During the Texas A&M standoff, the trash talk and meltdowns lived online
If you log onto TexAgs.com, Texas A&M’s popular fandom hub, and peruse the message boards, it won’t take long before you find a mention of the Aggies’ most hated rival: Texas.
On the TexAgs premium board, where tens of thousands of paying subscribers gather to talk Aggies football, the longest message board thread with the most comments is titled “Horn Meltdown Thread.” It consists of 326 pages and as of Wednesday had more than 11,000 messages since the thread started in February. There has been a Horn Meltdown Thread every year since 2014.
Type Orangebloods.com – a top destination for Longhorns fans since 2001 – into your web browser and walk up to the subscription board. There’s a thread dedicated to discussing Texas A&M football news, where Longhorns rejoice when the Aggies stumble. The current one started in October 2022, has 871 pages and more than 30,000 posts.
In the case of Texas and Texas A&M, their 13-year difference on the football field has only fueled the hatred in their 118-year-old rivalry. Why? Because the rivalry lived online, through message boards and social media.
With the Longhorns and Aggies meeting Saturday night for the first time since 2011 – and a berth to the SEC Championship Game on the line – anticipation and intensity are high on Orangebloods, TexAgs and fans’ favorite social media platforms.
“The rivalry was just too big to go away,” said Robert Behrens, a Texas A&M graduate, editor-in-chief of A&M fan website Good Bull Hunting and prolific poster of Aggies statistics. “People had to push their anger somewhere.”
Let’s start with one of the biggest reasons the rivalry has simmered in certain corners of the internet over the years: proximity.
The campuses of Texas and Texas A&M are approximately 100 miles apart. They are the two largest universities in the state with the two largest alumni bases. Their graduates share office space, fantasy football leagues and even dining tables. The game may have been extinct after Texas A&M left the Big 12 to join the SEC in 2012, but the trash talk never really stopped, online or off, in the decade-plus before Texas joined the Aggies in the SEC added.
“You can’t expect Aggies and Longhorns to not be in each other’s lives, every day, at Thanksgiving, in families, in workplaces, in friendships,” said Billy Liucci, editor-in-chief of TexAgs.com. “The game may disappear, but there are still Longhorns and Aggies who grew up loving each other.”
But, Liucci said, “You’ve had two fan bases that have prayed for the other’s demise for 13 years.”
In 2019, Anwar Richardson, who covers Texas for Orangebloods, wrote a column advocating for the Aggies and Longhorns to resume their rivalry play. The reception from many of those who commented on the story was icy.
“Just like little children, they picked up their ball and ran home. Fuck them,” said one poster.
Another said: “No No No. Never Never Never. Drop it, Texas should never play them in any sport again. They left and talked along the way.”
“There were fourteen pages of comments telling him, ‘You’re an idiot, stay the course, you don’t know what you’re talking about,’” says Geoff Ketchum, the publisher and owner of Orangebloods.
The recruitment also kept things spicy between the Aggies and Longhorns. While they haven’t competed on the field, the schools have gone head-to-head with dozens of recruits. The state of Texas is one of the most fertile recruiting grounds in the country, and Texas and Texas A&M typically pursue the state’s top prospects.
Message boards are prime for rumors, especially in recruiting, where concrete information about the intentions of high school football stars can be elusive. Orangebloods and TexAgs are the basis for tracking Texas and Texas A&M recruiting, especially when the schools face each other. And not just through message board rumors; both sites are fully staffed with reporters covering the football teams and recruiting, spreading real information to subscribers.
“That has certainly kept the conversation going,” said Brandon Jones, president and CEO of TexAgs. “That’s where these little victories would happen: who wins which recruits?”
The intensity of high-profile recruiting battles even once led to a public spat between Liucci and Ketchum. In January 2015, after a long-term commitment to Texas A&M, Kyler Murray visited Texas, the two got into an argument on what was then known as Twitter.
It started with Ketchum inviting Liucci to his radio show (Liucci declined), and then a debate about the chances of Murray reversing his commitment to Texas (he didn’t). Then it got personal, complete with name-calling, professional questions and thinly veiled threats.
Liucci and Ketchum said they patched things up afterward and got along well. But it underlined how intense the rivalry could become online.
For the die-hards who don’t pay a monthly fee to post or read content on Orangebloods ($9.99 per month) or TexAgs ($16.99), X is also ripe for a back-and-forth.
Kyle Umlang, a data analyst and podcast host, became popular in Texas social media circles for his #AggieFactThursday posts, which are random facts and statistics about the uselessness of Texas A&M or the superiority of Texas.
It’s been 30 years since Texas A&M had consecutive 10-win seasons. #AggieFactThursday
— Kyle Umlang (@kyleumlang) November 21, 2024
10 winning seasons | Since 2000
19Oklahoma
11Texas
1Texas A&M#AggieFactThursday— Kyle Umlang (@kyleumlang) October 10, 2024
Umlang has written several books in this vein. The first was titled “101 Aggie Facts: Things Every Longhorn Should Know.” Three parts have been published. In August, Umlang announced its newest book, “The 2024 Aggie Fact Almanac,” which features more than 400 Aggies facts from Umlang.
Behrens, who began writing for Good Bull Hunting in 2013, is also embroiled in the social media statistical sword fight. On January 1, nearly two months after Texas A&M fired Jimbo Fisher but minutes after Washington defeated Texas in the College Football Playoff semifinals, Behrens posted a thoughtful emoji with an image comparing Fisher’s first three years at A&M to the Texas coach Steve Sarkisian’s first three years. near Texas.
— Robert Behrens (@rcb05) January 2, 2024
“I throw out a completely factual statement that clearly implies an opinion or what I’m trying to lead you to, but if someone tries to call me on it, I can just say, ‘Well, what did I say that was wrong?’ ?’” Behrens said. “I’m not going to say I’m always objective, because I have deep interests and biases. But I try to do it from a place that everyone can appreciate.”
Messages from Aggies or Longhorns about the other, no matter how sincere or insincere, usually provoke a response. Because – even if they haven’t played – the rivalry is still important to both sides.
“Each side will tell you, ‘Oh, we’re rent-free in their minds,’” says Amanda Atwell, a 2016 Texas graduate and former sports anchor who often posts about the Longhorns on X. “And they both rent spaces in each other’s clear your head. I think we can just admit that at this point.”
Liucci, Jones said, “loves to mix it up on social media with Texas fans.” Ketchum doesn’t shy away from it either.
“I jokingly call myself the No. 1 historian at Texas A&M,” Ketchum said. “I’ve seen it all. It’s a different perspective on their history, but for the last thirty years I know all the names, I know all the coaches, I’ve seen where all the bodies are buried. So it makes this weekend a lot of fun because I missed it.
“I missed Aggies. I missed the rivalry and just being in each other’s lives, literally every day. Life is better when these two have something against each other.”
Liucci had mixed feelings about the return of the rivalry before Texas moved to the SEC, but once the Longhorns did, the return of the game couldn’t come soon enough, he said. He’ll jump at the chance to claim superiority if the Aggies win Saturday, but he also knows what awaits him on social media if they lose.
“If you’re going to say it, you better back it up,” he said. “On Twitter, the vouchers are available to everyone, on both sides.
“Everyone just wants to show off.”
(Photo of Texas A&M’s Ben Malena in 2011: Darren Carroll/Getty Images)
