November 11, 2000
COLLEGE STATION, Texas-- In the span of 40 seconds, Oklahoma transformed itself from upset victim to upset survivor.
The No. 1-ranked Sooners retained their hopes of a perfect season Saturday, rallying to post a 35-31 victory over the 23rd-ranked Texas A&M football team before a state-of-Texas record crowd of 87,188 fans at Kyle Field.
"The bottom line is that we had a chance to win the game and didn't get it done," A&M sophomore quarterback Mark Farris said. "That is why they are the No. 1 team in the country. There was a lot of ups and downs in the game, but that is the way big games go."
A&M's lead reached as much as 14 early in the third quarter and, after Oklahoma cut the lead to three just seconds into the final frame, the Aggies went to their workhorse fullback, junior Ja'Mar Toombs, on the ensuing drive when faced with 4th-and-1 from the OU 27. Toombs broke through the line and then burst into the secondary, carrying several Oklahoma defenders the final 10 yards into the endzone for a dramatic touchdown. The score gave A&M a 31-21 advantage with 13 and a half minutes to go in the game.
"We were just trying to get the first down," Toombs said. "When I got in the open field, I knew the DB was going to try to hit me in the legs. I kept my balance and the last eight yards was just scratching and clawing."
OU (9-0, 6-0 Big 12) responded with an impressive 77-yard, 15-play drive, capping the march with a 2-yard Quentin Griffin touchdown plunge to cut the Aggie lead to three at 31-28 with 7:43 to play.
A tense crowd then watched as Oklahoma linebacker Torrance Marshall picked off a Mark Farris pass on the next play, then raced 41 yards into the endzone to give the Sooners a four-point lead they would not relinquish.
Texas A&M (7-3, 5-2) marched 76 yards down the field in an attempt to retake the lead, but a 4th-and-goal pass to senior wide receiver Chris Taylor in the end zone was tipped and fell just off his hands and out of reach. The Aggies would get the ball one last time, near midfield with 90 seconds to play, but could not convert on fourth down at their own 46.
"Obviously, I'm disappointed in the loss," Slocum said. "I thought our kids played extremely hard and I credit Oklahoma for making the plays they needed to make to win the football game. They did what is expected of a No. 1-ranked football team and our hats are off to them. I think the team battled throughout the ballgame. You can't fault our effort."
Special teams played a part in the game early, as junior defensive back Jay Brooks blocked his fourth punt of the season just five minutes into the game. Five plays later Farris, who was 18-of-37 on the day for 219 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions, called his own number and dove into the endzone from two yards out to give the Aggies an early 7-0 lead.
Oklahoma responded with a 31-yard Tim Duncan field goal and took the lead early in the second quarter when quarterback Josh Heupel bought time and found wide receiver Curtis Fagan in the end zone on a 7-yard touchdown pass. The Heisman Trophy candidate finished the afternoon 28-of-42 passing for 263 yards and a touchdown. He was sacked twice and threw two interceptions.
A&M would tie the score at 10-10 when senior placekicker Terence Kitchens connected from 37 yards out with 2:53 to go before the half. The scoring play was set up by a big interception by senior linebacker Jason Glenn, who took the ball from the intended receiver near midfield and returned it to the Sooner 34.
The defense would come through again just before halftime, as freshman defensive back Jonte Buhl forced an Andre Woolfolk fumble and senior defensive back Michael Jameson recovered for the Aggies at the OU 39. Junior wide receiver Robert Ferguson would catch a 4-yard touchdown pass from Farris in the back corner of the end zone to make the score 17-10 A&M at the break. Ferguson battled a sprained knee throughout the game, racking up 105 yards on eight catches to become the school's all-time season record holder in receiving yards. His 885 breaks the previous mark of 872 set by Albert Connell in 1996.
Toombs scored the first of his two touchdowns on the day midway through the third on a 1-yard plunge. The Kilgore, Texas native finished with a game-high 72 yards on 18 carries. Duncan connected from 27 yards out with a minute left in the quarter to cut the A&M lead to 24-13 heading into the final quarter.
"I can't say enough about his (Toombs') heart," A&M head coach R.C. Slocum said. "He has a big heart. He gave us tremendous effort today. It looked like he'd made the play that might win the ball game for us."
OU out-gained the Aggies 368-316, rushing for 105 yards and throwing for 263. A&M compiled 97 of their yards on the ground and the other 219 through the air.
"When you play the No. 1 team in the nation and play them close, that tells you what kind of drive and character we have on this team," Toombs said. "I can walk out of the locker room holding my head high because I'm proud to be on a team that does not quit."
