Thanksgiving is always my favorite holiday. It’s all about family, food and football. What’s not to love?
One of my most memorable Thanksgiving days in 1988, my freshman year of high school, when I attended my first ever Texas home game.
My brother and I went down to Austin to visit my sister for Thanksgiving. We had brunch at Kerby Lane Café and then went to the game that night.
It ended up being a not-so-great night for the Horns.
The Aggies built a huge 28-0 lead that included “Blitz Brothers” blocked field goal attempt which Aaron Wallace blocked and John Roper returned for a touchdown.
The Aggie defense also stifled Texas’ run game, limiting Eric Metcalf to just 67 yards on 22 carries (2.4 ypc) and the Horns were forced to become a one-dimensional passing team.
Kerry Cash caught a touchdown pass before halftime and that started a comeback which would fall just short with Texas losing 28-24.
I honestly did not remember the final score of that game, I had to Google it. I did remember how excited I was to get to watch Metcalf in his final home game that night. I remember being on the field after the game and Britt Hager’s nameplate had been nearly ripped off his jersey. I fought off the temptation to go ask him for it only to watch another kid ask, and get, that nameplate a few minutes later.
But what I remembered most about that night was the excitement in the stadium before the game and during the comeback. You could feel the energy of the crowd and it was intoxicating.
The game is no longer played on Thanksgiving Day. The uniforms have changed. The conferences have changed. There is so much that is going to be different when the Horns and Aggies square off again this year. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the electricity in the stands.
Whatever it is I thought I felt that night in 1988 will surely pale in comparison to what is going to happen at Kyle Field Saturday night.
The energy around this game has been building for 13 years. Thirteen long years of not being able to look at your neighbor and laugh at his misery following the game. Thirteen long years of not having to duck away from seeing your friend at church because you just don’t want to hear it. Thirteen long years not getting to brag all year long that it was your team that owns the bragging rights in the Great State of Texas.
The dam of all of that pent up energy is about to burst.
More than 100,000 Aggie fans are ready to direct 13 long years worth of hatred onto the Texas players Saturday night.
“The best it’s ever been,” said Texas A&M coach Mike Elko when asked his expectations for the environment at Kyle Field. “Listen, you get a primetime TV game against your rival in a game that is for the SEC Championship. I would imagine that will break the rafters a little bit.”
“We’ll be ready,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said on Monday when asked how he prepares for the unexpected shenanigans that invariably happens when the Horns travel to College Station. “I’m going to leave it at that, we’ll be ready.”
On paper, the Texas is clearly the more talented team. The Horns are loaded with future NFL players on both sides of the ball. Sure, the Aggies have some NFL guys too, but not nearly as many as Texas. And A&M’s best player this season, running back Le’Veon Moss, is out for the year.
But funny things can happen when more than 100,000 fans have a team’s back.
“It’s going to be the most amazing atmosphere that I’ve ever experienced,” said Texas A&M offensive lineman Trey Zuhn. “I can’t wait for that and I feel bad for Texas having to play in that. So looking forward to it.“
ROAD SUCCESS
Zuhn shouldn’t feel bad for the Texas players. It turns out, they love when the crowds turn against them.
“It’s going to be an awesome environment,” Texas safety Michael Taaffe said. “This is the moment that we strive for, when the hate is on us. We love it. We enjoy it. We kind of shine in moments where nobody is rooting for us.”
The Horns are going to have to handle the fans and win on the road if they want to play for an SEC championship (something Texas A&M has never done).
Texas has not lost a true road game since October 22, 2022 – a 34-41 loss to Oklahoma State where Quinn Ewers completed only 19 of 49 pass attempts and had three interceptions.
Sarkisian was asked about his teams road success prior to the trip to Arkansas.
“Our guys are very connected when we go on the road, it's a smaller group, it's a smaller team,” Sarkisian said. “On the road, there's less fans, obviously, and we need each other. We have to lean into each other. We have to pour into one another. And to do that, you know, you can't just turn it on the week of the game, and I think that it speaks volumes to the connectivity that these guys have in that locker room, that they can really lean into one another on the road, they can hold each other accountable on the road of what's acceptable and what's not, and how we're going to perform and the mindset that we need to be in.
“One of the worst things that can happen on the road, especially in our rivalry game is you get emotional,” continued Sarkisian. “When you start to play the game emotional, that's when mistakes and selfless acts occur. We definitely want the emotion, but, man, we need our poise and composure on the road and stay clear minded and focused on what we need to do.”
It will take clear minded focus from Sark and the boys to win this weekend.
It turns out that winning on the road in the SEC is tough. SEC teams have a .571 home winning percentage. That’s slightly ahead of the Big Ten at .556. The Big Ten is also full of big stadiums, just like the SEC. The Big 12 is .543 and the ACC is .507 (thank you to The Athletic for doing the math and saving me some time).
