The SEC office has done everything possible to make restarting the Texas-Texas A&M series as big as possible. Now, it’s up to the Longhorns and Aggies to do their part.
Focus on clearing this last hurdle, and then everybody can talk about the Lone Star Showdown.
“I think our focus is singlehandedly on Texas. Or, I mean on Auburn right now and locked in what we’ve got to get done,” A&M coach Mike Elko said Monday in a Freudian slip.
Meanwhile at Texas…
“As I told them today, I think this is the biggest game of the season coming up,” UT coach Steve Sarkisian said. “You know, Kentucky is a really good football team. They have played their best football against the best teams they’ve competed against, whether it be Ole Miss, Georgia, Tennessee, they’ve played really well.”
Elko’s verbal mix-up at the podium was likely just that — a verbal gaffe. But he’ll learn that everything is magnified 100 times when it comes to Longhorns and Aggies.
Every precaution has been taken to ensure that what happens on Nov. 30 meets the hype that’s been building since Justin Tucker’s kick sailed through the uprights in the final game in 2011.
The Aggies demanded the Longhorns come to Kyle Field first. Check.
This rivalry demands that every athletic venue, from the gridiron to the hardwood to the pool, stage epic nail-biters. Check.
This game demands a sold-out crowd. Check. A&M students were lining up in the wee hours of Saturday night just to be in line when the ticket office opened Monday.
This game demands a prime-time TV slot on ABC. Check. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m.
Both teams are tied for first place in the SEC standings but also have one final hurdle remaining against a 4-6 opponent. Texas (9-1 overall) hosts Kentucky this week while A&M (8-2) travels to Auburn.
Pressed about not looking ahead to A&M, Sarkisian was emphatic about Kentucky. “I just said this is, to me, the biggest game of the football season. This is the most important game of the year, last home game of the year. I envision us putting our best foot forward, I really do. I think our guys are going to come ready to play”
The Horns will celebrate a dozen or so seniors on Saturday before facing the Wildcats. The Aggies opted to move their senior night festivities to last week’s game against the New Mexico State Aggies.
“With everything, obviously, that is going to go into that last one — bringing the rivalry back and all of that stuff — we did not think our seniors would get the day that they deserve doing it in conjunction with the rivalry coming back,” Elko said on the SEC coaches call. “So we felt like this was a better opportunity for it.”
Sarkisian hasn’t been pepped about the rivalry as much as Elko has. Everywhere Elko turns, A&M fans are all over him about beating Texas.
At the Houston Touchdown Club in October, Elko was reminded in point-blank fashion.
“I knew Mississippi State was a big game,” Elko said at the time. “You’re suggesting Mississippi State is one of the biggest games in all of college football this year? You’re now, I think, the five millionth Aggie who’s told me again how we have to win that last game.”
Playing in the SEC during the regular season would be all the Aggies needed to get ready for the Horns, according to the first-year A&M coach.
“In-season it’s really important that you focus on what’s in front of you,” Elko told the crowd. “You have to focus on the things that are in front of you to make sure that that (final) game means what we all want it to mean. More than anything we want to make sure that the team has meaning beyond just the (final) game. That’s been our goal from the start of the season.
“Now, from the time I got here until the time the season started, yeah, it’s not lost on me what that (last) game means, and what we have to do.”
Time to drill down and focus.
Texas, you beat Kentucky.
Texas A&M, you go handle Auburn.
Then, we’ll talk.
