With the recent news that former Texas Tech quarterback Graham Harrell has been elected to the 2025 College Football Hall of Fame Class, the Red Raiders' all-time leading passer has been making the rounds to talk about his playing career in Lubbock. Last week, he was on 365 Sports with David Smoak, Paul Catalina, and Craig Smoak, and during that interview, he said his favorite memory from his time at Tech wasn't the last-second TD pass to Michael Crabtree to beat No. 1 Texas in 2008 but another game-winning TD pass that he threw in the final minute to beat a different rival.
"My favorite one is, like I said, my sophomore year," he admitted, "It was my first Big 12 game I ever played. We were up against A&M. We were there at their place and you know, we were up the whole game and then go down...and around...two minutes left in the game, they take the lead for the first time and Kyle Field is rocking, it's the loudest it's been all day.
"We drive down and throw a touchdown to Robert Johnson. Threw a fade, actually it was on the right side again. He was running down the right side, thew a fade for a touchdown to beat them."
The play that Harrell is referring to helped the Red Raiders secure a 31-27 win over the Aggies in 2006 in College Station to move to 4-1 on the season. That day, Tech jumped out to a 24-14 halftime lead but the offense sputtered in the second half allowing the home team to come back and take a 27-24 lead with just 2:12 to play.
However, that was far too much time to leave Harrell and the Red Raiders. And with only 25 seconds to go, Harrell and Johnson connected for a 37-yard TD on one of the most beautifully-thrown passes of Harrell's legendary college career.
"I think I like that one so much," Harrell said, "one, cause A&M always bothered me, for whatever reason. I disliked A&M more than I disliked Texas. And it was at their place so you felt like you beat all 100,000 people instead of just the other team. So that was probably my favorite of all the single plays or game-winners. That one was fun."
That day, Harrell was spectacular throwing for 392 yards and four touchdowns with no picks while completing 32 of 45 passes. Johnson, meanwhile, had three TD catches and 69 yards including the game-winner to leave the Aggie crowd in stunned silence.
Harrell then went on to discuss the rivalry with A&M and the fact that the Aggies don't want to admit that their series with the Red Raiders meant something when both teams were in the same conference.
"At some point, they've got to beat us to make it a rivalry, in my opinion," he said. "If you ask me, during my time at least, and it might have been just because Coach Leach threw so much shade at them, like, they were our No. 1 rival."
During Harrell's time as the starter in Lubbock, Tech was 3-0 against the Aggies. What's more, the Red Raiders went 7-3 against A&M during Leach's tenure as head coach.
Of course, the TD throw to Crabtree to beat the Longhorns in 2008 will always be Harrell's signature play. However, he also took great pride in beating the Aggies and he was 2-0 in his career at Kyle Field. What's more, it is obvious that the game-winner he threw to rip their hearts out in College Station in 2006 meant quite a bit to Harrell as it did to so many Texas Tech football fans.