October 27, 2001
COLLEGE STATION, Texas-- Freshman Derek Farmer ran 65 yards for a touchdown with 5:08 to play as Texas A&M held off Iowa State for a 24-21 victory Saturday.
Trailing 17-7 in the fourth quarter, Iowa State (5-2, 3-2 in Big 12) rallied after DeAndre Phillips' 19-yard interception return to the A&M 41 set up a 20-yard touchdown pass from Seneca Wallace to Craig Campbell with 6:57 remaining. But then Farmer produced the clinching TD for the Aggies (7-1, 4-1 Big 12).
Farmer neared the left sideline, barreled through a Cyclone defender and raced into the end zone for the longest run of his career and the longest for an Aggie this season, giving A&M a 24-14 lead.
After Farmer's touchdown run, Wallace scored on a 1-yard touchdown run with 1:27 to play. Iowa State's onside kick failed and the Aggies ran out the clock.
Wallace completed 30 of 46 passes for a season-high 348 yards and two touchdowns. Walk-on Jack Whitver caught six passes for a career-best 111 yards and a touchdown.
The Aggie defense held Ennis Haywood, the Big 12's leading rusher, to 69 yards on 18 carries. Farmer finished with 133 yards on 17 carries.
Two defensive plays helped the Aggies hold on for a 7-7 halftime deadlock.
Wallace completed his first four passes and took the Cyclones to the Aggie 9 on the game's first drive, but Tony Yelt's 26-yard field goal attempt was blocked by Rocky Bernard.
The Aggies took over and Dwain Goynes' 42-yard end around play set up a 1-yard dive by Joe Weber for a 7-0 lead.
Iowa State tied it early in the second quarter when Wallace hit Whitver along the sidelines for a 54-yard touchdown pass with Aggie defender Sean Weston trailing on the play.
The Cyclones got the ball in range for a 47-yard field goal attempt by Yelts with four seconds left in the half, but Marcus Jasmin broke thorough and blocked it.
TEXAS A&M POSTGAME NOTES
ODDS AND ENDS --- Representing the Aggie student body on the 12th Man Kickoff team was Anthony Squillante, a 6-0, 189-pound redshirt freshman from Southlake Carroll High School … game captains for the Aggies were: junior Terrence Kiel, sophomore Cody Scates, senior Seth McKinney, and junior Ty Warren.
FOURTH BEST KYLE CROWD --- Today's attendance of 85,661 ranks as the fourth largest in Kyle Field history and marks the fourth straight home game in which the Aggies have drawn at least 82,000.
JASMIN BLOCKS ANOTHER FIELD GOAL TRY --- Freshman noseguard Marcus Jasmin blocked an Iowa State field goal attempt late in the first half, his second blocked field goal attempt of the year. Earlier this season, he blocked one against Baylor. Senior defensive end Rocky Bernard also blocked a field goal attempt in the first quarter. For the season, the Aggies have blocked three field goal attempts and two punts.
THE CANDYMAN CAN --- Junior cornerback Sammy Davis, a candidate for the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation's top defensive back, posted his fifth interception of the season in the first half. It was the ninth pickoff of his career. Coming into today's games, Davis was tied for the Big 12 lead in interceptions with Kansas State's DeMarcus Faggins.
FARRIS ENTERS TOP FIVE --- Junior quarterback Mark Farris completed 11 of 21 passes for 132 yards today, giving him 4,310 career passing yards and moving him into fifth place on A&M's career chart. Today he passed Randy McCown, who had 4,187 yards in 1996-99.
FIGHTIN' FARMER --- Freshman running back Derek Farmer rushed for 133 yards and one TD on 17 carries, his second 100-yard game of the season. Farmer ran for 100 yards on 20 totes against Notre Dame. Farmer's two 100-yard games ties Ja'Mar Toombs (1998) for the fifth most by a freshman in school history. Farmer's 429 rushing yards this season ranks eighth on A&M's season freshman rushing chart. Farmer's 65-yard TD run late in the fourth quarter was the longest of his career, the longest by an Aggie this season and the ninth longest by a freshman in school history. It was the longest by any A&M runner since fullback Joe Weber went 77 yards against Missouri in 1999 on a non-scoring jaunt. The last time A&M had a longer TD run was in 1997, when tailback Sirr Parker went 80 yards for a score against Iowa State. Farmer's 65-yarder today was the longest run by any A&M tailback since Parker's breakaway against the Cyclones.
