Texas A&M Aggies vs. Texas Longhorns: What the Stats Say

At long last, the Lone Star Showdown has finally returned to the gridiron.

On Saturday night, the Texas A&M Aggies will host the Texas Longhorns for the first time since 2011, renewing a feud that had been lost due to conference realignment. Despite the Aggies' heartbreaking loss to the Auburn Tigers last week, the winner of this game will go to the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta to face the Georgia Bulldogs next week. With College Gameday in town for the occasion, it's shaping up to be a prime time thriller.

As always, let's look at the numbers to see who might have the edge.

When looking at the Longhorns' numbers, the thing that immediately stands out is their defense. Texas allows an average of 247.5 total yards (first in SEC), 143.5 passing yards (first), 104 rushing yards (fourth) and 12.1 points (first) per game. Leading the SEC in three of four major stats, and ranking near the top of the country as well, is very impressive, and shows just how dangerous this team can be.

Texas' offfense isn't quite as statistically dominant, but still impressive. The Longhorns average 449.4 total yards (fourth), 279.7 passing yards (fourth), 169.6 rushing yards (eighth) and 36.5 points (third) per game. It is worth noting, though, that Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers is nursing an injury that could affect him and the offense as a whole.

The Aggies' stats don't paint as pretty of a picture. Outside of their rushing offense that averages 208.4 yards per game (second), they're near the middle of the pack in most key stats, even below that on defense. Still, they've won most of their games this season in spite of that, so they're absolutely capable of winning this one.

The Aggies trail the all-time series 76-37-5. Last time these two teams met, the Aggies lost 27-25 on a last-second field goal, so they'll look for a bit of long-overdue revenge in this game.