Texas - Texas A&M Rivalry Game Return Seems Inevitable, Coaches Say It's a Matter of Time
ByIn the three seasons since Texas A&M left the Big 12 only to find success in the SEC, the one thing that has remained clear to the team is that fans miss the rivalry game against Texas.
Now the coaches of both teams want to bring back that game.
Speaking with ESPN, Texas Longhorns coach Charlie Strong and Texas A&M Aggies coach Kevin Sumlin expressed mutual interest in a nonconference rivalry game.
"Now, moving into Year 4 and listening to our former students and our alumni base and knowing a lot of Texas alums, it's important that we play again," Sumlin said. "I think it will happen somewhere down the road. The tough part for both parties, when we moved, was scheduling. The first two years we scrambled just to get anybody to play, and the SEC hadn't solidified their schedule until last year. We were at the mercy of whoever would play us."
Sumlin's first season as the coach of the Aggies was their first in the SEC and it was also Johnny Manziel's freshman season that resulted in a Heisman Trophy. Sumlin is now 28-11 in three seasons, but more notably made the transition to college football's toughest conference seamlessly.
"That game is so much a part of this state," Strong told ESPN. "Over 100 years, we've played that game. Why stop it now because we're in different conferences? At some point, when it's right for everybody with the different schedules, I would love to play Texas A&M again."
Texas was 6-7 under Strong last season, failing to win consecutively until winning three in a row from week nine to 11. The two teams will not play this season, but with both coaches' cooperation, scheduling future games should not be difficult for either school.
"Now that we've solidified what the SEC's scheduling theory is going to be, you've seen us become more aggressive with our nonconference schedule, and that was the knock on us early on," Sumlin said. "People sometimes take scheduling for granted and say, 'Play this team.' They don't know the process. But I think the Texas series will happen. I just don't know when."