The Horns have had the benefit of playing only two true conference road games so far this season.
Texas: 27
Vanderbilt: 24
Texas: 20
Arkansas: 10
Vanderbilt is not exactly the most intimidating place to play. And Arkansas fans can definitely bring the noise, but they never scored until three minutes left in the third quarter and just when their fans woke up, Texas responded with a long touchdown drive to put the game out of reach.
In other words, neither of those games can come even close to matching the intensity of what Aggie fans will have waiting for them in College Station.
“We all know Kyle Field is a very loud stadium. They've got a great fan base, and we've seen teams go there and get impacted by the crowd noise,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian said Monday. “Kyle Field is right there at the top, if not at the top, of difficult places to play.”
Another factor that is going against the Horns this week is that this is a night game.
As @a_hornsfan will tell you, winning on the road is tough but it’s even harder to win on the road at night.
SEC home teams are 16-8 in conference games that kick off after 6 p.m. ET this year. Compare that to the 20-19 record for home teams playing conference opponents with kickoff coming before 6 p.m. Kickoff Saturday is 6:30 pm Central.
Texas has played only three night games this year, easily beating UTSA and ULM but losing to Georgia in its toughest game of the year.
But Sark is taking advantage of the players not having classes this week to get them ready – pushing practices from the morning to the afternoon.
“The best thing that we get to do is sleep in a little bit,” Sarkisian said of the later practice times. “Being a division one football player, power five, power four football player, is a grind. You think about what these guys do every single day. We look at them just on the field as like an NFL player. But these guys go to class every day. These guys are going to study hall, right? They're doing other things in their lives that consume time and energy as well. And so I'm really just trying to recharge their batteries a little bit, get a little bit more time to sleep, understanding that the game this week is at 6:30 in the evening as well. And so a little bit of getting their biological clock in that in the right frame.”
WHO HAS MORE PRESSURE?
Road games may be tough, but the lengthy layoff of this rivalry could mean some extra pressure for the home team as well.
Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko was asked if fan interest in any other game has even come close to what there is in the Texas game.
“No,” Elko said. “Not even a little bit. Yeah, this means a lot.”
Aggie fans can practically taste the deliciousness of beating their dreaded big brother and making their first ever SEC title game.
The students practically killed themselves to get the best seats they could for the game.
The university is reportedly reviewing its "ticket pull" system after emergency services dispatched five ambulances in response to nine calls to emergency services.
In other words, anticipation for this game is sky high and the A&M players, even those who weren’t familiar with the intensity of the rivalry, are familiar with it now.
“At first some of the guys weren’t fully grasping what this game means and how important it is but now that we’ve gotten close and now that it’s game week, I think everyone understands how big this game is and how much they need to lock in and focus for this game,” said Zuhn. “This is the biggest game of the season.”
The Aggies have the fans in their ears, College Gameday on campus and a national audience tuning in for a primetime game. It’s a level of pressure that they have not experienced in years (and the Notre Dame game at the start of the season doesn’t come close to what it is this week).
That could be an advantage for Texas who has experience in these kind of matchups.
“Rivalries are great for, like, I always jokingly say, for like about the first quarter or so. But at the end of the day, winning football games comes down to execution, comes down to playing with the right physicality,” said Sarkisian. “I think you perform well in those situations through really good preparation. And so as much as we'll acknowledge the rivalry, as much as we'll acknowledge trying to play to get ourselves in the SEC championship game, we're going to come right back today to do what we need to do today to put forth a positive performance. That's not new for us, that's kind of how we've always kind of gone about it. We acknowledge the game and what the game is about. And then we get right back to, what do we need to do to perform?”
Funny how it almost always comes down to execution.
No matter which team executes the best this week, I can tell you that this year, I am thankful for the return of Texas vs. Texas A&M.
TWEETS OF INTEREST:
When I said it’s hard to win road games in the SEC, I meant it’s hard for everyone else.
For example, playing in Arkansas is damn tough if you’re Tennessee (of course that game was at night).
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If this is what the Aggie message boards were like after losing to Auburn, just imagine what they will be like if Texas wins this Saturday.
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When I said earlier in the column that Texas has NFL players all over the field … I meant it. And it’s not just the loaded senior class.
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The NCAA makes it legal to start paying players and all of a sudden SMU is relevant again in football. Coincidence?
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The Cal equipment guy stopping a fan from stealing a helmet was one of my favorite stories from last week. The Cal football team liked it as well.
And look at that … this dude could make it to the Senior Bowl as a result.
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This is just because I love the Shooter McGavin Twitter account. It’s a good follow.
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Finally, for those of you flying out to see friends and family for Thanksgiving …
