2004-2005 Football Recap

COLLEGE STATION, Texas --Courtney Lewis scored on a 25-yard run on the first play of overtime and Melvin Bullitt swatted away Sonny Cumbie's fourth-down pass into the end zone, sending the Aggies to a thrilling 32-25 win over Texas Tech on Saturday.

Lewis' second touchdown run of the afternoon helped No. 22 Texas A&M (7-3, 4-2 Big 12) dramatically end a two-game losing streak that included an overtime loss at Baylor and a seven-point defeat against No. 2 Oklahoma last week.

After Tech quarterback Sonny Cumbie's 50th and final pass of the afternoon fell incomplete, A&M players stormed the field and the frenzied Kyle Field crowd of 82,278 erupted with cheers. The Red Raiders (6-4, 4-3) watched the wild celebration in stunned silence.

"It was a great football game, I'm really happy for our players and our fans," A&M coach Dennis Franchione said. "Kind of my breath taken away right now."

Lewis finished with 115 yards rushing on 19 carries and Reggie McNeal added 309 yards of total offense and a touchdown in a game that started as a surprising defensive struggle and ended with plenty of offensive fireworks.

The Red Raiders saw a three-game winning streak over their hated in-state rival come to an end in the kind of high-scoring, back-and-forth contest that favored the nation's No. 3 offense.

Both offenses, which came into the game averaging combined 69 points and 952 yards a game, sputtered along for three quarters -- A&M held a 12-7 lead -- before coming alive in the electrifying fourth.

A&M fullback Keith Joseph bulled into the end zone from a yard out with 5:38 left, completing a 10-play, 80-yard drive to give the Aggies a 25-18 lead.

But Cumbie methodically directed Tech's spread offense down the field, going 6-of-8 for 50 yards on the final drive of regulation.

His second touchdown of the game went to Jarrett Hicks, who dropped what would have been a sure touchdown in the end zone on the previous drive.

Hicks gave a slight shove to Buhl, and quickly went to the ground to make the tying touchdown catch with 10 seconds left. Tech's sideline erupted while the mostly maroon-clad fans went eerily quiet.

After Lewis' spinning touchdown run on the first play of overtime, Cumbie completed a 1-yard pass to Trey Haverty before throwing three straight incompletions to end the game.

Cumbie finished 31-of-50 for 294 yards with two touchdowns and three interceptions, his least productive game of the season. Taurean Henderson had 131 yards of total offense and two touchdowns and Cody Fuller added seven receptions for 124 yards.

For A&M, the win served as a bit of revenge for a 59-28 rout by Texas Tech last year behind a Big 12-record eight touchdown passes by B.J. Symons. Coming into this game, the Red Raiders had won three straight and seven of the last nine in this simmering rivalry.

More than bragging rights were at stake in this game. A&M might now be the front-runner for a more attractive bowl, with the Cotton Bowl in Dallas the likely prize should No. 6 Texas make it into the Bowl Championship Series.

AGGIES GO TO OVERTIME AGAIN - Three of A&M's last four games have gone to overtime. A&M has now played eight overtime games in its history with a 4-4 record, including a 2-1 mark this season. A&M is 2-0 at home this year in overtime games.

WRECKING CREW ENDS INT DROUGHT - The Texas A&M defense grabbed three pickoffs against Texas Tech, which ended a four-game drought with an interception for the Aggie defenders. A&M grabbed 10 pickoffs in the first five games to surpass A&M's 12-game total of six from 2003, but then went four straight games without a theft.

MCNEAL SETS SEASON QUARTERBACK RUSHING MARK - Junior quarterback Reggie McNeal completed 16-of-26 passes for 254 yards and one touchdown, while rushing for 55 yards on 13 carries. McNeal has rushed for 693 yards this season, most ever by an A&M quarterback. The previous record was 670 yards by Bucky Richardson in 1990. McNeal finished with 299 yards of total offense, just shy of his sixth 300-yard game of the year. McNeal's five 300-yard games already are a school record. McNeal also increased his school record for season total offensive yards to 2,986. He ranks fifth on the school list in career passing yards (4,541) and is third in career rushing yards by a quarterback (1,200). McNeal has thrown just two interceptions in 269 attempts this season.

McNEAL IN THE RECORD BOOK - Junior Reggie McNeal, a 2004 Davey O'Brien Award semifinalist, is moving up a variety of statistical categories in the A&M record book.

