Texas A&M’s late season rivalry battle ranked as Top-3 ‘revenge game’

Texas A&M’s 2026 college football season will be defined by how well the Aggies do on the road, set to face LSU and Missouri on the road for the second straight season, combined with road trips to Alabama, South Carolina, and Oklahoma at the end of the season. However, since the Texas Longhorns joined the SEC, coach Mike Elko has yet to defeat the archrival, despite entering last season’s matchup 11-0.

As they say, “revenge is a dish served cold,” and after a full year since falling 27-17 on the road to the Longhorns, the 2024 17-7 defeat in College Station still stands as one of the most aggravating losses among the Aggie fan base. While this game isn’t guaranteed to mean anything from a postseason standpoint, the Longhorns will likely enter the 2026 season ranked in the top 3, while the Aggies are projected to be a top-10 team.

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Texas A&M saw a record 10-players selected in the 2026 NFL Draft, and similar to Texas losing double-digit players in the 2025 NFL Draft, the Aggies reloaded in the transfer portal, while the Longhorns also added a long list of instant impact players, including star Auburn transfer WR Cam Coleman, who will quickly become QB Arch Manning‘s No. 1 target after dealing with too many drops from his receiver rotation in 2025.

Redshirt junior quarterback Marcel Reed, who threw for a career-high 3,169 yards and 25 touchdowns, also threw 12 interceptions, including four combined picks against Texas and Miami in the first round of the College Football Playoff, and under first-year QB coach Joey Lynch, fixing his footwork, ball placement, and decision making will lead to matching last season’s success through the air.

Still, if the running game can’t find consistency late in the year, Texas A&M’s offense won’t be reliable, which could lead Reed to force throws in a tight window and make bad decisions in key moments. It’s clear that after defeating every SEC opponent, except for the Longhorns last season, the third edition of the new Lone Star Showdown is by far the most significant “revenge game” of the 2026 season.

However, after Lane Kiffin left Ole Miss for LSU, the Tigers’ visit to Oxford will finally bring all the offseason drama to a head.