Texas A&M at Texas: What Bettors Need to Now
The Texas A&M offense has gotten plenty of headlines this season. But maybe it’s the defense that should have Texas worried.
The No. 18 Aggies will be looking to extend their winning streak to six games and keep their slim hopes of a spot in the Big 12 title game alive when they visit the rival Longhorns on Thursday.
Catch And Release
It looked like another mediocre season in College Station when a 3-0 start just as quickly turned into 3-3 after a home loss to Missouri on October 16. But those three losses came with Jerrod Johnson at quarterback and each came against strong competition, with Missouri the only true home game in a stretch with losses at Oklahoma State and in Arlington against Arkansas.
The turning point came in a 45-10 drubbing of Kansas on October 23, when Johnson started and broke the Texas A&M (8-3, 5-2 Big 12) career record for total yardage before yielding in the second quarter to Ryan Tannehill, who had taken just 12 snaps previously and had been used mostly as a wide receiver during his first three years.
But Tannehill looked right at home under center against the Jayhawks, throwing for three touchdowns. He turned that success into a more wins, dialing up the competition in home victories over Texas Tech and Oklahoma and a victory at Baylor on November 13. Tannehill led the Aggies to at least 33 points in each of those wins.
No. 8 Nebraska proved to be the biggest test, as Tannehill relied on running back Cyrus Gray and guided the Aggies to a 9-6 victory on national television. Gray rushed for 137 yards on 26 carries while Tannehill threw for 172 yards and did not turn the ball over. Randy Bullock kicked a 19-yard field goal with 3:02 left to seal the win.
It was the defense that stood out, forcing a pair of turnovers and holding Cornhuskers’ duel-threat quarterback Taylor Martinez to 17 yards rushing and 107 yards passing.
Texas A&M has won five straight Big 12 games for the first time since 1998 and still has a very slim chance to sneak into the Big 12 title game if Oklahoma tops Oklahoma State on Saturday and the Aggies somehow managed to vault the Sooners in the BCS standings.
Upside Down
For one team to rise, another has to fall, and that has been Texas (5-6, 2-5) this season. The perennial power has taken a big step back, falling to last place in the Big 12 South. The Longhorns, who played for the national championship last season, need a win this weekend just to become bowl eligible.
Texas stepped away from conference play last weekend and managed to snap a four-game slide with a 51-17 victory over Florida Atlantic. Garrett Gilbert threw a pair of touchdown passes and Cody Johnson rushed for 128 yards and a score.
Coach Mack Brown has not suffered a losing season since 1989 when he was at North Carolina. The Longhorns are 9-3 against Texas A&M in the Brown era and own a 75-36-5 edge in the series history.
Trends
The Aggies are 5-0 ATS in their last five conference games and 6-2 ATS in their last eight games as favorites.
Texas is 7-3 ATS in its last 10 games as an underdogs but just 2-9 ATS in its last 11 games against teams with winning records.
NCAA Football Odds: Aggies battle Longhorns
By: Willie Bee
One of the nation's oldest college football rivalries is renewed this Thursday evening when the Texas A&M Aggies and Texas Longhorns meet in Austin. It's the 117th time the two schools have met on a gridiron, and apparently the last matchup as Big 12 South opponents.
Bragging rights are once again on the line in this year's meeting, but that's not all. The Aggies have surged into the BCS rankings at No. 17 and will be playing for a possible share of the Big 12 South title. A&M doesn't have much chance to represent the division in a three-way tie since the Ags would still likely trail both Oklahoma State and Oklahoma on the BCS list, with rankings in that poll serving as the tiebreaker.
Still, a road win over the Longhorns would leave Texas A&M 9-3 straight up and push the Ags forward a spot on the bowl invitation list.
Texas wishes it was playing for a more attractive bowl invite. The Longhorns (5-6 straight up, 3-8 against the NCAAF spread) have to win just to become bowl eligible.
Thursday's odds opened with the Aggies favored by a field goal at Bookmaker.com. The total has settled at 47 in the early going.
Mike Sherman's Aggies ran their win streak to five with last Saturday's 9-6 win at home over Nebraska. A Kyle Field record 90,079 fans watched the Aggies triumph as 2½-point underdogs in the field-goal battle.
Bo Pelini and the Cornhuskers will tell you they not only had to battle A&M's 12th man, but a 13th, 14th and 15th man on the field wearing black-&-white stripes. Nebraska was penalized a record 16 times for 145 yards to the Aggies' two flags.
The win was not only Texas A&M's fifth in a row straight up, but the fifth consecutive time the Aggies beat the spread to leave them 7-4 at the college football betting window this campaign.
Texas avoided running their losing skid to five with a 51-17 win at home over an overmatched Florida Atlantic squad. The Longhorns easily covered the 21½-point line to also stop a four-game losing streak against the spread.
Texas owns a dominating 75-36 edge in the all-time series with five ties. The Longhorns have won eight of the last 10 matchups, covering nine of the last 15.
The most recent meeting (Nov. 26, 2009) turned into a battle between the two quarterbacks, Jerrod Johnson for A&M and Texas' Colt McCoy. The squads combined for over 1,100 yards of offense in the Longhorns' 49-39 win as 20½-point favorites that went well 'over' the 63-point total.
A&M's last win in Austin came in 2006 when the Aggies were 13½-point road 'dogs. A defensive, 12-7 skirmish broke out in that get-together.
ESPN has the broadcast from Memorial Stadium on the UT campus with kickoff set for just after 5 p.m. PT. A rather warm, muggy week in this general area of the Lone Star State is forecast to change abruptly at some point during Thanksgiving Day. Exactly when remains uncertain, but there is a 40 percent chance of rain with a daytime high of 70ºF cooling down into the 40s once the expected front pushes through.
Despite attending a dozen or more of these matchups in person and seeing 30 or more on the telly, I'm still reluctant to suggest a winning side due to the ample maroon hanging in my wardrobe. Despite my allegiance to A&M, it's hard to believe Texas won't be going bowling this season and will be playing the 'Horns plus 140 on the money line.
Thursday's Preview
Underdogs covered four of last five Longhorn-Aggie games; Texas is 8-2 in last ten series games, winning last two 49-39/49-9, but this Longhorn team isn't as good as recent teams, losing five of last seven games after a 3-0 start. Texas needs this win to be bowl eligible. Aggies won five in a row but had bruising 9-6 win over Nebraska five days ago, while Texas was jogging against FAU. A&M is 5-2 as favorite this year; they're 2-1 on road, losing by 3 at Oklahoma State, but winning 45-10 at Kansas, 42-30 at Baylor. Texas lost four of its last five games in state of Texas.