did just made it sweeter. I was probably the happiest that I had ever been… it’s valued basically as highly as some of the national championship games and some of the conference championship games that this Texas program has been a part of.”
Stage set for biggest game ever
For all the history between these two programs, they’ve rarely been good at the same time. In fact, the two teams haven’t won 10 games in the same season since 1975. For much of the ’80s and ’90s, Texas A&M dominated the Southwest Conference. When the Big 12 formed, Brown came in and led the Longhorns to their greatest success in 40 years. And then, both suddenly had to deal with the pesky Oklahoma Sooners, who complicated a previous battle for control of the old Southwest Conference.
“That’s why it died out, in my opinion,” Babers said. “Ultimately, Oklahoma became the marquee rivalry for Texas and Texas A&M faded into the background. They became kind of side piece for Texas and that didn’t want to be that, and I totally get that. They deserve better than that. But ultimately, there wasn’t enough at stake when Texas and Texas A&M played with a lot already settled by the end of the year.”
Since then, Texas A&M has spent more than $1 billion preparing themselves for the moment. They produced Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel in 2012, showing the fanbase what the program could be. Texas A&M coach Mike Elko now has the Aggies within striking distance of their first conference title since 1998 in his first season, needing to beat Texas and then Georgia in the SEC Championship Game.
Texas also wandered the desert for much of the 2010s, posting only one 10-win season from 2010-22. Under coach Steve Sarkisian the Longhorns returned to national contention last season. In 2024, the Longhorns are a leading favorite to win the national championship.
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“I always want Texas to do well,” Parrish said. “I know that’s not normal to hear. Most rivals will say they want the other team to lose all the time, but I’m the opposite. I wanted to prove that we were the better team. I want Texas to be undefeated every time we play them because I want to knock them down.”
Now, Texas and Texas A&M are set to play one of the most consequential games in college football this season. The winner of the Lone Star Showdown is heading to the SEC Championship Game against Georgia. The loser will have to sweat out a spot in the College Football Playoff. After the Aggies lost to Auburn last week, they’re likely out of the playoff if they lose against the ‘Horns.
“It’s probably top three [in history],” Whitaker said. “I teeter on the line of saying top one. I honestly think 2011 was the top one only because we didn’t know that this game would come back, that being the last one for the foreseeable future… but I think this will be top three in that category as far as level of importance within the rivalry and what this game could mean for the trajectory of both of these programs.”
McGee has been waiting on the sidelines with everyone else for the game to return. For the Aggies, Saturday is built to be a truly special night in the history of the program. While Texas fans have celebrated the 2011 result for 13 years, Texas A&M fans have waited patiently to throw their next punch. The average ticket on StubHub is selling for more than $1,100 as Kyle Field waits for its chance.
“In my opinion, it’s the biggest one,” McGee said. “It’s not often that both schools are competing in that game for all the marbles to go to the championship, it’s normally one or the other… but then you add the element that both football teams are atop the SEC, that just makes it perfect, right? Like here we go. Let’s do the thing. Let’s make Kyle Field feel magical and let’s go play for the championship.”
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