RUSH TO JUDGEMENT --- After rushing for 51 yards or less in each of the last two games, the Aggies posted a season-high 190 rushing yards and three touchdowns today on 35 carries.
SLOCUM WINS AGAIN --- A&M coach R.C. Slocum improves his career record to 116-38-2, ranking him sixth among active Division I coaches. Slocum is 75-20-2 in conference games and is 69-7-1 in games played at Kyle Field. The Aggies have been 7-1 or better six times in Slocum's tenure, the last being a 7-1 start in 1998 en route to the Big 12 title and an 11-3 mark. Before Slocum's arrival, A&M started a season 7-1 or better only 15 times and all but two of those came before 1960 (7-1 in 1986 and 8-0 in 1975).
RANDOM NOTES --- Iowa State gained 445 total yards, the most by an A&M opponent this season, but the Cyclones gained just 97 yards on the ground, the fourth time this season the Aggies have limited their opponent to fewer than 100…today's game was the fourth straight A&M game to be decided in the final minute and the Aggies are 3-1 in that stretch…the Aggies improve to 6-0 in the all-time series against ISU.
TEXAS A&M POSTGAME QUOTES
QUARTERBACK MARK FARRIS
"Good teams win games like that. Finding a way to win is the mark of a good team.
(On second half passing) We tried to exploit good matchups. Our consistency was better than in the first half. We opened it up a little bit more and guys made plays.
(On Farmer's TD run) That was a heck of a run. He gets so low. It might have been the play of the game. The bottom line is that it comes down to winning and losing. Hopefully, we'll get better and keep it going."
LINEBACKER BRIAN GAMBLE
(on his injury) "Earlier in the week, I thought it was worse than it was. I've never, ever, not played in a game since Pee Wee football. I'm not about to miss one now. The game wasn't pretty, but it's a 'W'. We'll take them how we can get them.
(On Seneca Wallace) He's a big-time player. He's got jets. He made people look stupid on the films we watched this week. We did a good job of containing him (on the ground). They were pretty salty. They were athletically out-manned. They don't have tremendous speed, but they have big-time players like Wallace and Haywood. They can get things rolling and they can sneak up on teams.
LINEBACKER CHRISTIAN RODRIGUEZ
(On Seneca Wallace) "That guy is a scrambler. He is a good athlete who can kill you with his arms and legs.
(On close games) We have a lot of resolve. We're capable of making big plays, be it on offense or defense, when we need them.
(On sack) I was happy to get my hands on him and was able to bring him down."
RUNNING BACK DEREK FARMER
(on 65-yard TD run) "Coach had the belief I could get the first down. It was third-and-short and they gave me the sweep. I just ran and took it to the next level. It was just me and No. 9 (Adam Runk)."
DEFENSIVE END ROCKY BERNARD
"We watched the film from last week and knew we didn't play against the option well. We went out this week and worked on stopping the option. We knew coming into it that this game was going to be long. Special teams were really important."
HEAD COACH R.C. SLOCUM
"It was a great battle against a great opponent. Iowa State is a quality opponent that had lost only once and that was to the top-ranked team in the nation. We knew it was going to be a dogfight and it was. You want to do a good job of holding down Haywood and we held him to 69 yards. I was concerned all week about containing Wallace. They came in converting more than 50 percent of their third downs and they were pretty good today.
(on Farmer's long TD run) I thought it was a great play call. We hadn't run it all day long. Coach Babers called the play and it turned out to be a good play for us. I could see pretty early that it was going to be a first down, then I said 'now, run!'
