Texas A&M’s 2023 bowl game has officially been announced, as the 7-5 Aggies will stay in Texas to take on the 20th-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys in the TexAct Texas Bowl on Wednesday, Dec. 27, where the game will be held in NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, and air on ESPN.
First reported by Action Network’s Brett McMurphy on Sunday, many of us in the media, including a bulk of the Aggie fan base, felt like this would be the most realistic destination. At the same time, this will be the 29th matchup with the Cowboys, owning an 18-10 record in the all-time series.
On Saturday, it was announced that senior wide receiver Ainias Smith may have played his final game in an Aggie uniform after reportedly breaking his finger in the loss to LSU last weekend, as one of the greatest receivers in Texas A&M history still has a year of eligibility remaining if we returned in 2024.
After quarterback Max Johnson announced that he would transfer to North Carolina, sophomore signal caller Jaylen Henderson will start his fourth game of the year in the Texas Bowl, looking to rebound after failing to out-deal LSU quarterback and probable Heisman winner Jayden Daniels.
Headed down to H-Town 👍
The Aggies will be making their fourth appearance in the @TexasBowl.
🆚 Oklahoma State
📺 ESPN
📆 Dec. 27
🕗 8 p.m. CT pic.twitter.com/lcxGWUoLbE— Texas A&M Football (@AggieFootball) December 3, 2023
Oklahoma State and long-time head coach Mike Gundy finished 9-4 after falling to Texas in the Big 12 Championship game. After sustaining embarrassing losses to South Alabama and UCF, Gundy aided the Cowboys in finding their offensive identity in the run game behind stand-out running back Ollie Gordon II (1,614 rushing yards, 20 TDs), winning seven out of their last eight games.
This will be the first game between both programs since meeting in the 2019 Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl in 2019, where the Aggies, behind then-starting quarterback Kellen Mond, helped defeat the Cowboys 24-21.
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