Growing up, the Texas vs. Texas A&M game was, by far, the biggest game of the year.
I grew up in Athens, Texas which is an A&M kind of town. It’s in East Texas. Athens High School’s colors are maroon and white. The AHS band was a military-style band, just like A&M. Aggies were everywhere.
So when Texas lost to A&M, which happened more times than not in the 1980’s, it was a tough time to be a Longhorn fan.
But as tough as it was to be a Longhorn fan in the 80’s, imagine what it’s like to be an Aggie fan in general. The vast majority of time, you’re going to be on the bad side of this rivalry. You’re going to see your family, friends, neighbors and even fellow church members rub it in as you wallow in misery of yet another loss to Texas.
The Aggies came into the renewed rivalry last season with high hopes of beating Texas at home and launching themselves into their first SEC championship game.
Then they were introduced to Ethan Burke.
Now here we are, heading into the Black Friday matchup with Texas A&M and if the Aggies win, you can bet, the next year is going to be one of the toughest yet for Texas fans.
A&M comes into this game undefeated, full of confidence, and once again ready to go to their first SEC championship game with a win over Texas.
You can almost feel the dread settling into the guts of Aggie fans as this week progresses.
“Any time you play this game, it’s going to have a little bit of a different energy about it,” A&M head coach Mike Elko said Tuesday.
Obviously Elko was talking about his players being ready for Friday but you know the fans are feeling that change in energy and their anxiety is permeating the very air in College Station.
A Texas win this week means A&M will almost assuredly miss the SEC championship game for the 25th season in a row.
“The way things broke this year with our schedule, it inhibited some of our tiebreaker abilities,” Elko conceded about his team’s chances of making the SEC game with a loss. “It’s going to force us to go 8-0 to get to Atlanta. It is what it is.”
And that’s why the pressure is going to be far greater for A&M this week than it will be for Texas.
