Kyle Field - College Station, Texas    Nov. 26, 2009     Attendance: 84,671

Over the course of a lifetime, a few games stick with you, either for excellence or for pluck or for theater or for being just plain old fun to watch.    

The Thanksgiving night performance by the Longhorns and Aggies — won by the undefeated Horns, 49-39, in thrilling fashion on a cool evening in College Station — will hold such a spot in the hearts and minds of those who spent three-and-a-half hours engaged with the two teams.    

With the win before a turkey-stuffed national television audience and 84,671 fans at Kyle Field, the Horns completed a perfect regular season run, capped a Big 12 South title and headed to the conference championship game on a wave of exhilaration.    

A&M, spurred by the remembrance of the bonfire tragedy 10 years hence and buoyed by the rivalry that defines its traditions, turned in perhaps its best performance of an uneven season.    

The 88 combined points for the two teams is the most ever in the 116-game series — Texas improved to 75-36-5 all-time against A&M, including 42-18-2 on Thanksgiving and 24-22-2 in games in College Station.    

Texas’ Colt McCoy dueled with the Aggies’ Jerrod Johnson in a big-play smorgasbord that McCoy eventually won. McCoy threw for 304 yards and four touchdowns and ran for a career-high 175 yards and a scintillating 65-yard touchdown on a quarterback draw. His 479 yards of total offense was the third-best effort in school history behind Vince Young’s 506 yards against Oklahoma State in 2005 and McCoy’s 483 yards against Central Florida earlier this season. McCoy accounted for 341 yards of total offense (222 passing, 119 rushing) in the first half alone.    

Still, Johnson matched him virtually throw for throw and step for step, passing for 342 yards and four scores and running for 97 yards, including an anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-too 43-yard rush on a dash up the middle.    

“Everyone got a treat to see two quarterbacks play well, two offenses play well and two defenses try to hang in there and fight to make the play,” coach Mack Brown said. “I’m proud of the guys and proud of the way they continue to find a way to win.”    

This game was defined by the excellent play of the two teams’ quarterbacks, but there was so much more that made the game special — namely the Horns’ ability to establish the run game (both with and without McCoy), its knack for the big play on defense and the way the UT special teams moved to the forefront with the game on the line.    

The Aggies stunned Texas early with a 70-yard scoring bomb from Johnson to Jeff Fuller on the game’s third offensive snap. The Horns’ defensive breakdown was a sign of things to come. “We didn’t get the stops we needed to on third down, and we had a lot of miscommunication,” defensive coordinator Will Muschamp said. “We didn’t execute, and we didn’t tackle very well.”    

Texas answered the Aggies with a 12-play, 67-yard drive that culminated in McCoy’s 14-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Shipley. Then, early in the second quarter, McCoy read a blitz from the outside, got a great seal block from tackle Adam Ulatoski and burst through the A&M defense for his 65-yard score, his longest ever and the third longest ever by a UT quarterback.    

That flurry of scores set the stage for the wild, back-and-forth offensive affair. Texas had 398 yards of total offense in the first half but still led by only seven points. After a season in which the UT defense seemed able to win games virtually by itself at times, the offense would have to keep its foot to the floor to secure this victory.    

“To be able to communicate the way we did, handle the environment and stay in rhythm — that’s pretty special,” McCoy said. “You have to give A&M credit. They hung in and fought, and that’s what you’re going to get in a rivalry game.”    

Indeed. The Longhorns racked up 597 total yards on offense but surrendered 532 to surging A&M, a team that can play with anybody when executing on offense as they did against the Horns.    

“There were a couple of big plays that got away from us early on and late in the game,” A&M linebacker Mike Hodges said. “If we eliminated some of those big-time plays, the ball game wouldn’t have gotten away from us at the end.”    

The Horns now turn their attention to Nebraska — which won its fifth straight game by beating Colorado, 28-20 — in the conference championship in Arlington Dec. 5. A win in that game will send Texas back to Pasadena for the BCS Championship.