Texas

‘Ain’t nobody here.’ Texas A&M takes pride in emptying another SEC stadium

Published

5 months ago

November 8, 2025

Press Room

‘Ain’t nobody here.’ Texas A&M takes pride in emptying another SEC stadium

After Texas A&M routs Missouri, Aggies have stadium to themselves.
Texas A&M underachieved for years. Mike Elko redirected the course.
Aggies aren’t unblemished. Elko calls run defense ‘awful.’

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Rueben Owens II scored his second touchdown late in the fourth quarter, and he looked into the stands expecting to see fans. He saw rows of empty seats.

“I was like, ‘Dang, there ain’t nobody here,” Owens, the Texas A&M running back, said.

That’s the sign of a rout in motion.

Then Owens shifted his gaze toward the southeast corner of Missouri’s Memorial Stadium. He saw packed stands in that nook. That’s where Aggies fans congregated and celebrated as No. 3 Texas A&M pulled away in a 38-17 romp over No. 17 Missouri.

“That just shows a lot of love from the 12th Man,” Owens said.

The wind whipped, and the temperature plummeted after the sun set. That tends to happen on fall nights in the Midwest. Combine the elements with the increasingly lopsided score, and most Missouri fans headed for warmth or to pursue something more pleasurable to the eye.

Those wearing maroon and white in the southeast corner still wouldn’t leave, even after the clock showed 0:00. They cheered and they chanted, and wide receiver KC Concepcion decided he’d join the party. He ascended the steps from the field and gave the fans what they wanted: another reason to chant and cheer.

“KC! KC! KC!” they chanted.

Aggies fans waited too long for a season like this.

It’s not finished yet, but pinch yourself, because it’s the second weekend of November, and Texas A&M hasn’t folded. To the contrary, these Aggies grow stronger. They’re undefeated. They’re on a march toward Atlanta.

Mike Elko reminded of why he took Texas A&M job

This is what’s long been expected of a program steeped in financial resources, blessed with gleaming facilities, backed by loyal fans and rooted in fertile recruiting terrain.

And it became a rite of summer we’d vault the Aggies into some lofty position in preseason polls. And it became a rite of November we’d say another Texas A&M team showed itself to be overhyped.

As one coach after another failed, we kept considering this a top-shelf job. Because, never mind the history, why shouldn’t this program succeed?

That’s what Mike Elko thought when he succeeded Jimbo Fisher.

“From a CEO perspective, obviously I believe this is what this program is capable of,” Elko said. “That’s why we’re here. We’re here because we believe in the ceiling of this program.”

“This is kind of what everyone had been talking about with this program for a long time,” Elko added. “For nine games we’ve lived up to it. Now, we’ve got to go finish.”

Mike Elko is done talking about the past

They’re already finishing better than how they did last season, when a three-loss November spoiled an otherwise solid debut to Elko’s tenure.

Throughout the offseason and into the preseason, one word became a mantra around the program.

Finish.

By now, Elko’s tired of hearing about last season’s collapse. When a reporter referenced the events of last November, Elko waved it aside.

“Is this our weekly last year question?” he said, a tad miffed at the query.

He’s also a tad miffed at his run defense. Missouri’s 207 rushing yards stood out as a blemish on this result. Asked how the Aggies handled the running back tandem of Ahmad Hardy and Jamal Roberts, Elko offered a succinct assessment.

“Awful,” he said.

An unfinished product, these Aggies, but an undefeated one.

“The culture of this group is really strong,” Elko said. “The work that they put into this thing is really strong. They believe in each other, and they believe in what we’re doing.”

Texas A&M’s vulnerabilities on defense help explain why the College Football Playoff committee ranked it behind Ohio State and Indiana, even though the Aggies own better strength of schedule and strength of record metrics.

That feedback from the committee “motivated us a lot,” linebacker Daymion Sanford said. The Aggies allowed fewer points against Missouri than they did in their past two wins, but an asterisk accompanies that achievement. Missouri started its third-string quarterback, Matt Zollers, and its pass game became a conquest of incompletions.

Why let asterisks and caveats interfere with a celebration in the stands, though? Just as Texas A&M did at LSU, the Aggies kept scoring until the stands cleared, ‘til all who remained supported the road team.

“I love to see that,” Sanford said. “With our fans, it almost feels like it’s a home game for us, every time we clear out the fans.”

That leaves one road game on Texas A&M’s schedule. It will play at rival Texas on Black Friday.

That leaves one to wonder, when Owens looks into the stands in Austin late in the fourth quarter, what will he see?

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.

