It’s Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 2011, and there are just three seconds left on the clock in a 25-24 game at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas.
The home team, Texas A&M, holds onto a one-point lead over the bitter rival, Texas, but Justin Tucker is set for a 40-yard attempt to walk it off. Of course, as we know now, he nailed it, and the Longhorns took a 27-25 victory into a lull in the rivalry that would last 12 seasons.
Now, in 2024, the Lone Star Showdown between Texas and Texas A&M is back on, with the Longhorns now in the SEC.
Texas A&M quarterback Conner Weigman, who spent time at the podium yesterday ahead of fall camp, was asked about his desire to beat the Aggies’ in-state rival after doing a photo shoot with Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers for a preseason edition of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football.
“I’ve always wanted to be Texas. That’s a given,” Weigman told the media. “I don’t know if it was more after that [photoshoot], but yeah, that’s a given. That’s gonna happen.”
It seems a lot of folks have forgotten how significant the Texas-Texas A&M rivalry was when it was played every year between 1915 and 2011. But the importance of such a game was captured so eloquently by ESPN analyst Craig James, who said this while waiting for Justin Tucker’s field goal attempt 13 years ago.
“I can tell you, as a Texan, that I sure hope that the cooler heads prevail in the very near future,” James said during the broadcast. “For the sake of college football, for the sake of the State of Texas, for the sake of being able to see this great rivalry… We need this. College football is great because of passion.”
Well, it may have taken longer than we’d hoped, Mr. James, but the game is back on and will be bigger than ever when Texas marches into College Station to take on the Aggies this November.
The 2024 Lone Star Showdown is scheduled for Saturday, November 30, with kickoff time to be determined at a later date.
