Mike Elko’s Aggies defeat ‘Jerry’s team’ at AT&T Stadium to close Southwest Classic in style

ARLINGTON – If the rivalry game itself can’t provide enough motivation, there’s always Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

“If you’re from Texas, which most of our kids are, you either grow up loving the Cowboys or hating the Cowboys,” Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said Saturday. “So if you come here and play in this game, if you love the Cowboys, this is your last chance to play in AT&T Stadium and win. If you don’t like the Cowboys, you can beat Jerry’s team again.’

Elko insisted that Jones, an Arkansas alum, is “phenomenal” and that he didn’t want the comment to be misinterpreted as anything other than playful banter. Listen: It’s easy to joke after Jones hand-delivered the Southwest Classic trophy following Texas A&M’s 21-17 victory on Saturday.

The rivalry game has been played in Arlington since 2008, aside from a home-and-home after Texas A&M joined the SEC and a 2020 game at Kyle Field in College Station due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but will no longer be a be a neutral game. site game at AT&T Stadium starting in 2025. The elimination of conference divisions – a byproduct of realignment and conference expansion – will shift the rivalry to a semi-annual affair rather than an annual installment.

So for now, the No. 24 Aggies (4-1) have bragging rights. Backup quarterback Marcel Reed, who started a third straight game in place of the injured Conner Weigman on Saturday, threw a 5-yard touchdown to tight end Tre Watson with nine minutes left in the fourth quarter. Texas A&M’s defense — which harassed Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green all afternoon — forced a Razorbacks (3-2) punt and fumble in the final six minutes of the game to earn the Aggies’ fourth straight victory since the season-opening defeat to Notre Dame.

“Arkansas, Texas A&M and AT&T Stadium, how else did you expect it to go?” Elko said. “All the way to the route. I had to make some moves in the fourth quarter to win it.”

Reed’s touchdown won it. Le’Veon Moss’ legs made it possible. Reed’s touchdown capped a game-long eight-play, 75-yard drive with 4:24 left in the fourth quarter that was carried by Moss. The junior running back totaled 52 of his game-high 117 rushing yards on that drive, breaking free for a 23-yard run on third-and-4 from the Arkansas 49-yard line to spark it and carrying the ball to the Arkansas line. 5-yard line to set up the short touchdown pass.

“The focus was on getting that trophy back on the plane with us,” Moss said. “We knew what we were going to do. We were going to win. We wanted to finish this match the right way.”

Texas A&M’s defense handled that. Junior defensive end Nic Scourton, a Purdue transfer, sacked Green with 1:39 left in the fourth quarter to seal the Aggies’ victory and put the finishing touches on a brutal effort.

“It was special,” said Scourton, who finished with four tackles for loss and two sacks. “It was a special moment. This is my first time playing here, so it was a special moment. But the fact that this was the last game and that we came out on top was special.”

Texas A&M quarterback Conner Weigman out for the game against Arkansas

The Aggies totaled 10 tackles for loss, eight quarterback hits, three sacks and three forced fumbles and limited Arkansas to just 100 rushing yards. They featured Green, a Lewisville native, and held Ja’Quinden Jackson to just 37 rushing yards on 10 attempts. Arkansas punter Devin Bale finished second on the team in rushing yards thanks to a 25-yard dash in the first quarter on a trick play that set up Jackson’s touchdown run. The Aggies blew up Arkansas’ second trick play attempt of the third quarter for a turnover on downs when Bale took a field goal attempt and tried to run for a first down.

“We didn’t get off to a good start,” Elko said. “Today we didn’t start very well. But we went out and played a great second half. Sometimes it goes like this. You just battled through the ebb and flow of the game.

Arkansas took multiple one-score leads (the first on an opening drive touchdown pass from Green to Isaac TeSlaa, the second on a touchdown run from Duncanville native Jackson on his third possession) in the first quarter before the Aggies tied the game on a five-yard touchdown run by Reed, set up by a forced fumble by Shemar Stewart, three plays earlier in the second.

The Aggies then ended five of their next drives with punts and totaled just 48 yards of offense in the third quarter. The two teams combined for 15 points. Texas A&M redshirt freshman Tyler White – a former Southlake Carroll standout who helped the Dragons to a baseball state championship two years ago – punted nine times for 388 yards and pinned the Razorbacks seven times inside their own 20-yard line; Arkansas scored just once — on a fourth-quarter field goal by Kyle Ramsey that gave it a 17-14 lead with 4:12 left in the game — on drives that started after a white punt.

“Not only was he effective as a punter,” Elko said, “but he also kicked the right way so we could control field position.”

“Every time you play a trophy game, every time you play a rivalry game, you want to walk away with it,” Elko said. “That thing will be in your building for a year and that certainly means a lot to the team. If this is the last time we play this series here, then we know we have left with the trophy.”