The 16th ranked team, Texas Longhorns, upset the number three ranked Texas A&M Aggies, 27 to 17 in the infamous Lone Star Showdown. The Lone Star Showdown has been a tradition in college football since 1915 (Timm Hamm). The Longhorns and Aggies faced off every year from 1915 to 2011, until the Aggies moved from the Big 12 conference and into the SEC. However in 2024, the Texas Longhorns made the move from the Big 12 conference to the SEC, in which the Texas Longhorns and Texas A&M Aggies rivalry could be reborn.
Texas A&M quarterback, Marceel Reed, went 20 for 32 passing attempts and had 180 passing yards. However, Reed did throw two interceptions as well. While Texas quarterback, Arch Manning, went for 14 out of 29 passing attempts and had 179 yards, except Manning had scored a touchdown in the game to seal the score 17 to 27. Both of these quarterbacks are sophomores and have plenty of years left in college football and could be an important factor to their teams future success. However, the end of this game changed Texas A&M’s playoff rankings for the worst.
This ultimately booted Texas A&M from their number three spot and into the number seven spot. On top of being kicked out of the top three, Texas A&M also lost their spot in the SEC championship since both Alabama and Georgia won their games. This was a devastating blow towards Texas A&M’s very stellar performance this season, being undefeated all the way up until this game. Also considering that Texas A&M hasn’t had this good of a season since the 90s. Texas A&M still has a high chance to make the playoffs since they are still a top ten ranked team for the college football playoffs and first in the SEC .
Meanwhile the Longhorns moved up from the 16th spot to the 13th spot. Not a major move up but they were able to knock out their rival from securing a top playoff spot. The Longhorns still had a pretty decent season, but they just had a rough start considering they played the number one ranked college football team while going through a quarterback change. Unfortunately, this season for the Longhorns is ultimately over because they are not at the top of the SEC.
Overall, both teams have done pretty good this season and have very bright futures with their star quarterbacks leading the charge to success.