LEWIS POSTS 100-YARD RUSHING EFFORT - Sophomore running back Courtney Lewis rushed for 115 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries, his third 100-yard rushing effort of the season and the eighth of his career. Lewis moves into 16th place on A&M's career rushing list with 1,757 yards. Lewis has 733 rushing yards and nine touchdowns this season.

AGGIES ARE TURNOVER FREE - The Aggies produced their seventh turnover-free game of the season, which is a school record. The Aggies are 6-1 in those games. A&M has a total of six turnovers in its last two games against Baylor and Oklahoma (both losses), but has had only one turnover in its other eight games.

HIGH OCTANE AGGIES - The Aggies came into the game as the Big 12 leaders (No. 7 nationally) in yards per play with a 6.54 average. Against the Red Raiders, the Aggies stayed to form with a 6.7 per play average as they gained 436 yards on 65 plays.

AGGIES WIN TURNOVER BATTLE, LOSE WIN GAME - The Aggies are 7-0 in games when they won the turnover battle in 2004. For his 20-game career at A&M, the Aggies are 9-0 in games with the turnover advantage. In games when the Aggies lose the turnover battle, A&M 2-11 with 11 straight losses.

PREP QBs EXCEL AT WR FOR AGGIES - Four Aggie wide receivers came to Texas A&M after successful high school careers at quarterback. Those four - seniors Terrence Murphy and Jason Carter, junior L'Tydrick Riley and sophomore Chad Schroeder - combined for 10 of the Aggies' 16 receptions.

DEFENSIVELY SPEAKING - A&M held Tech to 411 yards of total offense after the Raiders entered the game averaging 495.1. Tech quarterback Sonny Cumbie had a career-low 294 passing yards, well below his previous average of 405.2. His previous low was 326 against Kansas State.

PEGRAM REMAINS PERFECT, TIES BIG 12 RECORD - Junior Todd Pegram, who entered the game as one of only three kickers in the country not to miss a field goal this season, went 2-of-2 to run his season total to 12-of-12. Pegram has made 16 straight field goals since last season, tying a Big 12 record set by Nebraska's Kris Brown in 1997. In the last two seasons, Pegram has made 29-of-34 field goals. For his career, he's connected on 41-of-55 (.746), making him the most accurate placekicker in A&M history.

MISCELLANEOUS - The 12th Man Kickoff Team representative for the 10th straight game was John Ray, a sophomore from Gidding, Texas ... senior receiver Terrence Murphy had four catches for 75 yards, running his school record totals to 159 receptions for 2,484 yards.

Texas A&M Postgame Quotes

OL GEOFF HANGARTNER: (on running the ball early) "I don't know if it was just that if you watch the films the teams have had most success both running the ball on them and throwing the ball on them. Our goal was to be balanced on offense and keep the ball, but [when you] keep the ball [you've] got to score points, too obviously.

(on snapping a 3-game losing streak to Texas Tech) It's hard to say what it means for the program. Any time you have a three game losing streak against an in-state rival you want to reverse that and get on the winning side of things. But I can't think of a better way to go out. My last game at Kyle Field, beating Tech, a rivalry game -- it doesn't get a whole lot better than that."

DB JAXSON APPEL: (on defending Tech's offense when the game's on the line) "That's why you play the game. That's what everybody wants to do. When you're playing you don't think about it. You get the coverage then go play. I'm just fortunate that Coach Torbush and the defensive staff did a tremendous job this week in preparing us to go up against a top offense like that. Give them all the credit. They coached their butt off and we did what we were told.

(on things done different from last year) [We were] just a little pissed off, as opposed to last year. We remembered the game from last year and used that as motivation going into the week to get better. We watched the film from last year and saw what we did and saw what we need to not do to play this game. Coach Torbush and Coach Smith, Coach Thurman, and Coach Eggen did a great job. Give them the credit."

RB COURTNEY LEWIS: (on the overtime touchdown run) "Well, actually it was run to perfection with the blocking, so all I did was just run hard and got into the end zone."

QB REGGIE McNEAL: (on whether or not he was pumped for the game) "Yeah, because it's Texas Tech, an in-state rival. I mean, you don't have to have somebody to get you pumped and ready to play a game like this, or you don't need to be playing. So, yeah, I was a little bit more into it emotionally. Usually I don't show a lot of emotions, but it was just an extra something in this game.

(on the direction the program is taking) It's on the way up. It's on the rise. I mean, look at the facilities here and you look at how we're playing. Good athletes want to come here. Last year we were 4-8 and we still got good recruits. The only way we can go is up."

