The Great, Good, Bad and Ugly of Texas' Win Over Texas A&M

With plenty of ambiguity remaining on their postseason future, no matter what chaos is to come, the Texas Longhorns ended their regular season on the highest of notes, beating in-state, undefeated arch-rival Texas A&M by 10 points in Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium on Friday night.

The Longhorns have added a 78th win over the Aggies to their all-time total and improved to 9-3 on the 2025 campaign. Texas has built quite a reputation for its home environment, achieving its 19th win in the last 20 games played at DKR-TMS.

Living to see another day in the College Football Playoff conversation, preventing Texas A&M from qualifying for the Southeastern Conference championship game, and earning a high-intensity Lone Star Showdown victory -- here is the great, good, bad and ugly of Texas' performance on senior night against the Aggies.

Great - Flipping the script in second half behind the defense

Nov 28, 2025; Austin, Texas, USA; Texas Longhorns defensive back Kobe Black (6) and teammates react after making an interception during the second half against the Texas A&M Aggies at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Scott Wachter-Imagn Images | Scott Wachter-Imagn Images

Head coach Steve Sarkisian has been professing his desire for the Longhorns to play complementary football all season long. Coming out of halftime trailing by a touchdown on the scoreboard, the Longhorns did that in a highly effective manner versus Texas A&M.

"I've never been prouder of a team, and I think now I'm more proud of this team than I was earlier in the season," Sarkisian said postgame. "These guys are so resilient. ... We challenged them with the fight that they needed to have in the second half. And surely they did that (with their response) in the third quarter," Sarkisian said.

After the Aggies' strong close to the second quarter, they came out of the locker room with some momentum and ready to take advantage of opening the half with the ball. But Texas' defense, which gave up over 100 scrimmage yards across two drives in the second, held the Aggies to a two-yard, 70-second three-and-out.

The Longhorns then added a second field goal to the board before their defense stood sturdy for another Texas A&M three-and-out. That's when Texas was able to break the game open with a Ryan Wingo 29-yard touchdown to restore a lead that it, in time, maintained. In the third quarter, Texas outgained the Aggies by 154 yards while running just three more plays than its opposition.

Still, the job was not finished and Texas' defensive unit was not done. It forced consecutive punts between Texas touchdowns before giving up the Aggies' sole points of the second half on EJ Smith's rushing score. Bend but don't break, as they say.

And the Longhorns sure didn't break, closing the game with back-to-back interceptions off of quarterback Marcel Reed, the clincher from cornerback Kobe Black and the first from safety Michael Taaffe, whose senior night culminated in a special moment.

"It's just so special to know that you're one of those kids out there that's asking for autographs when you grow up. Nobody believes in you all your life, except yourself. And then you go from walking on to living out your dream. And the last game that you get an interception in is against your rival at home, last game at DKR," Taaffe said. "It felt so good. And, man, all my teammates were really proud. So it was super cool. I don't think I could have written the story better."

Texas outscored Texas A&M 24-7 behind a brand of complementary football in the second half to emerge victorious in Austin.

Good - QB Arch Manning, RB Quintrevion Wisner & TE Jack Endries

The run game finally found its footing in the regular season finale. Texas' rush attack was not entirely impressive in the first half, gaining just 61 total yards on 13 attempts, though that's still a major improvement from previous showings. However, the second half was a wish fulfilled for the burnt orange faithful.

The Longhorns got their first 100-yard rusher of the 2025 season as Wisner ran for 155 yards across 19 carries. Overall, factoring in Manning and company, Texas ran for 218 yards and two touchdowns.

On Texas' first play from scrimmage in the second half, Wisner sprinted 48 yards to immediately put Texas into field-goal range. On its next drive, he ran for 16- and 17-yard gains to set up Wingo's score. With under two minutes left in the game, Wisner broke for a 30-yarder to ice the contest.

Postgame, Sarkisian called Wisner a "warrior," and the running back -- who had 186 rush yards against Texas A&M last year -- spoke about what it meant to put together this type of performance again in a rivalry matchup.

"(It means) the world," Wisner said. "For somebody that's so humble, so grounded in their work and their preparation, I felt like Saturdays and, in this instance, Fridays, are just made for you just to go out there and let it loose. You practice hard, so you just trust your ability to go out there."

