AUSTIN, Texas — The excitement around the Texas vs. Texas A&M game returned to the 40 acres this weekend. After students camped outside the stadium to secure prime seats, the tailgate lots were full up with Longhorns and Aggies fans alike.

“Go Horns!” exclaimed Darrick Price from UT Tailgaters, celebrating the reunion with “little brother.” Laura McWha, a Texas A&M fan, added, “WHOOP!!” as Aggies traveled from College Station for the game.

Price noted, “It feels amazing. We’re so happy that little brother’s back in town.” The rivalry, restored last year, has friends and family rooting against each other in what is the biggest home game for Texas this year. “I have a senior now who’s considering which school he wants to go to, and I just think it means everything for this city,” Price said.

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McWha expressed confidence, saying, “We’ve been doing great this season….We’re gonna show what we’ve got.”

This was about as fiery as the smack talk got today as fans enjoyed communing with their frenemies in the lots.

Lanece Marley, another A&M fan, shared, “I think it’s wonderful. We love coming. We love celebrating with these guys.”

Hannah Morgan, an Austin-native and Aggie grad, reflected on her divided household, saying, “Oh yes I know what it means. It means everything to us.” With a father and brother who went to UT-Austin, Morgan says she successfully converted her mother over to rooting for the Aggies. Morgan also anticipated the game, stating, “I think it’s going to be really sweet to get revenge… to beat them at home would be a big deal for us.”

Texas won last year’s matchup in College Station, which was the first meeting between the two schools since 2011.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – Football is a big tradition on Thanksgiving Day, and while the Aggies didn’t play, the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets were helping the team get ready by going on a journey to Austin.

Around 80 members of the corps gathered at a lot near Kyle Field at 7:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, where they would begin a 100-mile relay-style event. Broken up into teams, they’ll run to the Corps’ march staging area in Austin, escorted by police, with the plan to be there by 11 a.m.

From there, they will march in with the fightin’ Texas Aggie Band to finish the delivery.

“The goal of this is to be able to inspire the next generation of Aggies and to be able to encourage the entire campus. The entire Aggie network is brought together because we, as the Corps, were inspiring and helping our Aggie team, the football team, as they get ready to take on Texas,” said Carson Seiber, a member of the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets and event coordinator.

Seiber said since he was a freshman who learned A&M would be playing Texas in Austin his senior year, it was his dream to bring back the tradition that he said started over two decades ago.

“I had this dream, and I kind of talked to people, and now that it’s my senior year, I really had an idea about why not bring the tradition back, why not kind of leave a mark, leave a legacy on the Corp and Texas A&M that hasn’t really happened in a long time,” Seiber said.

The plan really finalized itself about a week ago, but was pitched two months ago. He said what really separates Texas A&M University from every other school is its core values.

“I think it’s been really cool to see the fact that when the Aggies are successful, we see our Aggies support each other, but also in times when are Aggies have not been good at football or tragedies like bonefire, our Aggies are there in victory or defeat,” Seiber said.

The Aggies will take on the Texas Longhorns tomorrow at 6:30 p.m.

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TAYLOR, Texas — A proposed data center in Central Texas is getting a lot of pushback from residents. Approximately 40 minutes north of Austin, a group of neighbors in the city of Taylor sued the data center. They are pushing back against the data center that could soon be under construction roughly 500 feet from their neighborhood.

“This property is supposed to be deeded for parkland,” said Pamela Griffin, a resident in the neighborhood next to where the data center will be built. “This land was given to this community.”

The 87-acre land near Griffin’s community is embroiled in a legal battle between her and Blueprint Data Centers.

“We do not need a data center,” Griffin said. “I’m not against them, but we don’t need them in our community.”

Despite Griffin’s land deed lawsuit, a Texas judge has ruled in favor of the proposed project.

“When a judge dismisses a lawsuit because the plaintiff or the plaintiffs lack standing, what the judge means is you’re not a person who has the legal authority to bring this lawsuit,” said Mike Golden, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Griffin and other neighbors argue the data center will take away natural resources like water and what was supposed to be the future site of a park, so her fight is not over.

“We are going to the appellate court now,” Griffin said. “We did file.”

Griffin is passionate about advocating for the community because it’s the neighborhood she was born and raised in. Her grandmother bought property there in the early 1960s, and the community became a safe haven for Black people in Taylor.

“We weren’t allowed to be in the city limits at that time because they would not sell to the Black and brown community, so my grandmother realized they had to buy land outside,” she said.

She worries about the future of her small community now that construction of a 135,000-square-foot data center will begin within the next year.

It’s a project the city says will bring millions in revenue to Taylor.

“What data centers do to a community is it brings an influx of new revenue to all the taxing entities, including the city, the county and especially the school district,” said Ben White, the president and CEO of the Taylor Economic Development Corporation.

He explained how the revenue might benefit the city.

“City council will have the ultimate say on how those revenues are spent, but it could involve new parks for citizens, improve streets for the citizens, improve programs for the citizens,” he said. “There’ll be a lot of variety of different uses of those funds the council could decide to use them on.”

White also addressed the controversy surrounding the deed when asked about it by Spectrum News.

“We feel comfortable that EDC, we did everything correctly on our side,” he said.

Griffin now awaits the Third Court of Appeals to decide on her case.

“I’m asking for the community and the Taylor people to stick together and understand my fight against this data center coming into our community,” Griffin said.