Make a movie out of this right now. The Longhorns climb to fame and now the 3rd seed in the playoffs has been built on the foundation laid by Steve Sarkisian. These guys were 13-12 with the 2021 and 2022 seasons combined. With Steve Sarkisian and Quinn Ewers in the lead, this switched to 22-3 with the 2023 season and the current 2024 season run. If that ain’t progress, then we don’t know what is. Doesn’t matter how much hate you give these guys, one thing is for sure, the Longhorns have been nothing but powerful all season. These guys have one of the best defenses in the country and the offense has been explosive with both Ewers and Arch Manning.

But, here’s the deal. With the final game on the schedule knocking on the door, Sarkisian has to be careful. One hundred eighteen years of rivalry and a 70+ win lead, you don’t wanna mess this up. So, back on College GameDay, Pat McAfee had the perfect question for Sark about this entire Aggies game. “What have you told them about what they’re walking into for this particular rivalry?” McAfee asked. “You kinda need to embrace the hate… It’s okay to be the villain and we’re the villain in this movie,” Sarkisian mentioned. Hate is an understatement when we talk about how the Aggies feel about the Longhorns and it looks like this is the perfect chance for Sarkisian to bring in the mind games.

This rivalry has been on for a long, long time, and the last time these guys faced each other was back in 2011. After the Longhorns left for the SEC, the entire rivalry came to a stop. With the entire 27-25 loss still haunting the Aggies, Mike Elko and Co. will not make it easy to grab a win.

Longhorns are 10-1 going into this and honestly, they are technically not the crowd favorite. Yes, they have massive talent on their roster but the biggest critique for their 10-win season has been that they have faced NO ONE good. The only good team on their schedule was Georgia, and they lost that.

If Sarkisian manages to get a blowout win against the Aggies, then it will shut off the haters and the doubter, and Texas can then justify its 3rd spot on the CFP list. But, there is an “IF” here. Going into this, the Longhorns don’t have the same offensive pressure anymore.

QB woes haunting Steve Sarkisian?

See, Sarkisian made it very clear back on November 22 that he will still stick with Ewers. And why wouldn’t he? Ever since Ewers got the charge, Texas managed to have a massive year back in 2023 and now in 2024. Dude even managed to land the Longhorns their first-ever conference title in over 14 years.

But here is the thing, with the entire injury situation, there is a big debate if Ewers is still up for the rivalry game and if can he even make an impact. Back on November 27, Texas staff Ben Shipley made it clear that we could end up seeing some Arch Manning action on the turf.

Now will this be because of the entire injury thing? We don’t know yet. What we do know is the fact that even if Sarkisian is to lose out on Ewers, Manning is more than capable enough of carrying the team. However, the Aggies’ defense will not make it easy. These guys are amazing when it comes down to creating pressure on the quarterback and they WILL do it against the Longhorns over and over again. Let’s see who survives this showdown.