Why Marcel Reed’s Texas talk is good for college football
Reed put his name behind the Texas rivalry before a Nov. 27 rematch in College Station. The rankings, last season’s records and A&M’s closing schedule show exactly what his promise will require.
The Pate StateMarcel Reed said what a Texas A&M quarterback ought to say about Texas. He doesn’t like the Longhorns, he’s bothered by losing to them twice, and he plans to make them pay when they come to College Station.
Good.
I’m not asking players to manufacture personal hostility or carry football anger into the rest of their lives. I’m asking them to treat a rivalry as more serious than a content opportunity followed by a jersey swap. College football has spent enough time sanding down its sharp edges. Reed put one back.
“That's how it should be. That's how it used to be. It's how it could be again.”
Texas has beaten his team twice. The next meeting is Friday, Nov. 27, at 7:30 p.m. ET in College Station. He’ll have to stand behind every word before his home crowd, with the regular season ending under the lights.
Talk all you want about somebody you’re scheduled to play. The game supplies its own accountability.
Reed is talking from the lower-ranked side. Texas enters 2026 at No. 5 in the AP poll and No. 4 in the Coaches Poll. Texas A&M is No. 8 in both. That gap makes the statement bolder, but it doesn’t make the Aggies a hopeful long shot. A&M finished 2025 at 11-2 overall and 7-1 in the SEC. Texas finished 10-3 and 6-2.
So name the harm.
The counterargument is that Reed has created bulletin-board material. Fine. Texas already wanted to beat Texas A&M. The Longhorns weren’t going to arrive in College Station indifferent because somebody handed them a printout. Rivalry games don’t require outside motivation, and any program that needs a quarterback’s comment to care about this one has a much larger problem.
The harder part for A&M comes before Texas. The Aggies play at South Carolina on Nov. 7, host Tennessee on Nov. 14 and visit Oklahoma on Nov. 21. That’s three straight SEC games, two on the road, before a six-day turnaround into the rivalry. Texas spends Nov. 21 at home against Arkansas before making the trip.
A loss in that stretch could change what is at stake beyond the rivalry itself. None of that softens his words.
The best comparison is the rivalry I already hold above the rest. Ohio State enters 2026 at 12-2 and ranked No. 1. Michigan enters at 9-4 and ranked No. 16. They’ll play Nov. 28 at noon, and nobody needs those records or rankings to match before treating the game like it matters. Competitive hatred sustains that rivalry even when the teams arrive from different places.
That’s what the jersey-swap peace treaty misses. Respect doesn’t require public friendliness before the game has been played. There will be decades after football for former rivals to fish together, trade stories and laugh about what they once said. While they’re wearing maroon and burnt orange, I want the loss to bother them.
Reed’s words get graded at 7:30 p.m. ET on Nov. 27. He still owes the performance.
— JP