Manning used his legs vitally in the fourth quarter on a 35-yard designed quarterback option that resulted in a touchdown off a third-and-short.

It was not the cleanest game regarding pass efficiency for Manning, who recorded a 48.2% completion percentage. But in the face of repeated pressure in the pocket, he made impact plays with both his arm and legs to spark a winning effort out of the Longhorns.

Manning's effort included multiple completions to tight end Jack Endries, who had over half of Texas' receiving yards across his four receptions, one of them a 54-yarder that led to tight end Nick Townsend's two-yard rushing touchdown at the start of the fourth quarter.

"I'm so proud of him," Manning said of Endries postgame. "He's a really hard worker, and I know he probably hadn't had the season he would like. But you know, he continues to show up week in, week out, and glad he played well tonight, because he's the man."

Ultimately, despite having less time of possession, Texas accumulated almost 400 total yards behind Manning and Wisner, outgaining the Aggies by 60 yards.

Bad - Penalties

Michael Taaff — Nov 28, 2025; Austin, Texas, USA; Texas A&M Aggies wide receiver KC Concepcion (7) runs for yards while having his shirt tugged on by Texas Longhorns Maraad Watson (98) during the second half at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Scott Wachter-Imagn Images | Scott Wachter-Imagn Images

Although Texas A&M struggled with penalties while trying to deal with the stadium pulse of DKR-TMS, Texas still had more penalty yardage than the Aggies. Texas collected 78 penalty yards, which, much like in previous games, came from all three phases of play.

A good portion of it resulted from defensive back Jelani McDonald, who was called for both unnecessary roughness and a facemask in the contest. Cornerback Malik Muhammad was flagged for a defensive pass interference, and the Longhorns also had an illegal block in the back on a punt return that caused worse field position. Manning was flagged for an intentional grounding and offensive lineman Connor Robertson was called for holding on what would have been a third-and-six conversion.

On Black's game-clinching interception, Simmons was penalized for unnecessary roughness after the play was over. Postgame, separate from just this call, he mentioned a little unhappiness with the lack of calls his way.

"It's not my place to talk about that, but I wish the refs would call some good calls, some right calls. I felt I was getting (held) up," Simmons said.

Ugly - End to first half

Nov 28, 2025; Austin, Texas, USA; Texas A&M Aggies quarterback Marcel Reed (10) keeps the ball for yards during the first half against the Texas Longhorns at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Scott Wachter-Imagn Images | Scott Wachter-Imagn Images

Texas put itself in an unfavorable place going into halftime. Over halfway through the second quarter, Texas got the ball back after the Aggies tied the game up at three with an opportunity to build off its own field-goal drive from before. But instead, Robertson's holding back sent Texas backwards and directly into a punt scenario.

Punter Jack Bouwmeester sent it to Texas A&M returner KC Concepcion, who found a crease for 30 yards, and it could have been more if not for Texas wild card Ethan Burke. The Aggies then converted on a nine-play, 42-yard drive to give the game its first touchdown.

The Longhorns again failed to respond with a scoring drill of their own, getting to the Aggies' 42-yard line before Manning was sacked to cause another punt. Reed kneeled to send the sides to the locker room.

A nervous energy around DKR-TMS turned into one packed with excitement as the game continued to unfold. Once the Lone Star rivals reappeared on the field, the whole course of the game shifted. Sarkisian explained postgame what he expressed in his halftime speech.

"It was about pride for the next 30 minutes. It was about Texas Fight. How much fight do we have left in us, in the tank, to fight for and with one another?" Sarkisian said. "We had to dig deep. We felt like we could control the game, but everybody had to give more, everybody had to drill deeper. ... I felt it in the locker room. It was a real moment. You have moments like that as a coach and as a team, and you never know. I mean, I've given a lot of great speeches, and the result wasn't what you're looking for, but that one resonated for whatever it was. I thought our guys played with a ton of pride, a ton of fight, and they made plays in critical moments. And that's what games like this require."

Now, with three signature AP top-10 wins this season -- the latest coming in a primetime rivalry-week slot -- the outlook of Texas' postseason future will continue to be a developing story over the coming days and weeks.