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Over the final two quarters of a 27-17 win, Sarkisian schemed up ways to move the football on the ground, Arch Manning kept extending plays with legs and the defense ended the Aggie offense’s last two possessions by intercepting Marcel Reed. The Longhorns dominated their counterparts from College Station, picking up a win that Sarkisian and the program desperately needed.
Texas (9-3, 6-2 SEC) is the first team since LSU in 2019 to win three regular-season games against top-10 teams in the Associated Press Top 25. Two of those wins came over Texas A&M (11-1, 7-1) and Oklahoma, moving the Longhorns to 6-0 against their three rivals (the Aggies, the Sooners and Arkansas) since joining the SEC.
Sarkisian has his third career win over a top-five opponent and his second (2-7) at Texas. Sarkisian’s second consecutive double-digit win over the Aggies marked Mike Elko’s first loss when his team entered halftime with a lead (was previously 15-0).
Most importantly, the Longhorns left the College Football Playoff selection committee with an emphatic closing argument for why they’re worthy of a third consecutive CFP bid.
Texas dominated Texas A&M on the scoreboard (24-7), on the ground (157-74), on offense (285-160 edge in total yards gained) and in the turnover battle (2-0) en route to keeping the Aggies from reaching the SEC Championship Game for the second year in a row.
Friday’s win wasn’t a fluke. Texas suffocated Texas A&M over the last 30 minutes of regulation, looking like the team everyone in the country expected to see from the jump in 2025.
The Longhorns can’t do anything except wait for the selection committee’s final verdict next Sunday. Regardless, an unforgettable second-half effort has them in the mix with the regular season in the books.
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Sarkisian’s play-calling and game management changed after a forgettable end to the first half.
He put the game in Quintrevion Wisner’s hands and the junior delivered with 155 yards on 19 carries. Wisner’s 48-yard burst over the left side of the line on the offense’s first snap of the third quarter set the tone for the second half.
Texas didn’t overpower the Aggies up front. Instead, the Longhorns used Texas A&M’s aggression and tendency to attack the line of scrimmage to their advantage, utilizing a mix of misdirection runs and pull schemes.
The approach allowed Wisner and Manning (53 yards and a touchdown on seven official attempts) to exploit gaping holes at the line of scrimmage.
The best example of how potent the Longhorn rushing attack was on Friday was the explosive runs. Texas, which entered the game with 14 10-plus-yard runs in SEC play, had nine against Texas A&M, including six in the second half.
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Whether it was run blocking or pass protection, Friday’s second half might’ve been the best job Sarkisian has done this season of helping the offensive line and not asking Kyle Flood’s group to do things it couldn’t pull off. Manning's 35-yard touchdown run up the gut with 7:04 left in the game closed out the scoring and answered a 6-play, 59-yard touchdown drive by the Aggies.
Manning (14-for-29, 179 yards and a 29-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Wingo) had times where he had to work around pressure from an A&M defense that finished the game with two sacks and 10 tackles for loss. Still, Texas wouldn’t have won the game without the offensive line (led by DJ Campbell and Cole Hutson, who took the field at DKR for the last time) winning their battle against one of the most productive defensive fronts in the country.
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Similar to how Sarkisian and Pete Kwiatkowski won their chess match against Brent Venables and the Oklahoma staff in October, the Longhorn coaches got the best of Elko and Collin Klein on Friday.
Elko’s defense surrendered 218 rushing yards (the most by Texas against a Power Four opponent this season) to an offense that came into Friday's game averaging 75.3 rushing yards per game in SEC play. Along with leaning on the ground attack, Sarkisian called a tendency-breaking jet sweep for Nick Townsend on the goal line, resulting in a 3-yard touchdown run (after Manning and Jack Endries connected for a 54-yard gain) to highlight how his staff befuddled the Aggies after halftime.
The Longhorns won the explosive play battle (13-9) thanks in part to Kwiatkowski’s defense, which held Texas A&M to 17 points on five red-zone possessions. Texas also limited the Aggies to season lows in yards per play (4.6) and rushing yards (157) and total offense (337 yards). After allowing a late first-half touchdown on a short field, the Longhorns held the Aggies to 44 net yards on 15 plays (2.9 yards per play) and one first down while forcing four punts (three three-and-outs) on Texas A&M’s first four possessions of the second half to help the Longhorns pull ahead for good.
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One of the most raucous home crowds for a Texas football game helped the defense during the unit’s stretch of dominance.
Two false starts on fourth-and-1 forced two of the Aggies’ four consecutive punts in the second half. In a game pitting two of the nation’s most penalized teams against each other, the DKR crowd played a big role in the Longhorns winning the penalty battle (seven accepted penalties to Texas A&M’s eight) for just the third time this season (also had fewer penalties than Oklahoma and Arkansas in those rivalry wins).
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Instead of trying to digest the merits of a nine-win regular season in the face of national championship expectations, I’d encourage Longhorn fans to savor the flavor of their team notching a well-earned victory over the Aggies.
It’s been a tough year at times and nobody knows what's next for Texas. Nevertheless, there's nothing wrong with celebrating the Longhorns ending the regular season with nine wins, an undefeated home record and a résumé worthy of a trip to the CFP is nothing to belittle.
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