The Aggies conclude the regular season on Friday, Nov. 24 when they travel to Austin for the annual showdown with the Texas Longhorns. Kickoff of the nationally-televised game at Memorial Stadium is set for 2:30 p.m. (CST).
TEXAS A&M POSTGAME NOTES
"BIG PLAY" JAY BROOKS BLOCKS ANOTHER --- Junior Jay Brooks got the Aggies off on the right foot with a blocked punt on Oklahoma's first drive of the game. Five plays later quarterback Mark Farris dove into the endzone for an early 7-0 lead. It was the fourth punt block of the season for Brooks lived up to his reputation as a playmaker. For his career, Brooks has blocked four punts and scored three touchdowns --- one via fumble return vs. Florida State in 1998, another by interception return against Southern Miss in 1998 and one by return of a blocked punt in 1999. Brooks also posted the game-clinching sack of Major Applewhite in last year's 20-16 win over No. 5 Texas.
FERGUSON BREAKS RECEIVING YARDS RECORD --- Junior wide receiver Robert Ferguson battled through a sprained knee to grab eight passes for 105 yards and one touchdown. For the season, Ferguson has caught 58 passes for six touchdowns and a school-record 885 yards. The previous season yardage record was 872 (57 rec.) by Albert Connell in 1996. Ferguson's six TD receptions ties for the fourth most in school annals and is just two shy of the record of 8 set by Bob Long in 1967 and tied by Long in 1968.
TOOMBS ROLLS ON --- Junior fullback Ja'Mar Toombs finished the day with 72 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries, giving him 19 touchdowns in his last 13 games. Toombs has scored 14 TDs this season (tied for sixth in school history) and 26 in his career (10th in school annals). Maybe Toombs just needed a couple more carries - the Aggies are 5-0 when Toombs has at least 20 totes.
RECORD-BREAKING CROWD --- Today's crowd of 87,188 was a stadium record and broke the record for largest football crowd in the state of Texas. The old mark was 86,128 set at last year's Texas A&M vs. Texas game at Kyle Field. For the season, A&M averaged 77,579 for six home games, a season record. The previous record was 67,309 set last season.
Top Five-Largest Kyle Field Crowds
Rk. Opponent Year Crowd W-L, Score
1. Oklahoma 2000 87,188 L, 35-31
2. Texas 1999 86,128 W, 20-16
3. Texas Tech 2000 83,644 W, 33-15
4. Kansas State 2000 80,659 W, 26-10
5. Texas 1987 78,573 W, 20-13
TIDBITS --- A&M is now 67-2 under R.C. Slocum when it scores at least 30 points (A&M fell to Houston in the Astrodome, 36-31, in 1990) *** Oklahoma trailed at half for the first time this season. *** The Sooners' 10 first-half points were a season-low. *** OU entered the game averaging 29.9 first half points per game and were allowing an average of 8.9. *** The 55-yard pass by Josh Heupel to Josh Norman was the longest offensive play given up by A&M in 2000 (previous long was a 52 yard reception by Colorado's Cortlen Johnson). *** The 37-yard field goal by A&M senior Terence Kitchens was his 13th straight from 40 yards or less. *** For the season, Kitchens has made 14-of-17 (.823), on pace to break the season accuracy record of .818 (18-22) set by Kyle Bryant in 1997 *** For his career, Kitchens has connected on 29-of-40 field goals (.725), making him the most accurate career field goal kicker in school history (min. 20 FG). Kyle Bryant owned the previous record at .706 (60-85) *** Representing the Texas A&M student body on the 12th Man Kickoff Team was Eric Stanford, a 6-2, 195-pound sophomore from Waco's Robinson High School. Another 12th Man member Bobby Jordan (wearing jersey #38) also participated on kick coverage. *** Bowl representatives in attendance for today's game were: FedEx Orange Bowl, Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, SBC Cotton Bowl and the Culligan Holiday Bowl *** Game captains for the Aggies were: wide receiver Chris Taylor, linebacker Roylin Bradley, offensive guard Chris Valletta and linebacker Jason Glenn.
RESULTS OF GUINNESS WORLD RECORD CHALLENGE --- The preliminary results of the challenge to the Guinness World Record for loudest outdoor sports stadium crowd was measured at 113.6 dBA. The record was set at 128.7 on October 1, 2000 at Mile High Stadium in Denver, Colo., during the Denver Broncos versus the New England Patriots game.
