The third-ranked Texas Longhorns are heading to the Southeastern Conference championship game in their first season in the league after defeating No. 20 Texas A&M 17-7 on Saturday night, renewing a long-standing rivalry.
Next, they will face No. 6 Georgia in a rematch in Atlanta.
“The goal has always been let’s get to Atlanta and if we can get to Atlanta, those other goals might start to line themselves up,” said Texas coach Steve Sarkisian.
Quintrevion Wisner rushed for a career-high 186 yards, and Quinn Ewers threw a touchdown pass to lead Texas to the victory.
“We controlled the game and quite frankly dominated the game,” Sarkisian said.
Texas (11-1, 7-1 SEC, No. 3 CFP) will play against Georgia next Saturday for the SEC title. The winner will earn a first-round bye in the 12-team College Football Playoff.
The return of this rivalry, which dates back to the 1890s, had all the excitement of a big championship match. Texas seemed to be on its way to a blowout after taking a 17-0 lead at halftime.
However, Ewers made mistakes by turning the ball over in the red zone on two straight possessions, which kept the Aggies in the game. The first turnover was an interception that Will Lee III returned 93 yards for a touchdown.
Texas A&M (8-4, 5-3, No. 20 CFP) had a chance to cut the lead to three points with about 4 1/2 minutes left, but Ethan Burke stopped Amari Daniels for a 3-yard loss on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line. The Longhorns stopped the Aggies on three fourth-down attempts during the game.
“We just didn’t play well enough on offense at all to have any chance at having success,” said Texas A&M coach Mike Elko.
Backup quarterback Arch Manning ran for a touchdown early to help Texas secure its 11th straight win on an opponent’s home field and its fifth consecutive victory overall, following a 30-15 loss to Georgia earlier in the season.
“It’s a great way to end the regular season,” said Sarkisian. “This is where we wanted to be. We knew when we had the slip-up earlier in the season that we would have to win out to get back to a championship game. And we’ve earned that right.”
The game was played in front of 109,028 fans, including Texas superfan Matthew McConaughey, A&M Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel, former Saints quarterback Drew Brees, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Ewers said it was special to get the win in this rivalry, which had been paused since Texas A&M moved to the SEC. The teams hadn’t played since 2011.
“It’s been a tradition for a long time and then it went away for a little bit,” he said. “Now it’s back and it’s fun to be on top for sure.”
DJ Hicks tipped the pass that Lee intercepted and returned for a touchdown to cut the lead to 17-7 with about six minutes left in the third quarter.
The Aggies’ defense stopped Texas again on the next possession when Cashius Howell stripped the ball from Ewers, and it was recovered by Taurean York at the A&M 11-yard line near the end of the third quarter.
Texas A&M couldn’t capitalize on the turnover and punted. The Aggies then blocked a Longhorns’ punt to get the ball back in the red zone, but the Texas defense held firm, securing the win despite Texas failing to score in the second half.
“We had an opportunity to do something really special this year, and we couldn’t close on it,” said Elko, in his first season after Jimbo Fisher’s firing. “And so that will haunt me, that will haunt us, that will haunt the players.”
The Longhorns got off to a quick start when Manning ran for a 15-yard touchdown on fourth-and-2 with about three minutes left in the first quarter. This capped a 93-yard drive that started after Michael Taaffe intercepted Reed, giving Texas a takeaway in 20 straight games.
Ewers then connected with Jaydon Blue on a 7-yard touchdown pass to make it 14-0 with about eight minutes left in the second quarter. It was initially ruled incomplete, but a review showed Blue had a foot in bounds for the score.
Matthew Golden had a 44-yard reception on that drive.
The excitement around Kyle Field before the game was almost as entertaining as the game itself. Former A&M coach R.C. Slocum used a small chainsaw to cut the horns off a longhorn that tailgaters were cooking near the stadium. Police also asked a man riding a horse and another riding a longhorn with a dog and wearing a 10-gallon hat to leave the campus hours before the game.
Police also arrested two men who entered the stadium with fake construction credentials for criminal trespass.
