COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — The third-ranked Texas Longhorns are heading to the Southeastern Conference championship game in their first season in the league after knocking off No. 20 Texas A&M Saturday night in the renewal of a storied rivalry.
Next up is a rematch with No. 6 Georgia in Atlanta.
“The goal has always been let’s get to Atlanta and if we can get to Atlanta, those other goals might start to line themselves up,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said.
Quintrevion Wisner ran for a career-high 186 yards and Quinn Ewers threw a touchdown pass to lead Texas to the 17-7 win.
“We controlled the game and quite frankly dominated the game,” Sarkisian said.
Texas (11-1, 7-1 SEC, No. 3 CFP) will face the Bulldogs next Saturday for the SEC title, with the winner getting a first-round bye in the 12-team College Football Playoff.
The highly anticipated return of this rivalry, which dates to the 1890s, had all the hype of a heavyweight title bout. It looked to be headed for a blowout after Texas raced to a 17-0 halftime lead.
But Ewers turned the ball over in the red zone on consecutive possessions to keep the Aggies in the game, the first giveaway an interception that Will Lee III returned 93 yards for a touchdown.
Texas A&M (8-4, 5-3, No. 20 CFP) had a shot to cut the lead to three with about 4 1/2 minutes remaining, but Ethan Burke dropped Amari Daniels for a 3-yard loss on fourth-and-goal from the 1. The Longhorns stopped the Aggies on three fourth downs on the night.
“We just didn’t play well enough on offense at all to have any chance at having success,” Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said.
Backup quarterback Arch Manning ran for a score early to help Texas get its 11th straight win on an opponent’s home field and its fifth consecutive victory overall since a 30-15 home loss to Georgia.
“It’s a great way to end the regular season,” Sarkisian said. “This is where we wanted to be. We knew when we had the slip-up earlier in the season that we would have to win out to get back to a championship game. And we’ve earned that right.”
The crowd of 109,028 included Texas superfan Matthew McConaughey, A&M Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel, former Saints quarterback Drew Brees and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Ewers said it meant a lot to get the win in a series that was paused after Texas A&M went to the SEC. The teams hadn't played since 2011.
“It’s been a tradition for the long time and then it went away for a little bit,” he said. “Now it’s back and it’s fun to be on top for sure.”
DJ Hicks tipped the pass that Lee intercepted and returned 93 yards for the touchdown to cut the lead to 17-7 with about six minutes left in the third quarter.
The Aggies' defense came up big again on the next possession when Cashius Howell stripped the ball from Ewers and it was recovered by Taurean York at the A&M 11 near the end of the third.
Texas A&M failed to cash in on that error and punted. The Aggies blocked a punt by the Longhorns on their next drive to get the ball back in the red zone. But the Longhorns’ defense secured the win after Texas failed to score after halftime.
“We had an opportunity to do something really special this year, and we couldn’t close on it,” said Elko, who's in his first season after Jimbo Fisher was fired. “And so that will haunt me, that will haunt us, that will haunt the players.”
The Longhorns made it 7-0 when a video review confirmed that Manning scored on a 15-yard run on fourth-and-2 with about three minutes left in the first quarter. It capped a 93-yard drive that started after Michael Taaffe intercepted Reed to give Texas at least one takeaway in 20 straight games.
Ewers connected with Jaydon Blue on a 7-yard TD pass that pushed the lead to 14-0 with about eight minutes left in the second. It was initially ruled an incomplete pass, but a review showed he had a foot in bounds for the score.
Matthew Golden had a 44-yard reception on that drive.
The scene around Kyle Field before the game was almost as entertaining as the game itself. Former A&M coach R.C. Slocum used a miniature chainsaw to saw the horns off a longhorn that tailgaters were cooking across from the stadium. The university police said a man riding a horse and another riding a longhorn while holding a dog and wearing a 10-gallon hat were asked to leave campus hours before the game.
Police also said two men “wearing reflective vests and hard hats entered the stadium with fake construction credentials” and were arrested for criminal trespass.
Texas will need to clean up its mistakes be more consistent on offense as it heads into the conference title game and likely the playoff.
Texas moves on to face the Bulldogs. The Aggies wait to see which bowl game they’ll play in to wrap up another disappointing season.
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