Nearly everyone has a Thanksgiving tradition, whether it be traveling to a new part of the world, splitting into teams for a family game of touch football post-feast, or sleeping off the tryptophan with the chatter of football commentators in the background. For me, the only real tradition that has survived over the past six or seven years is the annual UT-A&M football game, which conveniently has a kick-off shortly after everyone's Thanksgiving indulgence. This year's game was bittersweet. These two fantastic football programs have met for the past 119 years on Thanksgiving for a storied and sharp rivalry game. A great deal of lore, superstition, and tradition surrounds the entire game, including the Aggie's yell practice and the Longhorn's hex rally. This year, however, was the last of all of this for the foreseeable future as Texas A&M will be joining the Southeastern Conference starting the 2012 season. With a winning record for this game under its belt, the Longhorns still wanted to send off the Aggies with a stinging defeat, but the capacity to do so was dubious with inexperienced quarterbacks, an inconsistent offensive line, and the loss of Fozzy Whittaker. Somehow, however, the Longhorns closed on the Aggies early lead and, with three seconds left in the game, kicked a game-winning field goal to settle the score between the schools. With a 76-37-5 record, the Texas Longhorns left the rivarly behind in College Station with a defeated Aggie team in its dust: enjoy the SEC Ags.
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