Wreck'Em Red
Fansided

Ten years ago, Texas Tech beat Aggies for possibly the last time ever

By Matthew Conner

NORMAN, OK - NOVEMBER 22: Wide receiver Michael Crabtree
NORMAN, OK - NOVEMBER 22: Wide receiver Michael Crabtree /
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This week marks the 10th anniversary of the greatest Texas tech football season in program history.  A decade ago this week, the Red Raiders scored what may wind up being the programs last ever win over Texas A&M.

The greatest casualties of conference realignment in college football have come in the Big 12.  No conference in the nation has lost as many classic rivalries as the Big 12 which saw Texas vs. Texas A&M, Oklahoma vs. Nebraska, Missouri vs. Kansas, Nebraska vs. Oklahoma and Texas Tech vs. Texas A&M all cease when the conference was pilfered in 2010-11.

For Texas Tech football fans, life without the annual hatefest with Texas A&M has been a bit dull.  Certainly, there is plenty of disdain in Lubbock for Texas, Oklahoma, TCU and even Baylor but none of those schools will ever elicit the type of vitriol from Red Raider fans as the Aggies.

Ten years ago, on December 18th, 2018, the Texas Tech football team scored what stands as its most recent victory over the Aggies. And given the political landscape of the game, there’s a decent chance that the 43-25 win in College Station may be the final victory Tech ever has over A&M on the gridiron.

That afternoon, the No. 7 Red Raiders took their 6-0 record to Kyle Field to face off with a 2-4 Texas A&M team.  It was the high point of the Mike Leach era which was defined in large part by unprecedented domination of the Aggies.

During the Leach’s run, Tech won seven of ten games in the series with most of them being blowouts.  In 2008, the Red Raiders were riding a three-game winning streak over their most hated rivals with the previous three games having been decided by an average of 23.6 points per game.

But headed into the 2008 contest, traditional roles were reversed.  After years of seeing underdog Texas Tech teams stun highly-ranked Aggie teams, Tech fans were fearful of having the tables turned on them in the midst of their most successful season of all time.

The game was a close affair in the first half.  After A&M jumped out to a 3-0 lead, Graham Harrell hit Michael Crabtree for a 25-yard touchdown to go up 7-3.

A&M receiver Ryan Tannehill would catch a touchdown pass to put the Aggies back on top.  Tech jumped back in front on a short Baron Batch TD run only to see A&M hit two field goals to take a three-point lead in the middle of the second quarter.

Harrell then hit Batch for a touchdown to continue the seesaw scoring.  But just before halftime, A&M took a 23-20 lead on a Mike Goodson touchdown run marking the first halftime deficit of the season for the Red Raiders thanks in large part to two turnovers.

But after halftime, Texas Tech would finally exert its dominance and shut out the Aggie offense.  A three-yard Michael Crabtree touchdown reception and a 25-yard field goal put Tech up by seven points headed into the final quarter.

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A one-yard Graham Harrell touchdown run put the game out of reach at 36-23 with under seven minutes to play.  The Aggies would block the ensuing extra point attempt and return it for a safety to earn their only points of the second half.

But it wouldn’t be a classic Red Raider-Aggie game without controversy.  As Texas Tech was running out the clock, running back Shannon Woods carried the ball to the Texas A&M 1-yard-line where he was ruled down.

Leach would call timeout to ask for a replay review saying in the postgame news conference that he simply wanted to get Woods a touchdown on the day.  On the next play, instead of simply taking a knee, Harrell scored on a QB sneak to pour some salt into the wounds of the home town faithful.

Fans of both schools would’ve expected nothing less of a game between these two bitter rivals.  Even games that were blowouts often included controversial elements like in 2007 when A&M linebacker Von Miller hit Harrell late but was not penalized or in 2011 when Tech’s Eric Stephens suffered a torn knee ligament on a late hit by Damontre Moore.

Certainly, no one could forget the post-game brawl between the two fanbases in 2001 or the false accusations in 2011 by the Aggies that their team bus had been vandalized with feces.   Leach was certainly a huge player in the controversy as this colorful rivalry was a perfect fit for his quirky personality.

Following Tech’s last-minute win at Kyle Field in 2006, he was criticized for saying on television that “once-in-a-while a pirate can beat a soldier”.  He was not in nearly as positive of a mood following the 2009 game when he said that his team had sat around listening to their “fat little girlfriends” during the previous bye week which led to their poor play in a 52-30 loss.

Since this series ended, moments like that have been rare (Kingsbury’s comments about Bret Bielema following the 2015 Arkansas game aside) for Red Raider fans.  Seeing the rivalry with the Aggies end because of greed and jealousy is one of the most disappointing developments of the modern era of the program.

Certainly, Texas Tech would gladly resume this series but there seems to be no way the Aggies would play ball.  In fact, AD Kirby Hocutt indicated that in a recent tweet.

Unfortunately, we may never see the Red Raiders and the Aggies on the field again.  A&M has gone out of its way to avoid playing Tech or UT in a bowl game so there is no reason to believe that this classic rivalry will be revived anytime soon.

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That’s why the 2008 win over Texas A&M, though it receives far less attention than that season’s win over Texas, remains significant.  The Red Raiders would drop the final three games of the series (2009-2011) meaning 2008 may be the final time any Red Raider fan gets to know the satisfaction of beating the school’s most hated rival.

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