COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The eyes of Texas, and most of the country were on this one as the Lone Star Showdown made its return with an SEC Championship berth on the line. The Aggies could not put the ball in the end zone on offense and fell to the Longhorns 17-7.
“This was the biggest game of the year,” linebacker Taurean York said. “How many people were here? Probably 300,000 people here in the vicinity of Kyle Field. This was the biggest game of a lot of people's lives. We just didn't rise to the occasion tonight.”
“We lost the rivalry game at home,” quarterback Marcel Reed said. “That sucks. It's the first time back, and we didn't get it done. It was just the way that we did it. As an offense, we didn't get any points on the board and that really sucks.”
There wasn’t a lack of opportunities for the Aggies despite going into the half down 17 nothing. In the 3rd quarter, Will Lee III got A&M on the board with a 93-yard pick six, Cashius Howell forced a fumble recovered by York on the next Longhorns possession, and Jahdae Walker blocked a punt putting the Aggies at the Texas 18-yard line. But even with a momentum swing, the offense came up short.
“I thought we showed tremendous heart and fight to continue to battle and gave ourselves a lot of chances in that second half to win with just grit and toughness,” head coach Mike Elko said.
“And offensively, just -- we lost the line of scrimmage all night. We weren't able to get anything going. Really disappointing. We just didn't play well enough on offense at all to have any chance at having success.”
“I feel like it should have sparked the offense,” Reed said. “It didn't seem by the result like it did, but I think it did spark the offense a little bit. We didn't capitalize. We had a lot of opportunities where we were in the red zone, and we had a chance to score or just put up points on the board and we didn't.”
While the stats don’t necessarily show it, the Aggie defense kept the game within reach, not allowing any points in the second half.
“I think they played an amazing game, because Texas had a lot of time of possession,” Reed said. “We didn't have the ball in our hands a lot. And I think the tougher the time that the defense was out there, they did a great job, and we just didn't capitalize on the opportunities that we had.”
The Aggies finished the regular season at 8-4 on the verge of their first SEC Championship game appearance, so while it might not feel like it at the moment, it’s safe to say the program has taken positive steps forward.
“It's come a long way,” York said. “I always tell people, it used to be a circus around here. Now it's a college football program. It feels like home for a lot of people. We have a really good locker room. Nobody in our locker room, in all of our losses, nobody has been pointing the finger, because we understand it's a cumulative effort with the team. And it takes everyone to win.”
“This is a night-and-day situation from where we were a year ago at this time,” Elko said. “Anybody who knows the inside of this program knows that and is confident in the direction this thing's headed. But that doesn't change the fact that we had an opportunity to do something really special this year, and we couldn't close on it. And so that will haunt me, that will haunt us, that will haunt the players. We had chances, and we just didn't get it done. Unfortunately, that's part of football and that's part of life, but doesn't make it any easier and certainly doesn't make it acceptable.”
Not the result the Aggies or the 12th Man were looking for but when you look at the strides this program has made in the last year, the culture has shifted in a positive direction. We’ll find out what bowl the Aggies are headed to next Sunday.
