South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier is never one to mince words, and today at SEC Football Media Days was business as usual for him.
Responding to a question about Texas A&M and their status in the SEC, Spurrier took the opportunity to give his opinion on the dormant Texas-Texas A&M rivalry.
“I think it’s a shame that Texas and Texas A&M don’t play each other, though. I don’t mind saying that,” Spurrier said. “Two schools that have been playing for over a hundred years, just because one of them joins another conference, get mad at each other, we’re not playing you anymore, we’re not playing you anymore. So I don’t know. I think it is sad.”
Steve Spurrier went on to point out that some of the in-state rivalries in the SEC are still being played.
“Florida plays Florida State. We play Clemson. Georgia plays Georgia Tech. We’re in different conferences, but they are in‑state rivals. The fans want to see that, to me. They want to see you beat the guys next door, the neighbors. I think it is sad. I know they’re not going to play each other. That’s just my opinion anyway.”
If you’ll recall, Texas A&M left the Big 12 Conference for the SEC in 2011 and haven’t faced the Longhorns since. Prior to that, Texas A&M and Texas had squared off annually since 1915.
But with the two now in separate conferences, they aren’t scheduled to play and likely won’t be in the near future. Last year, former Texas athletics director DeLoss Dodds said “we get to decide when we play again.” That was followed up this year by new AD Steve Patterson who said UT needs a “compelling reason” to play the Aggies.
New Longhorns head coach Charlie Strong offered the opposite opinion at his introductory press conference, saying “oh yeah, you would love to” when asked about rekindling the series with the rival Aggies.
Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin and athletics director Eric Hyman have been less chatty on the subject of the Longhorns. But maybe we’ll hear something when the Aggies hit the spotlight this afternoon.