Texas Football Rewind: Domination of Texas A&M in early 2000’s

A deeper rewind into the recent rivalry history of the Texas football program in the Lone Star Showdown shows dominance in the early 2000’s.

The Lone Star Showdown was rather one sided in the early 2000’s between the Texas football program and the rival Texas A&M Aggies. At that time, Texas and Texas A&M didn’t realize that they would be winding down a legendary rivalry that would occur for less than a decade further.

When the Texas Longhorns football program used to have their annual Lone Star Showdown rivalry run against Texas A&M to cap each and every regular season, it was a special way to end things. The Longhorns would get one of their biggest rivals in program history before what usually amounted to a prominent run in the postseason.

Since Texas A&M left the Big 12 to join the SEC West, the Longhorns also took a bit of a tumble down the Big 12 hierarchy throughout the 2010’s. Texas was surpassed for a good while by competing Big 12 programs like the TCU Horned Frogs, Oklahoma State Cowboys, and Baylor Bears in the conference standings year-after-year.

However, it seemed like there was finally a changing of the guard back to how things used to be in the Big 12 once current head coach Tom Herman took the reigns from former head coach Charlie Strong in December 2016. Texas did see a nice bounce back in 2018, but they’re result died back down again last fall, when they finished up with a record of 8-5 (5-4 Big 12).

Maybe what the Longhorns need is a return of the Texas A&M rivalry game at the end of each regular season slate. I don’t think that any college football fan would be sad about the return of the Lone Star Showdown on the gridiron.

But dating back to the turn of the century, the Longhorns have taken care of business pretty well when they did get to participate in the Lone Star Showdown with the Aggies. Texas won eight of its 10 games against Texas A&M in the Lone Star Showdown from 2000-2009. Texas A&M did get the best of the Longhorns in three of the final six meetings before the current hiatus, but the 2000’s really belonged to the men in burnt orange.

Texas really got the best of Texas A&M in the first six games to start off this century. Six wins in a row, all of which came by a double-digit margin, was a great way for the Longhorns to kickoff the new century in style against their hated in-state rival.

There are two occasions in program history where Texas was able to beat Texas A&M by a double-digit margin at least six years in a row. The first came between 1968 and 1974 and the second came from 2000-2005. That streak Texas built from 1968-1974 is the longest in program history in which they built Texas A&M by a double-digit margin (seven seasons in a row). But that six-game double-digit point winning streak from 2000-2005 is the only one within the last 20 years.

The closest game in which Texas beat Texas A&M in this six game streak to start off the 2000’s was in 2005. Ironically, that was the only season in which the Longhorns won a national title. Legendary Texas quarterback Vince Young led his team to a BCS National Championship Game win over Matt Leinart and the USC Trojans in the 2006 Rose Bowl.

But there were some other real blowouts that Texas had over Texas A&M in the early-to-mid 2000’s. In the 2002 and 2003 rivalries with the Aggies, the Longhorns won by a combined 61-point margin. Texas beat Texas A&M in remarkably consistent fashion, by 30 points in one year and 31 the next.

The fifth and sixth wins in this streak against Texas A&M were by the two slimmest margins in this six-game stretch. Texas beat Texas A&M by the final score of 26-13 in 2004 and 40-29 in 2005.

There were also a handful of Texas Exes that helped them get the best of Texas A&M in this six-game stretch. The most notable is former star running back Cedric Benson, who tallied up the most career rushing yards against any one opponent facing Texas A&M. In his career at Texas, Benson amassed a wild 615 rushing yards and eight touchdowns on 112 carries. Benson was an absolute workhorse in the Lone Star Showdown.

VY was also a stud in two tries against the Aggies, tallying up just shy of 600 total yards and four scores with just one interception. Young might not have put up the most touchdowns of any Texas quarterback against Texas A&M, but he used his dual-threat ability to keep the Aggies defense on their toes and took care of the football when he needed to.

Chris Simms was the other big name quarterback that guided Texas to a few of these wins over Texas A&M in the early 2000’s. In three tries against the Aggies, Simms racked up just shy of 800 passing yards, seven touchdowns through the air, and no picks.

Texas came away with truly dominant efforts on both sides of the ball against Texas A&M. Whether it was Reggie McNeal, Mark Farris, or Dustin Long under center for the Aggies, they couldn’t find a quarterback that could figure out the riddle that was the Texas defense.

There were some subpar teams, record-wise, that Texas A&M put out on the field in the early 2000’s. And that’s when former Texas head coach Mack Brown had his program working at peak-efficiency.

Two other stretches saw Texas beat Texas A&M by a double-digit margin for at least three years in a row. Texas did so on four straight matchups from 1903-1906 and three straight times from 1945-1947. Four different stretches of seasons really defined a rivalry history that falls well in favor of Texas by a record of 76-37-5.