LB ARCHIE McDANIEL: (on the emotions of playing Texas Tech) "As far as me personally I haven't beat Tech since I've been here. Tech is a team that was in the way of where we're trying to go and there's probably a little more bad blood between the two schools than normal, but I mean, this was just another team that had embarrassed us last year. Physically, mentally and just from the whole standpoint of the game, we wanted to come out here and show everybody we can play the run and play the pass and we can beat Texas Tech."

DB JAPHUS BROWN: (on the emotions of the final play, especially as a defensive back) "That's an exciting thing actually. You know they're going to throw the ball and all you got to do is handle your responsibility and hopefully the ball goes in our hands. I just wanted to give all the seniors on the field tonight a win, to go out and beat Texas Tech. We just went out there and played hard."

HEAD COACH DENNIS FRANCHIONE: "Well, I guess we're just about one play better or one play worse than everybody it seems here for the last month or so. I'm really proud of our players, proud of how they just kept hanging in there and kept fighting. Tech should be very proud, too. Their players did the same thing. About the time somebody thought they knocked somebody down, they got right back up and made a play on both sides. Both teams had trouble scoring early and scored a lot of points there in the fourth quarter. To score on the very first play [of overtime] put them out there where they had to score, and I thought that was big. That was great execution, a great run by Courtney [Lewis] and a couple of good blocks by Keith Joseph and DeQawn Mobley and the defensive line obviously. If there was another swing in there I remember thinking was significant, [it was when] I believe they had gone ahead and we went 89 yards in three plays. I believe it was three plays. Obviously there's a lot more drama to happen in the game but I thought just us being able to answer from our own 11-yard line starting out was pretty important.

(on celebrating after the game with his wife) "I'm greatful to have a wife to celebrate that moment with. It was special. You know, I haven't had time to decide how special this win is to me. But I know it was special to our players and meaningful to get over this two game losing streak we've been on. Every game had been one play and I was just was watching our team fight and just continue to play every play. I was really proud of them and I know it was a big win for our fans. It was very significant to them. Sometimes as a coach you look back at landmark wins for yourself and your career and I don't know where that fits right now, but I know in my tenure here at A&M, as short as it's been, this was a significant one."

Texas Tech Postgame Quotes

TEXAS TECH COACH MIKE LEACH - (on possibly going for two at end of regulation) "I thought about it a little bit, but I thought our guys would respond better to overtime. I like their mentality to an extent. I thought we played dumb and we turned the ball over too much. I thought the defense played well early and the offense played poorly early. About the time the offense started playing, the defense started playing poorly. The most important thing is to play well simultaneously in all phases.

(on interceptions) They dropped some people back and I think we forced some throws. I don't know, I'd have to look (at the tape). They shouldn't have been interceptions. We had chances to get turnovers from A&M, but we didn't capitalize on them.

(on running the ball) We kind of hoped we could. I thought it took us a while to get into a rhythm on offense. Of course, the turnovers took us out of three drives. Based on the turnovers and the penalties, it's somewhat surprising it was as close as it was. I thought we did a pretty good job of hanging in there and overcoming the adversity we had created for ourselves. We just needed to finish the deal. We had some opportunities to do that. I think Sonny (Cumbie) was just trying to make too much happen.

(after A&M's onside kick attempt) We should have put that in (for a score). We dropped the ball. I was a little surprised they did that. You're supposed to score and finish drives. That's not something I would have done, not there. I'm not opposed to onside kicking, but probably not in that situation.

(on limiting points off turnovers) I thought we did really good. I thought we really played well at that point. All we had to do is play like we did offensively at the end and play like we did defensively at the beginning. That's disappointing."

TEXAS TECH QUARTERBACK SONNY CUMBIE - (on last play) "We just wanted to see if we could get something on them. We had fourth-and-long and we didn't execute it very well.

(On changing plays at line) You just had to be really loud. I don't think (the crowd) really affected us that much.

(on interceptions) They were just stupid throws and stupid decisions that should not have been made. I should have thrown the ball out-of-bounds and lived to play another play. We have to play to beat Oklahoma State. We have to regroup and have a good week of practice. I really thought our o-line did a great job. I thought they played well. A&M never really got much pressure on us. We didn't grab it when it was out there. They were dropping a lot of guys (into coverage) so we thought we would try to get the running game going. We just didn't execute the plays that were called very well."

Aggies Defeat Tech in Another Overtime Thriller, 32-25

Texas A&M Postgame Quotes

Texas Tech Postgame Quotes