Marcel Reed has something for Texas. The Texas A&M quarterback said so himself, and the words landed in Austin this week like a late hit that never quite lands.
“We don’t like Texas. I don’t like Texas. It sucks that we’ve lost to them twice,” Reed told USA Today. “But, they’re coming here this year, so they’re gonna have to pay. I’ve got something for them, for sure.”
The comments came from an April conversation that USA Today just published as the Aggies prepared to open the 2026 season. Reed also made it personal with the color scheme.
He called burnt orange ugly and said you have to hate Texas because that is what rivals do. Fair enough. Hatred has always been part of this series. Results have been another matter.
Since the rivalry returned in 2024, Texas has taken both meetings. The Longhorns won 17-7 at Kyle Field two years ago and followed it with a 27-17 victory in Austin last November that ended A&M’s undefeated regular season and kept the Aggies out of the SEC Championship Game for a second straight year.
Reed started both of those losses. He has thrown for more than 3,000 yards and run for nearly 500 in a season that made him a Heisman name, yet the two games that matter most to Aggie fans have gone the other way.
That is the backdrop for the November 27 rematch in College Station. Reed is promising payback on his home field. Longhorns fans have heard versions of this speech before.
The last time Texas walked into Kyle Field, it left with a win that punched a ticket to Atlanta. Last year in Austin, Arch Manning and a defense that forced Reed into mistakes finished the job after trailing at the half. The pattern is not complicated. Texas has answered the talk on the field.
None of this means the Longhorns will stroll into College Station in three months and collect another trophy. Rivalry games in November rarely work that way, especially when one side has spent the offseason rehearsing its grievances.
Reed’s comments will live on locker-room walls in Austin whether anyone prints them or not. Burnt orange may look ugly to him. It looked just fine hanging in the visitors’ locker room at Kyle Field and even better under the lights at DKR last Thanksgiving weekend.
Texas opens its own season soon enough. The focus in Austin stays on the next opponent, the next practice, the next chance to prove the last two meetings were not accidents. Reed can hate the color. He can circle the date. He can promise that the Longhorns will have to pay.
The bill from the last two visits is already paid. The next one comes due on November 27. Until then, the words are just words. The scoreboard has been doing the talking.
