A healthy Quinn Ewers might have made the difference in the Longhorns’ upset bid over the Crimson Tide last month.SAN ANTONIO — Seven million people watched Texas A&M give Alabama all it could handle Saturday night, and a college football audience of that magnitude doesn’t come together very often.When 10 million people watched Alabama squeak by Texas.
For now, both the Longhorns and Aggies still have a lot to prove, and not just because neither has won a conference championship since the last time they played each other 11 years ago. It’s tough to blame those droughts on the dominance of powerhouses like Alabama and Oklahoma when teams like Auburn and Baylor won the SEC and the Big 12 during that stretch.
Those defeats sent both the Texas and A&M fan bases into “wait until next year” mode by the end of September, albeit with different carrots dangling in front of them this season. The Longhorns, coming off their most overwhelming victory in the history of their rivalry against Oklahoma, at least retain hope of a Big 12 title game appearance and a major bowl game.
Perhaps, and it might already be shrinking. It was just one afternoon, against a disaster of an Oklahoma team, but UT showed Saturday why no defense in or out of the SEC should look forward to facing a group featuring future Sunday-afternoon stars like Ewers, Bijan Robinson, Ja’Tavion Sanders and Xavier Worthy.