During today's game, the measuring devices peaked at 113.6 dBA when A&M wide receiver Robert Ferguson scored a touchdown in the 2nd quarter in the north endzone.
Final results will be printed from the devices next week and will be posted on AggieAthletics.com.
TEXAS A&M POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH R.C. SLOCUM: "Obviously, I'm disappointed in the loss. I thought our kids played extremely hard and I credit Oklahoma for making the plays they needed to make to win the football game. They did what is expected of a No. 1-ranked football team. Our hats are off to them. I think the team battled throughout the ballgame. You can't fault our effort. We fought hard and made some plays and so did Oklahoma. It's disappointing anytime you give up a turnover, especially when its for a touchdown. But those things happen. Mark Farris has done a great job for us all year. Everyone who has ever played the game has had some of those. The interception was a significant play in the ballgame, but there were other plays that played a role in the outcome. (On fourth-and-4) We talked about coming up with a play that had a good chance of being successful. If at all possible, we wanted to get the ball in Robert Ferguson's hands and it just about worked. I said all week if there was any way for Robert to play, he would. He has a big heart and a strong will. He played extremely well despite having a knee injury that was bothering him a lot. (On Toombs) I can't say enough about his heart. He has a big heart. He gave us tremendous effort today. It looked like he'd made the play that might win the ball game for us. (on blocked punt) All year, we've worked hard on special teams and this week was no different. During our weekly preparation, we thought we might be able to make some plays on punt blocks or returns. We wanted to try to take advantage of that early and we were successful. If we would have gotten just a little more hand on the ball late in the game, that could have been a punt block for a touchdown to win the ball game. We didn't give them a steady diet of anything on defense. We lost Sammy Davis early on and that forced us to shuffle our lineup to compensate. That restricted some of the things we wanted to do."
QUARTERBACK MARK FARRIS: "The bottom line is that we had a chance to win the game and didn't get it done. That is why they are the No. 1 team in the country. There was a lot of ups and downs in the game. That is the way big games go. They did a good job of putting pressure on me but our offensive line held and I was only sacked twice."
LINEBACKER BRIAN GAMBLE: "It hurts when you lose a player like Jason Glenn. But the game had gone too far for us to let it affect us. We didn't lose the game because Jason Glenn was not in there. We have guys who can come in and play. I think we played well overall but I think we could have played better."
DEFENSIVE BACK JASON BROOKS: (on blocked punt) "Coach (Shawn) Slocum saw some things in the film. We knew they sometimes have a gap between the guard and the center and we took advantage of it."
FULLBACK JA'MAR TOOMBS: "When you play the No. 1 team in the nation and play them close, that tells you what kind of drive and character we have on this team. I can walk out of the locker room holding my head high because I'm proud to be on a team that does not quit. (On second TD run) We were just trying to get the first down and when I got in the open field, I knew the DB was going to try to hit me in the legs. I kept my balance and the last eight yards was just scratching and clawing."
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Oklahoma Postgame Quotes
HEAD COACH BOB STOOPS: "It was another excellent football game. A&M has an outstanding team. They have a bunch of good athletes and a great environment to play in. I'm proud of our players. We played uphill all day. We made some mistakes we don't usually make. Our defense stepped up in the fourth quarter. That was a great effort on their part. Heupel played another good game. A&M did a nice job of changing things up on coverage. It made things difficult on us. Heupel is a winner. He just finds a way to get it done. I told our players all week this game might come down to the final play and it did. It's good to be in these types of games. We hung in there and found a way to make the plays to win. That shows a lot of character. A&M made some plays that made us not play our best. (on crowd) Our players handled it. We were very efficient on offense. I never saw where it was a factor."
QUARTERBACK JOSH HEUPEL: "A&M is a great team. They have a great defense. I give them a lot of credit. Our offense did enough to win. It's a testament to this team. Today, we kept expecting good things to happen. There was no nail biting. We were extremely confident. We knew we would get things going. A&M had a great defense, especially their front four. The kid on the end is one of the best in the country (Jason Glenn). Their secondary did a good job and they dropped a lot of guys. This is a tough place to play. Anywhere in the Big 12 is tough to get a win on the road."
LINEBACKER TORRANCE MARSHALL: "It was a total team effort. Everybody played hard. It was a big win for us. In the second half, we kept our confidence. Fortunately, we made some stops. (on interception return for TD) I dropped back into my zone. Fortunately, I was able to catch the ball and run with it. My teammates gave me some good blocks. I was just running until somebody tackled me. (On OU's offense) They have kept us in a lot of games this year. We just returned the favor."