The Texas A&M Aggies’ season ended in bitter disappointment on Friday, falling to the USC Trojans 35-31 and blowing a 17-point lead in the second half.

If the story of collapsing down the stretch sounds familiar, then it should, because that’s basically the story of the Aggies’ 2024 season.

It feels like a lifetime ago now, but the Aggies entered November ranked No. 10 in the AP Poll with a 7-1 record, having just beaten the LSU Tigers 38-23 at home in a pivotal SEC game. They were all alone atop the SEC standings with a 5-0 record in conference play, and essentially controlled their destiny in the College Football Playoff race.

Then the collapse began, as A&M went 1-3 in its final four regular season games. First came a 44-20 drubbing against the South Carolina Gamecocks on Nov. 2, then a 43-41 heartbreaker in four overtimes against the Auburn Tigers on Nov. 23, and finally a 17-7 dud where the offense could do nothing against the Texas Longhorns on Nov. 30. A&M’s lone win in this stretch came on Nov. 16 against the New Mexico State Aggies, a Conference USA team that finished the season 3-9.

Now with the loss to USC, A&M’s late-season collapse is now complete. The worst part? This is nothing new.

There have been far too many instances in recent history, particularly during the Kevin Sumlin era, of the Aggies starting a season hot and utterly falling apart by the end. In 2014 and 2015, they started 5-0 and finished 8-5. In 2016, they started 6-0 and finished 8-5. Last year, they started 4-1 and finished 7-6. You get the idea by now.

First-year head coach Mike Elko showed promise this season but ended up falling into the same trap as his predecessors. Going forward, he knows he must do a better job of finishing, both individual games and the season as a whole.

“We are just not good enough right now,” Elko said. “The challenge is, when we get back here in January, everything has to get turned up. We are now where we need to be from a cultural standpoint. Now we have to become a good football program. That is the next step that we have to take.”

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HOUSTON (AP) — At least two people were killed and six more injured as several tornadoes touched down in Texas and Mississippi on Saturday, damaging homes and flipping vehicles.

One person died in the Liverpool area, located south of Houston, and four people suffered injuries that weren’t considered critical, said Madison Polston, spokesperson for the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office.

Polston said there were “multiple touchdown points” in the county between Liverpool and Hillcrest Village and Alvin. She said that so far officials knew of around 10 damaged homes but were still working to determine the extent of the damage.

In Mississippi, one person died in Adams County and two people were injured in Franklin County, according to a spokesperson for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.

“These storms are probably going to get a lot worse this evening and overnight the further east you go,” said Josh Lichter, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

It appeared that at least six tornadoes touched down in the Houston area, though they may discover there were more when crews go out to survey the damage, Litcher said. He said there was damage in the area from both tornadoes and straight-line winds.

North of Houston, mobile homes were damaged or destroyed in Katy and Porter Heights, where the doors of a fire station were blown in, the weather service said.

The storms also caused departure delays of over an hour Saturday afternoon at Houston’s two main airports — Bush Intercontinental and Hobby — according to the website FlightAware.

About 71,000 utility customers were without power in Mississippi, and that number was expected to rise, said Malary White, chief communications officer for the state’s Emergency Management Agency.

The agency did not have any official damage reports but expected them to come in later. First responders were focused on ensuring people’s safety and making sure everyone was accounted for, according to White.

“We do anticipate more thorough damage assessments starting in the early morning hours,” she said.

Former Texas Longhorns wide receiver Johntay Cook has found his next home.

And it is with a familiar foe.

According to reports from On3’s Hayes Fawcett, Cook has committed to the Washington Huskies, picking the Big Ten team over pursuit from Florida.

The Longhorns, of course, fell to the Huskies in the 2023 College Football Playoff semi-finals, coming up just short of a national title appearance as a result.

The 5-foot-11, 175-pound speedster had originally been predicted to stay in the SEC and sign with the Florida Gators. That said, with the Huskies, he should have a tremendous opportunity to be the No. 1 receiver in the program.

Cook II, a five-star prospect in the 2023 recruiting class, had just eight catches for 137 yards and two touchdowns this season. He had three catches for 35 yards and two scores in the win over UTSA on Sept. 14.

There was an expectation entering the 2024 season that Cook II would see an increased role after minimal usage as a freshman but has instead become buried on a depth chart that features Isaiah Bond, Matthew Golden, DeAndre Moore Jr., Silas Bolden, and true freshman standout Ryan Wingo.

Cook ranked as the No. 31 player in the nation, No. 3 wide receiver and No. 5 player in the state of Texas for his class. As a transfer, he ranks as the No. 44 player available in the portal and the No. 14 wide receiver.

Cook ends his Longhorns career with just 16 catches for 273 yards and two touchdowns across two seasons.

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