Source link

Click to comment

Texas

TribCast: Inside Texas’ massive ICE detention facilities

Published

3 hours ago

March 24, 2026

Press Room

TribCast: Inside Texas’ massive ICE detention facilities

As the Trump administration ramps up immigration enforcement, Texas has come to play a central role in hosting the detained migrants. Texas is home to the largest ICE detention center, a sprawling tent city on the edge of Fort Bliss in El Paso known as Camp East Montana, and the only family detention center, outside San Antonio.

Almost 20,000 people are currently detained at ICE facilities in Texas. Many of the detainees have reported poor conditions, including inadequate food, insufficient medical care and overcrowding. At least seven migrants have died in Texas lockups in just the last few months.

To discuss the current state of ICE detentions, TribCast is joined by Texas Tribune political reporter Alejandro Serrano and investigative reporter Lomi Kriel, who have been covering the fallout.

Watch the video above or subscribe to the TribCast on iTunes, Spotify, or RSS. New episodes every Tuesday.

Source link

Texas

Large blast at Valero oil refinery in Texas sends smoke, flames into the air

Published

15 hours ago

March 24, 2026

Press Room

Large blast at Valero oil refinery in Texas sends smoke, flames into the air

March 24, 2026 / 4:39 AM EDT
/ CBS/AP

A large explosion at a Valero oil refinery near the Texas Gulf coast Monday shot plumes of smoke into the air and forced some nearby residents to shelter in place.

But Port Arthur Mayor Charlotte Moses told CBS News, “We had no fatalities and no injuries! Valero is working diligently to contain the fire and currently we have no air quality issues.”

Still, she urged residents in parts of the west side of the city to say put.

In this still image taken from a video provided by KBMT, smoke rises near the Valero Port Arthur Refinery in Port Arthur, Texas on March 23, 2026.

KBMT via AP

Refinery spokesperson Carol Herbert told CBS News, “All personnel have been accounted for. Valero’s emergency response team is responding and coordinating with local authorities. … As always, the safety of our workers is our top priority.”

The explosion comes amid a spike in gas prices driven by uncertainty over the global oil supply because of the Iran war.

The refinery has about 770 employees and can process about 435,000 barrels of oil per day, according to Valero’s website. The plant refines heavy sour crude oil into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

Images and video posted online show a large plume of smoke and flames billowing out from the refinery. Some residents reported hearing a loud boom and seeing their windows shake.

“For your safety please remain in place until the ‘All Clear’ is given by emergency personnel,” the City of Port Arthur said in a post on its Facebook page.

Valero didn’t respond to an email or call from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Texas state Rep. Christian Manuel said in a post on social media that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality had arrived at the refinery with air monitoring equipment and was working with local and state partners.

He told nearby residents to stay inside.

“Please limit outdoor activity, keep windows and doors closed, and follow guidance from local officials,” he said.

Port Arthur is about 90 miles east of Houston.

In:

Source link

Texas

Supreme Court rejects appeal from online citizen journalist over her arrest in Texas

Published

1 day ago

March 23, 2026

Press Room

Supreme Court rejects appeal from online citizen journalist over her arrest in Texas

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the appeal of a Texas-based online citizen journalist who said she was wrongly arrested in a case that drew attention from national media organizations and free speech advocates.

The justices left in place a divided federal appeals court ruling that found journalist Priscilla Villarreal, known online as La Gordiloca, could not sue police officers and other officials over her arrest for seeking and obtaining nonpublic information from police.

READ MORE: Supreme Court rejects appeal from Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed over DNA testing

Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, writing, “It should be obvious that this arrest violated the First Amendment.”

The high court has previously directed the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review Villareal’s case in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling in another case from Texas. In June 2024, the justices gave a former local elected official another chance to pursue her lawsuit claiming she too was wrongly arrested.

In that case, Sylvia Gonzalez, a former city council member in the San Antonio suburb of Castle Hills, said she was arrested in retaliation as part of a dispute with a political rival.

LISTEN: Supreme Court considers late-arriving mail ballot laws in case that may affect midterms

But the 5th Circuit essentially stood by its earlier ruling and this time, the justices declined to intervene without explanation. “The Fifth Circuit has doubled down on granting officials free rein to turn routine news reporting into a felony,” Villareal’s lawyers wrote in their Supreme Court appeal.

A state judge had previously dismissed the criminal case against Villareal, saying the law used to arrest her in 2017 was unconstitutional. She then sought to sue the officials for damages. The full 5th Circuit ruled 9-7 that officials Villarreal sued in Laredo and Webb County were entitled to legal immunity.

Villarreal had sought — and obtained from a police officer — the identities of a person who killed himself and a family involved in a car accident and published the information on Facebook. The arrest affidavit said she sought the information to gain Facebook followers.

A free press is a cornerstone of a healthy democracy.

Support trusted journalism and civil dialogue.

Source link