(on special teams play) We take pride in our special teams and we work very hard on them every week. (Coach) Shawn (Slocum) made a point with the team prior to the game about the importance of special teams in big games. We knew we had to be solid in all phases of special teams today.
(On stopping option) We came back this week and worked hard on stopping the option. We know how good of a coaching staff Iowa State has and we knew they would be looking at things they could be successful with against us. After the success that Kansas State had running the option, we figured Iowa State would try to do the same. Jason Carter (true freshman QB) did a good job of simulating Seneca Wallace and I think we were able to contain him.
(on all the close games) I think it's a credit to the players. I'm really proud of this team because they've gone through a lot of problems that might have made other teams cave in. To be where we are is a credit to the character of these young men. You go into the games expecting it to be close. If you don't have early success, then this team doesn't panic. It's very similar to what the 1998 team had. They had the attitude of 'we won that one, let's go to the next one.' If you look at the Southern Miss or Kansas games of that year, we just found a way to win and then we went on to the next week. One of the attributes of this team is that they stay steady. You go through a situation and then you grow as a player and as a team.
(On Derek Farmer) He has great vision and balance and he always falls forward. He has the ability to stay back and knock the pile back a little bit. That's the way Marcus Allen did it when I was at Southern Cal. He'd have 20 carries and fall forward for two more yards every time and at the end of the day, he'd have 40 more yards just from falling forward.
(On facing more than 80 plays in each of the last three weeks) Obviously, we are in good condition. We've worked hard on our conditioning. That is a concern because the same guys who are getting all the reps in practice are playing a lot in the games. What they've done is remarkable but it's the opposite of what you'd like to do."
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Iowa State Postgame Quotes
HEAD COACH DAN MCCARNEY
"It was an outstanding college football game. I have to say congratulations to R.C. Both teams played hard and were well-coached. We just came up short. There was one bad snap for us and we haven't had a bad snap all year. We had three other opportunities to score with our kicking game and we have to make those.
(On Weber's near-fumble on TD) We have coaches up in the box and they thought the ball was fumbled before he crossed. But it's all left on the field and that's it. The defense did a lot of good things today. I'm really just sick that we didn't win and especially for our kids. Last year didn't have anything to do with this matchup. It was a very close game in the Big 12. I think we can see that Iowa State is starting to compete in the Big 12. A&M just made a few more plays than we did. I enjoyed coaching in A&M's environment and will be looking forward to going back to Iowa State. A&M's defense has been real good against the running game and that's the traditional Wrecking Crew. We knew we could pass on them and had some success with that. But their defensive line is as good as you'll see anywhere else in the country."
WIDE RECEIVER CRAIG CAMPBELL
"We just came out and relaxed with our game plan, with the exception of points. I don't think the best team won today. We had opportunities to score and we should have beat them. We have to be more than competitive on the road. We have to be able to come up with these type of wins. We'll regroup next week. Our motivation is getting more than bowl eligibility from now on. You look at their schedule and they really didn't play any big names so we knew we could move the ball on them. We know we have a good offense."
PLACE KICKER TONY YELK
"Obviously, we are real disappointed. I thought the snaps and holds were good. It's over now and it's a tough lesson to learn. We'll bounce back next week.
(On ball hitting left goal post) There was a slight breeze pushing right so we aimed a little left and it got away just a little bit. But I live and die by that as a kicker."
RECEIVER JACK WHITVER
"We were moving the ball up and down the field all day. We have to get points on the board. I think they were trying to defend the run and they've had a problem with that most of the season. They seemed to be playing man coverage a lot and we were able to beat them. "
QUARTERBACK SENECA WALLACE
"It was a hard-fought game. Our offense played well and our defense played well. It's very frustrating. A&M has a good defense, but I can't really say the best team won today. Their defense is fast and played good coverage. We came out and threw the ball and our receivers made the right catches. But it's deflating when you drive downfield and get field goals blocked. We tried hard to get this sixth win today. Our offensive line gave me great time and especially picked up their blitzes."